Tonight I passed by the recently opened Burger Bar in Kuwait City. I got there and found the two parking spots in front of the place empty so I parked my car and got down when the Holiday Inn security guard came up to me and told me I couldn’t park there. Since Burger Bar is located adjacent to Holiday Inn downtown, the security guard told me I wasn’t allowed to park in the two empty spots outside the restaurant. He told me I had to park across the street. I thought that was strange but wasn’t in the mood to argue and just went back into my car and parked on the other side.
The place from the outside looked like a Japanese restaurant and when I looked through the windows I saw what looked like Japanese waiters. I thought to myself this must be the wrong place, even Nataly was like “Mark this looks like a Japanese restaurant”. Once we walked around to the main entrance we saw the Burger Bar logo and realized we were at the right place. We walked through some dimly lit candles outside (very Japanese-ish) into the restaurant where we were greeted by waiters dressed in red silk clothing and black bandannas which again was very Japanese-ish. The place was empty except for one table with two men so we sat down wherever we wanted. We had two choices for seating, what looked like long benches or one of the booths, we chose the booth since it looked more comfortable. Our table was the smallest in the restaurant and I think it could easily fit 8 people. I don’t know if they were made for extremely overweight people or they believe that people eat in packs like hyenas but whatever their reason, it felt really awkward having the whole table for just me and Nat. The music that was playing was loud and guess what genre… it was country music. So, so far the place looked Japanese, had Japanese looking waitresses dressed in Japanese like clothing, playing country music and serving burgers. Pretty strange combination but I was like whatever, its “different”.
We got the menu and I decided to order the mozzarella fries for starters, the mushroom burger for my main course and a junior cheese burger for Nat (junior = slider). The waitress asked me what I wanted to drink and I told her Pepsi. She then replied saying they didn’t have Pepsi. I looked at her surprised thinking to myself what the hell, no soft drinks?? So I asked her what do you mean you don’t have Pepsi? She was like we don’t have Pepsi only Coca Cola. I was like god damn woman I thought you meant you didn’t have any soft drinks! Pepsi, Coke whatever its all the same.
The food arrived a while later and was fairly disappointing. The fries firstly weren’t that great, there was only a small portion of mozzarella over them and they weren’t even melted right. The burger had a strange flavor to it. The actual hamburger bun was great but the meat tasted like “kafta”? I am not sure what but it wasn’t very burgery.
Overall I wasn’t impressed. The mushroom burger was for KD2.500 and that was one of the cheapest burgers on the menu, the majority were around KD4 and KD5. The fries I believe were super expensive costing KD2.700 and they were sooo not worth it. Nats slider cost 750fils which is slightly more expensive then Burger Boutique which brings us to the question, is Burger Bar in the same league as Johnny Rockets and Burger Boutique? Hell no. Final score 2.5 out of 5. Although the Japanese Cowboy look is strange, the design of the place is still pretty cool. Other positives are lots of parking spaces across the street and the fact that you don’t have to call 4 years in advance to book a table is a plus. Food is lousy though but might be worth a visit just to check it out.
42 replies on “Review: Burger Bar”
I heard they are trying to imitate B+f and it seems they ended like Maki 🙂 plus all there staff were fierd from ZWZ thats why you had the Pepsi experience, nevertheless lets give them a chance to improve and try to be different from others.
aren’t most of the resturants in kuwait are crap ?
putting in the side about the mixed-up restaurant (Japanese design/Country Music) It’s like Hard Rock Cafe – breath-taking amazing design but…. BAD food 🙁
Thats sad that the food is bad, you can have all the other things be bad but the food has to be good to get things right off the bat!
Japanese Cowboy = kind of like the Spaghetti Western movies concept, maybe !
I just hate it when after I parked the car and got out, I find someone coming up to me and telling me that I can’t park there. I mean FUCK! Could’nt he have just said that earlier?
OK! So I am guess they made it Japanese-y just in case they dont make it in the burger business so they can easily switch to a Japanese restaurant (since they are all doing great here in Kuwait).. Its close to where I work so I may give it a try one day..
wtf u can get the wygu burger for like 6 KD at BB which is possibly the best burger in kuwait.
Johnny Rockets O BASS
Johnny Rockets is the best…the good thing about them that they maintain the quality at the same level
+1 for Johnny 😉 “
very nice write-up Mark
Mark i really liked and agreed with everything u ever said .. but this is the first time am gona tell u NO … Burger Bar is the first restaurant in kuwait that serves a very very good burger … cause Johnny Rockets,Burger Boutique,burger hub and also slider station they r all good and amazing but ur just eating poor quality of COOKING and MEAT …
“Mark” burgers have to be cooked in a certain way with some nice ingredients … mo a pile of meat and throwing it on the stove oo add any mix up sauce and serve … plzz next time u go to any 1 of those burger places just check the MEAT quality
burger bar is the only place that serves a really nice Gourmet burger
ooh 1 other thing u see all those burger places the don’t have a control over there standards 1 day ur eating am amzing burger the other day u wished if u had a FALAFEL sandwich
Think they tried to borrow from the “buddha bar” scene?
yoshi are you serious? do you go inside the kitchen of every resturant before u order the food?
so now u have to be a health inspector to review the TASTE of food?
now johnny isn’t quality ?! “
i think johnny has set a new quality standards here
Johnny Rockets is the best of the best when it comes to burgers !
Holla ???? who said anything about being a health inspector …. i love cooking and yes i do have a taste in food and i can tell wats a good burger fom a bad 1 ….. and i do not need to go inside the kitchen all u have to do is lift the bread and see the burger
yoshi ur not making any sense. u said all those places serve good burgers but the quality of the meat is not good, while burger bar is the only one serving burgers with good meat quality.
how can u tell if the meat quality is bad when the burger tastes so good short of reviewing their meat supply records?
Youshi LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL whatever????you must be from the MooOOOoooOOON????
More like he must be from Burger Bar
wow…I thought a restaurant like Burger Bar, should serve high quality type of food. I’ve never thought any one could’ve said anything or wrote a harsh review like that on an a class restaurant.
well anyway, I think it Marks point of view which we should respect and it should not effect your decision.
At the End its a matter of taste.
Thank you Mark
If I place my car in park and get out .. I ain’t moving for anybody.
Bujasim from the moon ???? hahahaha ile il sha3ab ile ihni min il moon they wouldn’t know what real food is …… u think that MAKI and all these new burger places r the best ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh they have amazin food …… all the do is add diffrent kind of sauce 7ag il mitin intow tibla3oon oo u don’t even TASTE the meat … at7ada ay wa7ed feekoom kala ib hel amakin oo ma intifakh ba6na leah il yoom il thani
HOLLA ……… when u cook a burger or want to eat a really good burger there r 2 really good kinds 1)wagyu meat 2)coby beef meat
or if u want to go for a local meat go to any butcher and ask him for burger meat but to shave of the fat …. mix that meat with onions, butter, sugar, balsamic vinegar and other stuff …. cook it medium yah just add a ketchup, mayoo or mustard … non of that nonsense sauce …
yah thats called Gourmet food
LOOOL OK, even though you gave a low score, I wanna give it a shot and see if the Japanese Cowboy theme works for me 😀
WOW Yoshi, the review did hurt you feelings really bad, To make you feel happy you are the #1 expert of COW BEEF not in Kuwait only but in the middle east, By the way could you give us more information about the cow’s bieng used in Burger 2.5 Star, imean Bar and why is it so so special??? and is it really gourmet??plus are you the only one in Kuwait expert in Cow’s or you have friends? so we can learn from their knowledge?
bujasim …. 7adi mit7asif about wat i wrote 3abli i was talking to educated ppl but i guess this country is LOW on that … oo yiba 7agig 3ala rasi ….. yiba tadree ishloon HARDEES and BK r the best places in kuwait …..
Well Yoshi, We are all educated according to the level of your writing style “Intow tibli3oon o you dont even taste the meat” wow what a an educated style???? If your house from glass dont throw people with stones. Good luck God bless your education
Mark are you an epicure!!
do you smoke!!!!???? cuz seriously your taste is bad.
Ppl, their burger is better than any others in Kuwait, and it is not bad! And this is a testimony of Burger Boutique’s loyal fan, not even room 22 for 3 KD can compete.
I admit the designer miss understood the concept of infusion.
But no one knows what a real gourmet food is can critique burger bar.
a girl just because you liked the burger and i didn’t doesn’t mean i don’t know what real gourmet food is. Its called taste and mine is different then yours.
For me, gourmet or not gourmet, if something tastes like shit it tastes like shit. just because something is gourmet doesn’t mean its ok to taste like crap.
I tried it too! It’s a bit harsh saying that it tastes like crap! “Tastes ok” doesn’t even do it justice! I’m actually craving the same Mushroom burger I had as I’m writing this 🙂
You know you shouldn’t be a food critic when your readers start acting against your food advice and visit the next restaurant you’ll diss, which is how I decided to give burger bar a try.
**Not a burger bar owner or employee or relative of any of the former
Faisal I never said the burger tasted crap in my review, I said it tasted like Kafta.
“The actual hamburger bun was great but the meat tasted like “kafta”? I am not sure what but it wasn’t very burgery.”
Maybe your problem is you don’t know what to order from maybe your have problem with your sinus, and that why you taste everything in kuwait like crap, dust blocking your nose 😉
Did you consider it could be you who has the problem?
Is Kafta like Kufta but in a lebanese accent?
I guess its the influnece of the Zatar Wa Zait staff which were fierd due to the fact they dont know how to make Kafta and now they are screwing the Burger bar and making the same Kafta, since most of them are working there? Maybe Im not sure lets hope we can get answers.
Mark & Yoshi,
Whether its Burger Botique, Burger Hub, Or Burger Bar, the meat quality in this part of the world is crap. Therefore, all of the burger places in here are simply a rip off. Come on, 700fils for a single slider with crappy quality meat!!!
Has anyone heard of FDA standards?! which we are far away from even coming close to it. For the sake of simplicity I have never had a burger or a steak in Kuwait that has FDA quality unless it is an import from parts of the world where they value food and have standards to be implemented.
P.S. A great 4 sliders plate, with fresh salad and great french fries in Manhattan would cost around $15 tax included.
So please stop pretending that meat quality is good in here please.
I never mentioned anything about the meat quality and neither would I know the difference between good and bad meat quality. I am just judging by taste here..
Mark,
Based on nutrition standards, fat is the major driver for taste. The more fat the tastier the food. I dare any of these burger places to state thier nutrition facts. specially the % of fat (saturated and non saturated) and let alone the quality of the meat itself, which we all know we cant judge since there are no measures or standards. taste can be decieving if I load my food with fat.
Im not saying the fat shouldnt be in meat. Im am saying that how much fat there is in one slider or burger?
That is why now Mcdonalds and other major burger places state in thier advertisements that they use the heathiest food but they never state how healthy 😉
When it comes to eating a burger with fries and pepsi, the percentage of fat shouldn’t matter since you know you are eating fatty foods.
I was trying to lose weight and was having a salad, then the percentage of fat in the salad would play an important role.
Can someone tell me why the Burger bar is closed??I went to the place and it is closed ? are they shifting the concept to Sushi?
no snake, most kuwaiti restaurants are NOT “crap”!