Paparazzi is a new Italian restaurant located near the fountain area outside Salhiya. I actually hadn’t been to that area for quite some time so I wasn’t aware that the fountain had actually been removed. I used to visit that corner of Salhiya a lot because of the Lebanese restaurant Leila and Johnny Rockets, but they’re both gone now with both locations taken over by Paparazzi.
When you first enter Paparazzi you’ll walk into their cafe area, a small cozy space with a cocktail bar, a small lounge composed of vintage furniture, around 8 tables with a long bench seating and a mirror above with framed celebrity photos. Paparazzi was designed to feel like an Italian restaurant in Europe that has been around for a long time and frequented by various celebrities over the decades. It worked because that’s exactly the vibe I got.
Walking past the cafe area and through the brown velvet curtains you enter the main restaurant floor, a surprisingly large area that still managed to feel warm and comfortable. I fell in love with it right away especially with all the brown tones. My winter wardrobe has mostly been shades of brown this year and so I blended in perfectly with the interior and furniture. I loved all the interior colors including their kitchen which has mustard yellow cabinets and dark green tiled walls, and the private room which used a shade of a light desaturated blue. It’s all very mid-century.
Paparazzi also has an outdoor terrace with built-in floor vents for AC cooling during the summer. I’m surprised more places haven’t adopted this since it makes the outdoor areas a lot more bearable in the summer months.
I didn’t get to try the food, I will in the next couple of days, but I did get a copy of the menu. Looking at it now, it has a small pizza section, both dry and fresh pastas, mains like steaks, chicken, and seafood, plus a variety of starters, four different carpaccios, salads, and sides. It’s a pretty substantial menu, so I’m looking forward to trying it.
Paparazzi opens tonight and, for now, will only be open for dinner from 7PM. To reserve, click the reserve button on their instagram account @paparazzi.kw
14 replies on “Paparazzi, A new Italian Restaurant Opens Tonight”
Looks fancy – I’m sure there’s more than enough of a market in Kuwait for places where you pay an arm and a leg for a single piece of shrimp and asparagus with a smattering of sauce.
well its by the same company as Solange, and I was there on Saturday for dinner. What they’ve done with Solange is set up the menu where you can pay an arm and a leg if you want like 30-50kd a person, or you can pay 10-15kd a person and still have a good meal. I haven’t seen the prices at Paparazzi yet but I’d assume they’ve structured the menu in a similar way where you can have an affordable meal by ordering salad and a pasta, or pay an arm and a leg by ordering the wagyu carpaccio and wagyu steak.
We seem to be getting a new Italian restaurant opening up every single month. Literally. Every single month. And most of them are pretty lousy.
Some of them hire an Italian chef for a few months and then let go of them once business picks up. The quality quickly disintegrates and the restaurant suffers. Other restaurants don’t even bother hiring Italian chefs.
I’m sticking to my tried-and-true, Vigonovo.
The pics do look like a celeb or high net worth type of restaurant in a major city. Similar style to spots in NY, LA or LV. Too bad the only local celebs are influencers with bought followers.
Perfect for the Valentinos & Valentinas on 14th Feb this year and all years. Warm and cosy vibes 👌
The name is very stupid for an Italian restaurant. Do not just use any Italian sounding name. Good they didn’t call it Salmonella.
What kind of dumb ass comment is this? Do you even know what Paparazzi means?
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/paparazzi
Obviously they didn’t pick the name Paparazzi because it’s “Italian sounding”
Tried it yesterday, was impressed by the food..
The service was pretty good in comparison to my experience with Solange
You had a bad experience with the service at Solange? cuz when I left all I spoke to my friends was how good the service was and they had only been open for 2 days at that point.
yeah the service was real bad that they offered complimentary desserts in compensation.. I went on Friday but will give it a second try to be fair ..
I always had a love-hate relationship with Italian Restaurants here. The thing with Italian food here is that some of them start off serving great authentic Italian dishes only to gradually localize their menus and ruin the Italian flavours ie ‘tempura’ ?? with loads of sauce on top. Or gnocchi with the infamous ‘pink sauce’. This might sell, but at the cost of straying from the cuisine’s culinary roots. Give us the conventional taste of simple and fresh that Italian food is known for instead of some local fusion.
Most restaurants start off with the menu they want and then eventually shift to start serving more of what the market wants. End of the day a restaurant is a business and can’t survive without an X amount of customers. Sadly, the majority here want the burger, fries, and pink sauce pasta at an Italian restaurant.
I have a rule of thumb when it comes to Italian restaurants here. Any restaurant that serves any schlock with pink sauce, I avoid like the plague. Life is too short for pink pasta.
To all the B town boys of the 90’s does this name & theme look familiar? CambridgeSide Mall