Al Khalid Complex has been around for as far as I remember. I’m sure it’s been there since the 60s or 70s. My earliest recollection of it was visiting My Toy back when it used to be there in the early 80s, as well as picking up pastries from a confectionery shop located where Gia currently is. When they started refurbishing the complex I was kinda worried they would ruin it. Thankfully, it didn’t turn out so bad and I’m glad it wasn’t demolished and turned into a mall.
Gia is still there, Anaar and Edo as well. There is also a bakery called Clario and a private dining concept called JADE. From the old school places, Fresh somehow is still there as well as Golden Corner Restaurant which has been there since I was a kid. The only thing that isn’t there anymore is the spaceman mural. That’s gone now sadly.
If you’ve never been to Al Khalid Complex, it’s in Salmiya right off the Gulf Road. Here is the location on Google Maps.
11 replies on “Al Khalid Complex got a Makeover”
I remember going to My Toy when my kids were young in the 80s. There weren’t many toys shops back then that sold good quality toys. They used to sell Fisher Price toys and Ravensburger products. Also there was a supermarket on the corner where Fresh is now. They used to sell products similar to the supermarket that was adjoining Pearl Marzook.
I have been a regular at Fresh for around 4 years now and it’s so so so so nice to see this complex get an uplift that’s not over-the-top, but just the right amount to accentuate the beauty of what was already there.
Thanks Mark for shining some light onto it!
It is indeed great to see an old building being renovated instead of it being demolished as we’re are used to seeing here in Kuwait,I also happened to have noticed that the surrounding Al Khalid buildings are being renovated as well.Unfortunately one of these buildings the facade used is aluminum cladding instead of the original finish, while the remaining remained the same,I do hope that somehow the secret garden would come back as it brought life into that area.
What’s the name of that pastry shop? I remember they used to have nice Shawerma. I would go there often with my friends. I can also swear it was called Fresh, but that’s something else there now.
Shawerma place is Golden Corner who also have pastries. I used to have their Shawerma back in the mid 90s on the way back from the gym that used to be open down the street called Hayat Center. The pastry place where Gia used to be didn’t have Shawerma.
The pastry place was Al-Alamiyah
العالمية
oh wow yes!!
There used to be a nice little Japanese restaurant called Kaizen that used to be there as well. I think they shut down when they moved to the Avenues around 2009-2010
AT LAST. They got rid of that DAMN UGLY, AMATEURISH painting of that veiled figure (presumably of a woman) on the prominent side of the tower at the corner of this complex.
Damn, that painting was such an UGLY sight that I avoided going near that street at all for years.
the spaceman mural? https://248am.com/mark/design/spaceman-mural/
Space man? That’s supposed to be an astronaut?
I always believed that it’s a veiled woman. Ugly, big drawing of a covered woman to promote shops that sell women’s clothing in there.
Anyway THANK GOD it’s gone. Ugly, ugly.