The luxury hotel Waldorf Astoria is expected to open towards the end of the year at The Avenues and over the weekend they announced that one of the restaurants that will be opening in the hotel is Roka. Roka is a Japanese restaurant centered around a robata grill and was created by the same restaurant group behind Zuma (a very popular Japanese restaurant).
There is no mention in the press release of where in the hotel it is opening but me and a friend were discussing it and we think it would probably the location overlooking the pool which I’ve highlighted in the photo above.
If Roka does well (which I’m assuming it will do), then I wouldn’t be surprised if Zuma eventually opens in Kuwait as well.
14 replies on “Roka to Open at Waldorf Astoria Kuwait”
Zuma without saki……urgh
Exactly!
Sip on your local made jackson in the parking lot and excuse yourself from the table when your nerves start acting up and you need another shot to calm yourself.
I’m assuming you mean Sake. Many think it should not be served with sushi because of the presence of rice in both, food and drink. In fact I was never served sake with my food in Japan, just at bars or as an appetizer.
“In fact I was never served sake with my food in Japan”
That’s because you need to order it.
Mark, look up kaiseki-ryōri and you’ll know what a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner looks like.
And this has what to do with the fact you need to order sake at a Japanese restaurant in Japan?
Weird. Lived there for eight years. On every menu in every restaurant that had other spirits. Drank it with a couple of restaurant owner/chefs who came out and mingled with the diners, too. My landlord would make us sushi and other rice dishes, and would serve…sake.
Encouraged to drink it at every course, including a dessert sake at dessert.
I guess those Japanese weren’t Japanese-y enough.
Yes your landlord and your Japanese friends back in Japan should all lookup the Wikipedia page for kaiseki-ryōri because they’re obviously doing it wrong
You win the Internet, my friend! lol
Well played…
Another genius idea opening up a 5 star hotel in a country with virtually no tourism during a 2-year global tourism recession.
Obviously, they didn’t decide to open the hotel just yesterday. I posted about the Waldorf back in 2019 and they had been planning for it way before I posted about it.
https://248am.com/mark/kuwait/waldorf-astoria-kuwait-renderings/
Regarding the no-tourism point, that’s not entirely true. It might be hard to believe but we get a lot of tourists from neighboring GCC states which is why Four Seasons before the pandemic was fully booked the whole time. Avenues gets a lot of tourists so imagine how busy a hotel based in Avenues will be. Waldorf is also the second hotel to open in Avenues btw, Hilton Garden Inn is already open there.
I would agree with you that the best location to open Roka would be the space overlooking the pool but unless they sand blast the glass to prevent restaurant goers from looking down onto the pool area it might not work. God forbid there is anyone laying by the pool showing skin whilst people are trying to eat. We don’t need those kind of temptations in our lives ;p
All they need now is a hospital at the Avenues, then they could put a dome over it and make it its own biosphere. If they ever discover a planet that is inhabited by aliens wearing Prada and Cartier, Kuwait can volunteer to lead the expedition!