I had been hearing a lot of negative stuff about Dean & Deluca like how everything they have is available at Sultan Center, or how their prices are too expensive and how they really don’t have many products so when I passed by this weekend I wasn’t expecting much.
The place ROCKS. I don’t know what people are complaining about. First of all I don’t think I saw anything there that was available at Sultan Center. Price wise, yes they have caviar that costs over KD2,000 and Black Truffles that cost over KD600 but those items aren’t meant for us, they’re for the people who can afford them. I checked out their meat section and found their prices actually cheap, at least I think KD3.600/kg for Wagyu beef is cheap. They have around 6 or 7 types of mushrooms and a whole range of fruits and vegetables that I haven’t seen before. They even have a great seafood section. I also found out they made gourmet sandwiches, kinda like the ones at Napket and also have ready made soup (Lobster Bisque for KD2).
I am really glad a place like Dean & Deluca opened up in Kuwait and I hope it does well so that it remains open. Places like this bring back the joy in cooking. If you haven’t passed by please do, they’re located in the Avenues, phase II.
(I couldn’t take any pictures because the two times I passed by it was PACKED so if you have any pictures email them to me)
44 replies on “First Impression: Dean & Deluca”
“Brings back the joy in cooking”
You make it sound like you spend hour after hour slaving over a hot stove lol.
But it’s nice to see deli-type places becoming popular in the Gulf..Adds some much needed interest to the gastronomic landscape!
maybe it was russian caviar?
when saying 2,000 kd do u mean thousand or dinar ?
Toni, caviar is known to be expensive, price also varies with quality.
You can get wine for $5 and you can get wine for $5000
TSC probably has the same products. The problem with TSC is that they have no clue how to properly disiplay items. Everything is mishmashed together. Only if they know how to design stores better and display better. Dean & Deluca has wonderful display and some great items, but 90% of the people will just look at it.
Mo ana gelt inah dean and deluca is amazing?!
People ma ya3jebhom il 3ajab. The palce as u said ROCKS!
I will try and go there after work tommorow for some quite shopping… i really really REALLY want an olive loaf with bree cheese, walnuts, and red grapes for breakfst. But they promised they would have both raclette and bree cheese by this week … so we will see…
and if there is still someone who did not go and is a fan of 7leeb il tmaween o 3aish il tamween o ma3joon 6ma6 KDD, this place will disappoint… sorry!!!
interesting like a cheeky monkey
The bread isn’t too bad price wise.
hummm i am smelling a new sponsor here 😛
get a job at Alshaya and the 30% discount makes D&D a lot more affordable
I went there just to have a look, and my first impression is that the place is great.
I am planning to go again and buy lots of things.
The problem is that I never tried anything displayed there, so I don’t know what is good and what is bad.
nice but really expensive.
they’re improving over time. more selections, i hope they keep up their momentum.
It looks really nice… the cheese selection is great.. the vegetables are overpriced but hey they had french string beans (haricots verts), I just wonder who would really buy their fruit and veg there
They have a lot of nice oils and sauces, pastas and breads.. I didn’t check out the meat and seafood sections. The place was packed with people but I didn’t notice much actual shopping.. I also want to try the cheese bar
Onto their cafe.. the service was terrible. I ordered a Chai Latte and it was just a regular teabag with hot milk which I could’ve had at home. No cinnamon or the other stuff that usually goes in it… It also arrived 20 minutes after we ordered!
It’s nice but it is not really a novel idea!!
I think Souk Mubarakiya did it first. You get your meat cuts from the meat market or catch of the day from the fish market, sample plenty of cheeses/olives/oils/herbs from scattered grocers, and lastly a beautiful array of fresh fruits & vegetables.
And its a fraction of the price !!!!!! Souk Mubarakiya ROCKS.
The Caviar is Taysteeeh
They are selling Caviar in Marx and Spencer no big deal
the place is rocks like mark said and they do have some unique items but still you can find 85% of their stuff in Sultan center or other places
They have excellent coffee, I reccomend the cuppacino.
Frankom if you think the caviar they are selling is the same as Marks & Spencer and that 85% of Dean & Deluca is available at Sultan means you’re the type of person who thinks a casio and a rolex are both the exact same thing.
Mark – you mention that the beef only costs KD 3.600. Actually, thats only for rump and topside which are the cheapest parts of the cow and are impossible to cook with. If you had looked at the rest of the Wagyu and Angus meats on display, you might have noticed that the average price per kilo is KD 29 which is more than $ 100.
Also, the soup is barely edible and the cooked food that you can eat in the cafe or take away to reheat at home is worse – by far- than the food at sultan center. Its just displayed in a nicer way and they have manged to create exotic names like ‘ hand shredded cabbage salad with crunchy apples and walnuts’ (fracking coleslaw that isnt even very good!).
Its great that a place like Dean and Deluca has opened in Kuwait – but will somebody plz do something about the quality of the food and sandwiches and the crappy service!
All style and no substance!
Well i visited the place as well, it has got a nice range of items mostly gourmet, as for the veggies most of the range is available at lulu hypermarket for a more reasonable price.The impression i got is that the store is maily for the high end consumer.
Mark , i agree with you on how it brings back joy to cookin. Being a person that speands a relative amount of time experimenting in the kitchen, this place definetly adds variety to the number of ingredients you can play with.
– Meat section is amazing
– Cheese section has quite a variety
– I finally found a decent place that sells sundried tomatoes (Drools:))
– The peperonni testers were YUM-O
– Sandwiches were different for a change
– Flowers section was refreshing
– They had grilled artichokes in their pickle section (droollss:))
Its a gourmet store..so people should think before they say its too expensive. Its meant for a particular segment of the market which definetly exists in Kuwait.
But thats just my opinion.
Corporate whores is what we have all become! Succumbing to “ohh this is so chic and rich” stores wantoning us during these times of reccession; some business’s houses in Kuwait will go to any length and strip people off their last pennies!
And Mark – tow one line; if you think Dean is not expensive then why the hell did you have to do a comparison of Starbucks NYC and Kuwait?
What does Dean & Deluca have to do with Starbucks? Why would you compare McDonalds with a Gordon Ramsey restaurant?
I didnt start the comparison thing Mark… you did! So please dont justify your actions here… anyway as you keep saying its your blog; you are free to write anything you want and we as blog intellectuals are free to air our views and opinions!! ~
Why such extreme comments think about it this way that in these days of cut throat competition an out of the box or novell idea always strikes so what at a higher price.To learn here is things or combinations u had never seen before and enlighten urself with that knowledge and the clientele is present the very fact they have opened and doing well as i saw it was always full of people.
Yes: This place is for gourmet food lovers whom have a passion for cooking with imported goods.
Yes: I have seen things that not available in sultan center!
Yes: Pricy,(have the people thought of shipping fees, taxes,profit..etc!)
My first impresssion:
-the chocolate section was below my expectations
-i thought they will sell some of the cake available in thier web-site
-not much variety of cheese sandwiches (2 kinds only)
-CAFE: i had cheese croissants and cappuccino, it didin’t have the fench and italian taste (below my expectations) although my husband loved the omlette wich camr with freshly iranian bread!
I must to give it a second try, especialy the bread section (my passion)
@Mark: I think the saying is: “why comparing apples and oranges?”
Because comparing McDonalds to Gordon Ramsey is the equivalent of comparing D&D and Co-Op, NOT D&D and Starbucks (the logic doesn’t exactly work there). What NYX tried to say, I guess, is why you think that D&D is not expensive, but you compare the prices of Starbucks in NYC and Kuwait…and find the price of Starbucks here is outrageously overpriced. Is it possible that D&D is actually overpriced too…? I believe s/he did not mean to compare the price of starbucks and that of D&D per se…but rather your sense of monetary value.
Cheers!
Very smart, Shaya takes hundreds of thousands in Key money from Napket and opens a similar gourmet sandwich concept – in a better location right underneath him.
I lived for a total of 10 years on and off in Washington DC and we sometimes frequented ‘Dean and DeLuca’ and the prices we saw there were way, way cheaper than what we are seeing here (especially in today’s troubled economy).
The idea of a ‘Dean and DeLuca’ here is welcome, it is great to have a gourmet food store but seriously if you were into gourmet food, would you drive all the way to the Avenues and buy your groceries or hit ‘Sultan Center’ or the gourmet store in ‘Dahyat Abdulla Al-Salem’?
When I frequent places i tend to look for ‘an easy in, easy out’ mode – I personally think ‘Dean And DeLuca’ would have done much better as a stand-alone-outside-a-mall entity, but I understand ‘The Avenues’ is Shaye-owned and they need to cram all their franchises in it. But that could be detrimental in the long run.
The only way a ‘D and D’ is going to survive here is if they overhaul, improve their cafe and turn the joint into a ‘happening’ hang out place and so far from what I am hearing their coffee shop is in dire straits.
Hilaliya, if they’re paying 2 KD rent they can stay there as long as they like.
Don’t forget most non-Shaya people in there are paying 30-40 KD Rent.
Big, big advantage.
Croco, you are right. I hear mixed reports.
Also, some like ‘Al-Oustura’ managed to rent a whole year without rent and this has alienated some others who were paying rent and they in turn have stopped paying (this may have been resolved by now).
jolie_gal: I never said they were not expensive, I said I found the meat cheap. A bottle of small Fiji water here at Dean & Deluca costs like KD1 while on Amazon it costs 650fils so yeah I am sure Dean & Deluca is more expensive than in the US but everything does come in from random places around the world so its more understandable why they cost more. Shipping water from Fiji to the US is cheaper than shipping water from Fiji to Kuwait thats if its direct, it probably comes to us via the US so the price difference at least makes more sense..
if you dont like the prices THEN DONT GO THERE.. just dont D&D down just because you did not have a good experience there.. some people will like it and others wont.. this goes for every store in Kuwait.
also.. TSC does NOT have the same products.. most of the products at D&D are from the D&D brand..
true some of the products at D&D are overpriced.. just walk over to carrefour and buy a cheaper version.. not everything there is for everyone..
PS their spicy salami is FANTASTIC.. not the KHAZAN stuff u get at TSC
just got some spicy salami and bread from dean and deluca…amaaazing 🙂
I heard the salami is really good as well. gonna try it out!!
Lobster bisque? I’m getting me some of that!
A great place. I bought coffee beans on my first visit and I’m loving every cup. We need more of this in Kuwait. Glad they’ve opened here.
GUYS ,,,
Its 1215PM 11th Feb 2009 … Check out the AMAZING Weather out side … heheeheh its RED !!! Lets go to D&D for shopping !!
Hi All
I have been reading your comments on the Dean & Deluca store in Kuwait with great interest.
I am Justine from New Zealand, one of the suppliers to the Dean & Deluca Kuwait store.
Tell me your comments, being on the other side of the world it’s difficult to guage just how well a product is going.
Our products are in the condiments section – I just read the commenting rules and had to delete the brands for you to look at.
I’m really interested so please let me know your comments.
cheers
Justine
Hey Justine, you can mention the brands here its ok.
Thanks Mark
I would really like some feedback on how our products are going, what is needed to ensure continuous sales etc etc.
Look for Fruit’n’fire chilli sauces, Bite Me Mango Chilli Salsa, Dining Alfresco Capsicum Apricot dip/chutney, and 2 Hint of Chilli – Tamarillo & Apple jelly and Apple & Clove jelly.
Alshaya have asked me to source more New Zealand products – have been taste testing my way through such items as NZ salmon, macadamia nuts, kiwifruit jams, sauces etc, and fabulous NZ water.
I need educating about Kuwait so bring it on, I want to know.
cheers
Justine