Category: Reviews

Last week I decided to get a racing sim setup and since I’m now spending so much time at home, the timing turned out to be perfect.

I’ve been following @gamehexshop on Instagram for some time now. They’re a local business that sells sim rig setups for the home. I used to check their online store often but never really knew what I needed to get or how much a setup would cost so eventually I just decided to DM them last week and ask. They had shared a home setup on their story so I messaged them asking how much it would cost and if it would work with my Xbox. The setup they had shared on their story cost 279KD but they told me I would need the Xbox bundle version if I wanted it to work with my Xbox. 279? That’s less than I imagined it would cost so after a bit of back and forth and some research from my end, ordered a setup for my home.

Most of the time I just play racing games on my Xbox. Every now and then I might play a FPS but there hasn’t been one I invested a lot of time in in years so it’s not that important. Plus I have the Switch 2 which I use for other games. Gamehex carry two brands, Moza Racing and PXN. Both are pretty popular brands especially Moza Racing.

What you need for a full setup:

• Computer or Xbox
• Wheel base
• Steering wheel
• Pedals
• Seat
• TV/Monitor
• Cockpit (what seat, TV and everything connects to)
• Additional accessories like handbrake or manual shifters

Moza Racing sells all their sim components separately including the steering wheel, wheel base and pedals, or you can buy them as a bundle. They have an R3 Xbox bundle that works straight out of the box with Xbox, which is what I went with.

The R3 is their entry level wheel base and it’s what provides the force feedback from the road along with the steering feel. The bundle includes the R3 wheel base, an Xbox compatible steering wheel and a set of pedals.

Since I mainly do rally racing, I also picked up the Moza Handbrake and the 12 inch steering wheel. The 12 inch wheel replaces the standard 10 inch D shaped wheel that comes with the bundle. It’s just the outer frame, so you unscrew the original rim from the hub and attach the new one.

They also offer a formula style wheel for those who do more GT or F1 racing.

In addition to the Moza stuff I got Gamehex’s GMX Rig GT4, the monitor mount for it, and the GMX R11 seat. I already had a 55″ OLED TV screen for my Xbox so mounted that to the setup. Their prices are extremely reasonable with everything basically costing close to Moza’s MSRP in the US. Because I bought a package they gave me a 10% discount but they’re also offering 10% off throughout Ramadan.

The total cost for my setup was 305.300KD, not including the 12″ steering wheel which I bought a couple of days later for 20KD. They were able to deliver the items on the same day and then the following day they sent over a technician to set everything up. They did a really clean install, hiding all the wiring so that the setup doesn’t look messy. They then custom fit the sim for my needs, adjusting everything including pedal location, steering wheel angle, etc., all to my liking.

The result? It feels like I have my own arcade machine in my room. It’s insane! All the parts are made of metal no plastic anywhere and the R3 wheel base is really powerful. Although by Moza’s standards this is the entry level base providing “only” 3.9Nm of torque, in reality it’s incredibly strong and when I’m rallying and hitting jumps or ruts on the ground I’m constantly fighting it and getting a lot of feedback. Using the handbrake feels great as well. I chose not to get the manual shifter because the steering wheel already has paddle shifts and when I’m rallying I prefer to keep the car in auto anyway so I can just focus on steering and braking. If you check the price breakdown above you’ll see a “performance kit” listed, this is for the brake pedal and gives it a more realistic feel. Highly recommended, otherwise the pedal feels too light.

My 55″ TV is overkill for sure but I wasn’t about to go buy another smaller TV just for this setup. Also the 55″ kind of gives the games a close to real life scale. When I posted the photo above from Dirt Rally 2.0 one friend thought I was out of town and had taken a shot of me driving before he realised what he was looking at. So no complaints there. For sound I initially was using headphones but decided to connect a pair of KEF LSX speakers I have along with the KEF KC62 subwoofer and it’s been amazing. I 3D printed some speaker stands for them to make them point up towards me since they’re located on the floor and it works really well.

The only issue I had was when trying to upgrade the firmware. Moza have iOS and Android apps where you can control various settings, sensitivity and do calibration, but if you want to calibrate the handbrake or do firmware updates you need their Windows only software. I’m a Mac user so the only way to get it done was to install a virtual Windows environment, which worked for me but it was a hassle to do.

Luckily for me all the racing games I wanted for my Xbox were on sale so I ended up getting them all for a great deal:

Assetto Corsa – $7.49
Assetto Corsa Competizione – $10.88
DIRT 5 Year One Edition – $21.76
DiRT Rally 2.0 – Game of the Year Edition – $21.76
F1 25 – $30.47

I already had Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Motorsport from before. Dirt 5 I used to play when I had GamePass but just bought it outright now since I no longer have GamePass and it’s actually one of my favorite games and the one I’ve been playing the most since it’s the most arcade-like.

So yeah, this has been a really great buy and what I’m spending all my time on now. If you have an Xbox I highly recommend the Moza R3 Bundle. You don’t even need to buy a rig to use it, it comes with table clamps so you can connect it to any desk or table you have. Gamehex also sell more advanced setups for people with PCs, you can check their full range on their website and build your own package, here is the link.

If you’re looking for a good movie to watch, I watched Predator: Badlands last night and it was really great. Although the trailer was good I wasn’t expecting the movie to be this good because prequels and sequels tend to be butchered. But, I was looking for a sci-fi and this popped up so decided to watch and glad I did. It’s visually stunning and there never was a dull moment throughout the film, it actually felt short by the end.

I streamed the movie on AppleTV but because it’s still new, the cost to rent it was pricey at $25. So similar in price to two people going to watch it in the movies, except I prefer my setup to a movie theater so it makes it kinda ok.

Recently I picked up the Canon Selphy CP1500, it’s a small photo printer which surprisingly turned out to be pretty good. I say surprisingly because it wasn’t that expensive and neither were the photo papers needed for it.

My wife wanted to print her digital photos so she asked me to look for a good printer she could get. There were a few brands available locally but I decided to go with Canon because the reviews were great and it’s not HP. The printer doesn’t use ink cartridges and instead uses a ribbon system to print. Each pack of paper comes with the ribbon required to print on those sheets. So for example the photo paper packet includes 108 sheets, and two sets of ribbons, each good for 54 prints. I like this system.

So far it’s been pretty good. I have an iPhone so I use Air Print to send photos from my phone to print on the printer over my home network. There is also a Selphy app which gives you more options like if you want borders around the photos or if you want to make a collage etc, but it doesn’t work with Air Print. Instead you need to connect to the printers wifi hotspot and send photos to it directly which I guess is fine, but Air Print is just simpler.

The printer comes in three colors, black, white and pink. I wanted white which Xcite had available but they were selling it for KD50 while Lulu were selling it for KD37. Lulu didn’t have white so I got the black instead. But, I was just checking out Xcite’s website and it looks like they’ve now dropped the price of the printer to KD37 as well. Lulu on the other hand have now increased the price to KD53.

The photo paper and ribbon sells for KD13.5 for 108 prints. So thats 125 fils per print. But I found them on noon.com for like KD7.5 so next time I’ll just order a few packs from there.

Back in 2019, a small Bhutanese spot called Momo Zaa opened in Salmiya and quickly became popular for their delicious momos (steamed dumplings). Sadly, the pandemic hit the following year and they ended up closing. The good news is they’re now back, this time with a new name and a new location.

Lepo & Lemo opened this past August in a new location in Salmiya. I actually prefer this new location because it’s walking distance from my place, like literally a 10 minute walk which is great. The restaurant is small but cute, with a good amount of seating for the space, including some seating outdoors.

We were a total of three so we ordered a bunch of things to try:

Crispy Chili Potato KD 1.850
Veg Juma (Vegetarian Sausage) KD 1.850
Chicken Momo (Dumpling) KD 1.850
Beef Momo (Dumpling) KD 1.950
Kewa Datshi (Potato Chili Cheese Stew) KD 1.750
Norsha Pat (Stir-fried beef) KD 2.650
Steamed Rice KD 0.750
L&L Signature Fried Ice Cream KD 2.650

For some reason my food photography skills seem to get worse with age, but trust me, everything looked great and tasted even better. Like, unexpectedly delicious. It’s been a while since I last had their food, so I’d forgotten how good it was. Everything was full of flavor and by the end I couldn’t decide what I liked most. The sausage I think really surprised me with how good it was, but I’d say the beef dumplings were my favorite dish. The cheese stew was my least favorite but even that wasn’t bad, it’s just everything else was much better.

I try not to post about food unless it’s something special, and L&L is definitely special. Even if you’ve never had Bhutanese food before, their dishes feel approachable and not at all intimidating. They had some unusual items like noodles with laban, which I’m saving for my next visit, but the dishes I mentioned above are all pretty beginner friendly.

We were three people and the bill came out to KD 13.650. They gave us the dessert on the house.

If you want to check them out, Lepo & Lemo open from 3PM to 11:30PM and are located in Salmiya right behind the 4th Ring Road fire station (Google Maps). They’re also on Instagram @lepo.lemo

The last time I used a 3D printer was back in 2016 when I reviewed the Micro 3D Printer. Things have come a longggg way since then.

I was eyeing the A1 Mini for a few weeks, just out of curiosity since I had watched a YouTube video that had it and thought it was pretty cool for a 100KD printer. Then during Amazon Prime it went on sale for $250 and I actually bought it but then canceled the order before it shipped. Then randomly one night I was on the UK Bambu Lab website and saw it was on sale for £149, so 60KD~ or $200, I bought it right away. Shipping and customs was another 30KD but that was still cheaper than the 140KD price it was selling in Kuwait for.

Total was like 90KDish and I bought the Bambu Lab PLA Basic filament from the local dealer for KD8.750 so to get it up and running it was just under 100KD.

I’ve only had the A1 mini for around a week now, it’s plugged in and always on. There is a really great app for the phone and anytime I find something I want to print I just send to print from my phone. It even has a built in camera so I can watch the printing happening or shoot a time-lapse. The quality of the print outs is amazing, you can barely see any layering and things look like they’re store bought.

I also found it super easy to create something in Adobe Illustrator, import it into the Bambu app and then turn it into 3D. So for basic stuff you don’t even need to 3D model.

I’ll eventually do a proper review of the printer but just wanted to post about it now quickly since I noticed it’s back on sale but at £169 if anyone wants one. Link

Since 2015 I’ve mostly been wearing Adidas Ultraboosts as my daily sneakers. Since 2018 I’ve actually been wearing one specific model/color of the Ultraboosts which is the Adidas Ultraboost 1.0 Limited Cream Chalk. The original 1.0 version of the Ultraboost has always been my favorite the I found the cream color works with everything I have. But since they were only released for a limited time period and they weren’t that special of a pair for collectors, finding a new pair kept getting harder and harder every year. Eventually Adidas reissued them and they became easier to find again for a while before they started becoming rare again (and with that more expensive).

The Ultraboosts were also my travel shoes since they were comfortable and light, and I even got hitop Goretex versions for when I’m expecting there to be rain. But, no matter how comfortable the Ultraboosts were, after 20,000-30,000 steps my feet and lower back tended to hurt at the end of the day.

So I decided to look for a new pair of travel sneakers and eventually ended up with a pair of Hoka Clifton 10’s. I just got back from my first trip with them and I’m really impressed. The first time I put the Hoka’s on in the store I was so surprised at how soft and cushiony they were to my Ultraboosts. It was weird cuz every step I took felt bouncy. I wore it in Kuwait for like a month so I could get used to it when I traveled and now that I’m back I’m completely sold on them.

Looking back at my data now I didn’t hit 30,000 steps on any day this trip, but I had three days in a row where I was hitting between 21,000 and 24,000 steps a day. The whole trip I didn’t have any pain in my feet after a long day of walking, nor did I have any back issues. Usually the back issues pop up when I’m standing too long and my feet start to hurt, so I start shifting weight from one leg to another. I didn’t have that problem with the Hoka’s. They’re so soft and cushiony they make me wonder how I thought my super comfy Ultraboosts were actually comfortable.

The Hoka’s also cost less than a new pair of Ultraboosts at KD57. The cheapest pair of new Cream Chalk Ultraboosts in my size on StockX is currently KD122, but even when they were readily available at Adidas they were like KD69 or something.

I really like the Hoka’s and they aren’t that bad looking either.

A few months ago, I posted about a guy named Abdullah AlJarallah. During the day, he managed investment deals, but at night, he was in the kitchen perfecting his pizza-making skills. He operated out of a small commercial kitchen with no set menu, timings, or delivery. Whenever he planned to make pizza, he’d let his followers know what was on offer and when, and they’d place their orders and pick them up.

A lot has changed since then, and Abdullah just opened his first restaurant called Jars (@atjars).

Jars is a small, cozy pizza spot located in Hawalli. It’s right off the main highway, so you don’t have to deal with the usual Hawalli traffic. The interior has a basic, slightly industrial look because he had to work with a limited budget, but it works well for the concept. Abdullah also keeps things simple with a set menu. It starts with a welcome bite of focaccia and butter, followed by two seasonal starters. The mains include four pizzas: Margherita, mushroom, pepperoni, and a fourth one that changes often. For dessert, there are two choices.

Yesterday the starters were Bresaola and a watermelon feta cheese salad. For the pizzas we were two so we ordered the pepperoni (Pep Talk) and the mushroom (Funghi Bianco). We also ordered a gelato and strawberries with mascarpone for dessert.

The starters were good. The bresaola was great, though the portion was small. You can’t go wrong with a watermelon and feta cheese salad in summer. Between the two pizzas, I liked the pepperoni more and would order it again next time, or maybe try the Margherita or whatever special pizza Abdullah’s cooking that day. His crust is very crispy with little to no flop, so if you’re not into soft floppy pizzas, you’re gonna like this. I also preferred the gelato over the strawberries with mascarpone for dessert.

Jars opened about a week ago, and even though it wasn’t a full house when I visited, the service was good and friendly. The set menu costs KD 8.750 per person (doesn’t include drinks and dessert), and you need to reserve ahead since they don’t accept walk-ins. They’re currently open from 7PM to 11PM, and you can find them on Google Maps by searching for Jars. To reserve, click here.

When the M1 iMac came out back in 2021, I bought one with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. It was fast, especially after moving up from an old Intel-Mac iMac. More than 3 years later the iMac was still great, I never felt it was slow and really didn’t have any issues with it except for two things:

• The color no longer suited my apartment. I went through a major redesign last year and the green iMac wasn’t working in my space.

• The second issue I had was with the hard drive, 1TB wasn’t enough anymore and I kept running out of space. I couldn’t solve it with an external drive since majority of the space was taken up with my Photos library. I thought about moving it to an external drive but I read I would end up with issues which I didn’t want to risk or deal with.

I was also honestly looking for an excuse to pick up the Mac Studio, I loved the way it looked and just wanted to have one. I kept building a Mac Studio hoping I’d eventually pull the trigger but I kept hesitating and eventually knew I was too late to buy one since it was due for an M3 or M4 upgrade. I stayed patient and then the M4 Mac mini was announced.

It looked like the Mac Studio, but was a lot more smaller and much more cheaper. So I pulled the trigger and bought one.

Initially I wanted to get the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip, but after realizing how much upgrading to 2TB was going to cost me, I decided not to go with the Pro. I never had a speed issue with my M1, and from what I read about the M4 Pro, I wouldn’t really benefit much from it anyway so to save some money I decided to stick to the “regular” M4. I ended up upgrading the RAM from 16GB to 24GB, and the hard drive to 2TB. The hard drive upgrade cost me $800! That’s more than the cost of the Mac mini by quite a bit. It’s crazy, but I guess that’s how Apple manages to set the entry price of the Mac mini so low, they make up for it with the upgrades. $200 to go from 16GB to 24GB RAM, and $800 to go from a 256GB hard drive to a 2TB one. $1,000 worth of upgrades on a $600 computer!

But, overall it was still a lot cheaper than the Mac Studio I had been building on the Apple website for months now which is why I still pulled the trigger.

I ended up buying the Apple Display from Xcite since they were selling it for KD499, similar price to apple.com not including tax or shipping. Once you include tax and shipping the price shoots up much higher than Xcite. You can find the display cheaper on Amazon but even then, once you add tax and shipping the price ends up being similar to Xcite.

Now that I have everything installed and running I really love my new setup. The Mac mini is really small and doesn’t take up much space on my desk. The Apple display is big and beautiful as well, it’s not much bigger than the iMac screen (24″ vs 27″), but it does give me much more room to have two windows open side by side comfortably. It also expands my USB-C ports by an additional 4 ports, and has a Mic built in which is great since the Mac mini doesn’t have a mic.

Having 2TB is probably the biggest relief since I don’t have anxiety about running out of space and this should last a pretty long time with me since I don’t really store any large video files or anything of the sort on my iMac, just my photos which are around 600GB, and work and blog related files which are less than 300GB.

The only negative I have with the Mac mini is that the headphone jack is on the front which means if I want to physically connect them to my speakers I need to have a wire running out the front. I have KEF LSX speakers next to my display and with my previous iMac I ran them over Bluetooth. But it isn’t very reliable as in every few days the speakers lose sync with the video on my Mac and I need to disconnect and reconnect to get them to sync again. With the Mac mini I was hoping to connect them with an optical out or audio out but from the back. I have a USB-C to headphone jack adapter but decided to get a USB-C to optical out and ordered one from Amazon. But I now have another issue, the adapter I got doesn’t support volume control from the Mac so that’s around 15KD wasted and I either need to find another optical out that supports volume control, or just give in and use my USB-C to headphone jack and connect the speakers that way.

But other than that I don’t have any complaints, and no regrets with my purchase either!

Farida is a new Persian restaurant that opened a few weeks ago in Salmiya. It’s a small, cozy spot with just seven tables and a homey atmosphere. The restaurant is named after its owner, Farida (@faridah88), a Kuwaiti nutritionist with Persian roots.

The interior feels like a childhood memory of an old family home to me. From the nostalgic diamond-shaped ceiling moldings and chandeliers, to the crochet tablecloths and grandma-style dinnerware, the space is charming and welcoming. It really didn’t take any effort from my end to find beautiful interior moments to capture for this post.

The menu is small and filled with dishes you wouldn’t typically find at most Persian restaurants in Kuwait. Farida wanted to share unique and interesting recipes from Iran, which I appreciate since it encourages people to step out of their comfort zone and try something new.

I went there with a friend and we ordered the classic Shirazi Salad along with the Zucchini Shallot Yogurt to start with, followed by Farida’s Ghaymen Pollow which we shared for the main course. The Ghaymen is a tomato based lamb stew mixed with orange zest and nuts served with saffron rice. Everything was delicious and very flavorful including the two desserts we ordered when done, the Persian saffron ice cream and the Rollet Khamaaei, a moist cake filled with fluffy rose water whipped cream.

The next day, I was already planning my second visit with the same friend, deciding what we’d order when we went back. The experience was that good. The only downside is that the place is small, and their opening hours are short, so you’ll likely have to wait a while to be seated. They don’t take reservations, only walk-ins. The first time I went a couple of weeks ago, I thought I was being clever by arriving just as they opened, but the place filled up before I managed to get a table. The second time, I arrived early, put my name on the list, and waited for them to open. It’s inconvenient, but at least there’s Gia and Boost cafe next door to hang out at until they call you up.

Prices of the food we ordered was as follows:
Shirazi Salad KD1.80
Zucchini Shallot Yogurt KD2.00
Farida’s Ghaymeh Polow KD7.75
Saffron Bastani KD2.75
Rollet Khamaei KD2.25

Farida is currently in their soft opening phase so they’re only open from 3PM to 7PM in the middle of the week, and 2PM to 7PM on weekends. They’re located in Al Khalid Complex in Salmiya (Google Maps) and their Instagram is @farida.kwt

Back in 2018 I picked up a 12.9″ iPad Pro and I’ve been using it daily ever since. It’s my watch YouTube while in bed display and when I travel it’s my watch my shows and movies on the plane display. I also use it for my Apple News+ magazine subscriptions, and I think that’s about it.

A couple of days ago I made an impulse buy, I ended up buying the new M4 iPad Pro 13″. I wasn’t planning to, my wife didn’t want her 12.9″ iPad Pro and instead wanted to take my iPad Mini, so I figured I could sell both her iPad Pro and mine and get a new one instead. It was just a thought and I started price browsing when I spotted the 11″ iPad Pro on WiBi for KD275 and it was a lot cheaper than I was expecting it to cost. I then checked the price of the 13 Pro and it was KD335 so I was like I’m just going to get it now and then sell my other 2 iPads later.

Now I’m kinda regretting it. There really isn’t anything different between the two based on my very basic requirements. I thought maybe the screen would be a huge difference since the new iPad Pro’s have OLED displays but unless I have the two iPad’s side by side I barely could notice the difference. Then I figured the new iPad would be much lighter, but again unless you’ve got two in each hand, you’re not going to notice.

One thing I do notice, but also requires my other iPad next to me is the thickness. Holding the iPad without the case does feel substantially nicer on the new iPad because it’s thinner and slightly lighter. So one benefit but I don’t use my iPad enough in that position for it to make any difference for me.

A second positive with the new iPad is the Smart Folio case, the regular thin Apple case that covers the back and front. The case now allows you to adjust the viewing angle to one that works best for you while the previous case on my older iPad just had one position.

So basically what I want to say is if you already have an older iPad Pro, the newest one isn’t that different. In my case it’s not different at all since I just watch YouTube on it 99% of the time. So I definitely regret buying it.

If you’re interested in picking up a used iPad Pro 12.9″, check the classifieds section in the next couple of days since I’ll be listing both there.

This is just a follow up to my post from a few weeks ago about the Ricoh GRIII. If you missed that post, basically I got the GRIII camera to use as a travel cam since I’ve been finding my Fuji X100V a bit cumbersome when traveling.

I took the Ricoh with me to Athens a couple of weeks ago and during the week trip I took 121 photos with my iPhone, and 304 photos with my Ricoh. That is crazy.

The fact I took more photos with the GRIII than my iPhone goes to show how great a travel camera is it. I carried the iPhone in one pocket in my shorts and the GRIII in the other and I always found it easier to pull out the GRIII snap a photo and put it back. It slips in and out of my pocket easier than the iPhone because my iPhone has the silicone cover. But also the iPhone is bigger so harder to pull out of my pocket while the GRIII is smaller so easier. Also it’s a lot easier to pull the camera out and press the power button to turn it on and start taking photos than it is to pull out the iPhone, tap to turn the screen on and then tap again to open the camera and then reposition my hand on the phone to take a photo.

I love the GRIII so much, if I wasn’t a camera hoarder I would sell my Fuji because I can’t think of a situation now where I would pick it over the GRIII.

Oh and another thing, I usually run my iPhone photos or Fuji photos through RNI afterwards to apply a filter, I wasn’t applying any filters to the Rioch photos, they all looked great as is straight out of the camera. I also enjoyed shooting with the 28mm lens over the 35mm lens of the Fuji. Especially when traveling, I feel a wider lens works better.

I do have one big complaint about the Ricoh though and one I’m surprised they haven’t solved yet with a firmware update. You can’t shoot photos in the 16:9 ratio! They only give you the option of 3:2 and 1:1. I appreciate 1:1 since that’s a square and what I use for my Instagram posts, but 16:9 is crucial for me since that’s the ratio of Instagram stories and how I share my photos.

Other than that the camera is perfect, I can’t recommend it enough. I got mine from BHPhoto for around $1,000. They’re usually out of stock but you can just buy it and once they restock they ship right away and straight to Kuwait. Link

Last week, KDD launched a new line of drinks that contain 0% sugar and zero calories. These beverages aren’t technically juices since they’re not made with real fruits. Instead, they’re more like flavored water. Currently, they come in three flavors:

Apple & Raspberry
Mango & Peach
Mojito (Lemon & Mint)

The fruits are added as natural flavors to the water, along with vitamins A, D, C, and B6. None of the three flavors contain any sugar; instead, like the ‘Good For You’ line of ice cream, they use natural sweeteners.

I only managed to get the Apple & Raspberry and Mango & Peach flavored drinks since the Mojito was out of stock. The Mojito flavor was the one I was actually interested in because I’m hoping it tastes like lemonade. I tried the other two flavors and didn’t like them, but that’s because I really dislike both raspberry and peaches. So, don’t take my word for it.

KDD sells them in a carton of 18 for 1.980 KD or a pack of 6 for 660 fils. However, I picked up 8 individual pieces from my neighborhood KDD store for 800 fils, which comes to 100 fils per pack.

If you’ve tried the Mojito flavor, let me know how it tastes.

Broskis Deli has been open for just over a month now, and I think I’ve been there five or six times already. It has quickly become my go-to place when I’m in the mood for comfort food, in my case, a good filling sandwich.

I’ve tried most of the sandwiches on their menu, and here is a list of my favorites, ranked from best to least favorite so far:

Meatball Hero
Chopped Cheese
Broski Burger
Chicken Parm
Club Sandwich
Pastrami Reuben

The Meatball sandwich caught me by surprise since it’s not something I had considered ordering, but I was with a friend who suggested we share it, and it’s now my favorite sandwich there. The Chopped Cheese is what you get if you merge a burger with a Philly Cheesesteak and it’s their most popular sandwich. The burger is also really good, but the main reason I go to Broskis is for the sandwiches. So, although it’s tempting, I try to avoid ordering the burger. If I’m with friends, I might order the burger to share as a side, but that’s also a difficult choice because if I want a side, I’d prefer their Truffle Mac & Cheese, which is the best in Kuwait.

Their portions are really huge, which is why I always prefer going there with a friend so we can share sandwiches and sides. For two people, the optimal amount of food is probably one sandwich to share (they come cut in half), a burger to share, one side, and a cookie each for dessert. That actually might still be too much food, but you can’t go to Broski and not overeat when there are too many good options to pick from.

Their prices are a bit on the high side, but that most likely has to do with the fact that they use a wagyu blend for their sandwiches and because the portions are large. For example, their burger is KD5.750, while their Chopped Cheese sandwich is KD5.250. Truffle Mac & Cheese is KD3.250, and the cookies are KD1.250 each.

Broskis is located in Sharq, near the British Embassy (Google Maps). It has a casual, come as you are vibe and there is plenty of seating. They’re on instagram @delibybroskis

I’m a very routine-oriented person, and one of the things I like to do is head to The Avenues every Friday morning, at least in the hot months when I can’t be outdoors. I just find it relaxing to walk around and shop, and before it gets busy, I have an early lunch and then leave. My go-to place for lunch is usually Em Sherif Café or Midar; but recently, I’ve added Matbakhi to the list.

Matbakhi is an authentic Palestinian restaurant that has been open for a couple of months. It’s owned by Chef Sawsan (@sawsansmatbakhi) and is inspired by her heritage and her mother’s recipes. I think I’ve been there six or seven times already, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite spots.

I think they have one of the best, if not the best, tabbouleh and shish taouk in Kuwait. The reason I first went there was because of their shish taouk. A friend at work who knows that’s all I ever eat tried their taouk and told me I had to try it because it was the best one she’d ever had, and she was right. Matbakhi is also one of those places where you can’t really go wrong no matter what you order. Every time I’ve been there with various people, everyone has always loved whatever they’ve ordered. Oh, and they also have the best Om Ali ever—seriously, so good.

Their prices are in the mid-to-upper range of Lebanese restaurants. The taouk, for example, is 4.950 KD, while the tabbouleh is 2.950 KD. The only negative aspect might be their service, which can be a bit iffy sometimes, but that’s just nitpicking. If you want to try the place out, they’re located across from Cheesecake Factory in Phase 3. They’re always pretty busy, so either head there when they first open at 12 PM (which is what I do), or put your name on the waiting list and then kill time walking around The Avenues. Their Instagram account is @matbakhibysawsan

Young Po is a new Pan-Asian restaurant opening soon, created by local chef Khaled AlBaker (@chefkb). When I found out he was opening an Asian concept I was pretty excited since I love Chinese food and there aren’t that many “nice” Chinese restaurants in Kuwait. I had the opportunity to try out Young Po last week, and I had a great overall experience.

Young Po isn’t limited to just Chinese food but also covers a wide range of Asian food including Japanese and Korean. The menu was divided into six categories:

• Starters
• Dim Sum
• Sushi & Sashimi
• Special Quests
• Robata
• Wok

The special quests category is for items like roasted duck and shabu shabu, while the rest of the categories are pretty self-explanatory. I ended up ordering the following dishes:

• Master Garden Salad
• Lobster on Toast
• Deobokki (Rice Cakes)
• Prawn Jiaozi (Dim Sum)
• Not-so California Roll
• Chu Toro Nigiri
• Wagyu Tenderloin (Robata)
• Baloul Clay Pot (Robata)
• Brocollini (Robata)
• Sweet & Sour Shrimp
• Egg Fried Rice

It was a lot of food for just two people, but it gave me a chance to try out a variety of dishes I usually wouldn’t order. I ended up loving everything I tried but, my go-to dish is always sweet & sour (I’m boring like that) and the one at Young Po might be the best I’ve ever had.

There were no prices on the menu when I was there, and of this post they’re still being finalized. But, it will be an “upper” casual dining experience.

If you want to try Young Po they’re opening in Shuwaikh this Wednesday, May 1st. Reservations are currently open on their website but there will be tables available for walk-ins as well.

The Instagram account is @youngpo.me, but to reserve a table, head over to youngpo.com