Every night as part of my diet I am allowed to only eat grilled food and veggies. After the gym the most convenient thing for me to pick up is grills from either Turkish Grill, Kebabji or Villa Fayrouz Express. I usually call them from the gym parking lot and by the time I get to them the food is ready for me to pick up. Recently Kebabji increased their prices which annoyed me since their main competitors offered more for less. I decided to put up this post in hopes of someone from Kebabji reads this and realizes they need to go back to their old pricing.
Below are the three restaurants with some figures I took so I could compare them. The weight of the meat was calculated by placing just the meat on a digital scale and not the whole box. I ordered the exact same dishes from the three restaurants, grilled tikka meat and a side of tabbouleh.
Turkish Grill
Grilled Meat Tikka Cost: KD2.000
Pieces of meat: 15
Weight of meat: 175grams
Tabbouleh Cost: 600fils
Weight of tabbouleh: 272grams
Telephone: 25752565
Villa Fayrouz Express
Grilled Meat Tikka Cost: KD1.950
Pieces of meat: 19
Weight of meat: 196grams
Tabbouleh Cost: 850fils
Weight of tabbouleh: 508grams
Telephone: 25755527/32
Kebabji
Grilled Meat Tikka Cost: KD2.390
Pieces of meat: 12
Weight of meat: 66grams
Tabbouleh Cost: 950fils
Weight of tabbouleh: 295grams
Telephone: 1861616
I took the liberty to plug the figures above into a table for easier comparison. I highlighted the best prices and weight in green while I used red for the worst prices and weight. As you can see Villa Fayrouz Express surprisingly came out to be the best deal. I said surprisingly since between the three it’s actually the least fast foodish. Kebabji on the other hand didn’t fare too well. They had the most expensive prices and the least quantity.
Update: Thanks to a tip from a reader called Environmental, it turns out I can get the grilled tikka from Turkish Grill at half the price. You need to order the grilled meat tikka with “no service” and then the cost amounts to just 850 fils! You don’t get bread, veggies, pickles, hummus or a fancy box, just the meat wrapped in aluminum foil. Now the strange thing is I counted the pieces today and I got 25 pieces of meat, that’s 10 more from the regular which strikes me odd but hey I’m not complaining. That’s over a 50% savings, not bad at all. Below is a picture of the “no service” tikka.
If anyone from Turkish Grill reads this I have one comment, please install a Knet machine at your Salmiya branch. I don’t carry any cash with me most of the time so when I don’t have cash I usually head over to Villa Fayrouz since they accept Knet. There are no Knet machines on my way from the gym to your Salmiya branch.
Update2: It turns out Kebabji have a savings meal which gets you an extra skewer for around 200fils more. Below are the new updated details. Check the following link for more info on this [Link]
Kebabji
Grilled Meat Tikka Cost: KD2.595
Pieces of meat: 18
Weight of meat: 105grams
Tabbouleh Cost: 950fils
Weight of tabbouleh: 295grams
Telephone: 1861616
And here is the updated chart:
43 replies on “Turkish Grill vs Kebabji vs Villa Fayrouz Express”
Out of the three above I like the taste of Kebabji, however I agree they are over priced and their portions suck. Off the topic I’m really loyal to Palm Palace as their quality and quantity is always consistent (not using a scale :p )
villa fayroz is the best
Please suggest the best dinner items.
Let’s put the price and quantity on a side and take the most important factor which is “Taste”
1- Turkish Grill
2- Villa Fayroz
3- Kababji
I love turkish grill, they opened up in Salwa first and i was one of their few daily customers 🙂 Then i believe they switched owners once they became successful and started opening up more branches, so far i’ve just seen the one in Salmiya.
Kebabji is a rip off….!their shawermas are so small….
Grilled Meat Tikka Cost: KD2.390
Pieces of meat: 12
Weight of meat: 66grams
Too much…..
I hope some @ Kebabji reads this, and Mark will have Kebabji as his sponsor…lol…
is ‘villa fairouz’ same as ‘villa fairuz express’?
if yes, then villa fairuz has one huge advantage over the other two-Shisha!!
Good analysis, thanks. I’ll be avoiding Kababji and will try Villa Fayrouz Express. Turkish Grill is good food!
I have another recommendation from the days when I was hitting the weights. I would finish my workouts late and head to Mughal Mahal at the Marina Mall foodcourt and order the mixed chicken grill, no butter no oil. Very tasty with the Indian spices and healthy.
Flavor wise Villa Fayrouz Express has the best meat. Tabbouleh wise I love the Turkish Grill one.
i thought you wrote :TURKISH GORILLA VS…
Kababji is counting on their brand name to sell … they don’t care about quality these days, a truth which will bite them in the ass pretty soon.
well done Mark. Thank you.
I prefer turkiish grill for their great taste service and neatness!:p second comes villa fayrouz .. As for Kababji let’s just keep it to it’s not an option I’d go for
Thanks Mark …but did u checked the origin of the meet in villa fayrouz? Once I asked about their shawerma and it was Indian or chinese ….that’s why it might be cheaper
Kebabji sucks big time. very over priced, small portion,its a lebanan cuisine but most of people work here are not even from lebanan. Turkish Grill taste good. hmmm i feel hungry now 🙂
Who eats Kebabji nowadays? Its over priced, not so tasty, and there are plenty of other good places out there reasonably priced.
Kebabji is probably the worst Grill food chain in Kuwait, overpriced for such small portions. They better call it Kid-babji, even a kid will feel offended at the portions they serve.
Turkish Grill is gr8 btw 😀
We order our family dinner from Kebabji almost weekly… Their quality is good, but I agree with the comment about relying on their brand. They needed a wake-up call and this fantastic post should not be ignored.
Good one, Mark. The perfect mix of a nerdy and effective comparison. Love it.
Hey mark since you order Grilled Meat Tikka .. I know a trick in Turksih Grill .. go there and order a plate of Grilled Meat Tikka without service (with no veggies and no BIG box like the one they usually give u) they will only give you the grilled tikka on al aluminum plate..
Just tell them I want Meat Tikka with no service 🙂
COSTS 850 Fils! you save 1.150 KD!
Try Babak (22255222) I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
I totally love it that you compared apples to apples and gave the matrix showing the best value for the dinar.
This is a “World Class” post. This is what I think real blogging should be. Nicely presented, well done Mark!!
Kababji’s amount of food is a joke!!!
Turkish Grill’s Tabbouleh weight should be in RED.
And as long as we are talking of Tabbouleh, this awesome “Tabbouleh Song” is a must-watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FaNzrtu0KM
above 3… i love the taste of TG… really good… + u have the option of making is a bit spicy… using the tangy tomato spiced sauce… +1
KebabJI always been a disappointment, the quantity is less + the taste is ok… shish tawook sucks too dry, tikka is ok -1
Villa Fayrouz express havnt tried em yet might try em this weekend 😀 -+
ì have Turkish Grill 5mins away from my place.. but neva got chance to eat :S :X
looks good will surely try it.
Am boycutting Kababji starting today .. I am also in a diet and realized that Kababji does not satisfy my taste buds nor my hunger. Turkish grill is really tasty and I will try Villa Fayrous soon.
HAHA! Glad I rubbed off on you 😛
Awesome post!
cool way of restaurant comparison. u should start doing more!!! Knowledge is Power!
Hey.. if your in Kuwait city … u must try the grilled items from this restaurant…
MAY- BURMA
(Turkish Restaurant)
Anwar – 66755176, 22413187
really traditional joint… and good grilled n Turkish foods…
WOW I’m shocked!
What is matter most is the nutitional facts 🙂
Who eats Kebabji?
After replacing the X nationality with the Y nationality, it fell down like a dead bird hit by an airplain!
I go with the Turkish 4 sure! Villa firouz (was).
Kebabji was crap from the first day I tried it and has managed to be consistently crap, which is something they should be proud of. yesterday I had a shwerma from MEIAS, some Lebanese food joint and it was great. Pricey for a shwerma, but still better than Kurdo.
I used to order from Kababji on a weekly basis until they raised their prices recently. This is the second raise within 2 years. The prices were already expensive and they are now just outrageous. I wrote a complain on a comment card and put it in the commwnts box along with my mobile number. I was expecting that they care about their customers. However, no body called me and I stopped going there since then. This post made me realize that I made the right decision.
Frankom we know you like turkish grill because they give you free food so stop advertising them
Salam 3alaikom. Really u did a great effort. Thanx buddy
Hats off mayn 4 your work but i like Turkish grill there keebab but their stavuk shish were not upto the mark .They were not prply cooked.
Turkish Grill is probably the tastiest tikka out of the tree.
I could never appreciate Kebabji. The obscene pricing wouldn’t even be a discrediting factor, the food is just–so horribly prepared.
I recommend trying out Al-Roomi (the place opposite rehab complex). Their grilled food is delicious! especially the shawarma and the 3aaraies. Caesar’s as well has a nice selection of indian grilled food.
As for kebabji, I believe that over the years both their service and quality have decreased dramatically.
Knet machine is there in salmiya before turkish grill… on the 5th ring petrol pump…. 😀 but yes they do need to install one… agreed!
Good Job Mark:)
That’s mean the best 3 grill stores (delivery concept) in Kuwait are Turkish Grill, Kabab-ji and Villa Fayrouz Express ??
Mark we need a comparison the last 3 grill stores with Babak and Tikka !! and if it’s possible to compare the quanities, quality, taste, packing & delivery service.
appreciated.
KZ
i was searching in google about the 3 resturents u mentiond, i found a very nice website for Turkish Grill: http://www.tgkuwait.com
kabab-ji & Villa Fayrouz Express no websites !!
Dear Mark, Readers and Valued Kabab-ji Customers,
We would like to express our sincere respect and appreciation to the blog post comparing Kabab-ji with its competitors as well as the constructive feedback received by the blog readers.
At the start, the comparison shown within the initial blog post was misrepresented, we contacted Mark and he took the kind liberty to amend the post which is now accurate and resembles a fair comparison.
As mentioned within the amended blog post, it is true, we do focus and pride ourselves when it comes to high quality meats that are delivered to our customers at the highest quality standards.
We are passionate about our meat and care about where it comes from. We distinguish ourselves within Kuwait by utilizing Australian bobby veal meat which is an extremely tender & lean nutritious meat produced in South-Eastern Australia , inspected and certified for export by AQIS (Australian Government Quarantine and Inspection Service) and AUSMEAT (Meat-Standards Australia). No meat leaves Australia without accreditation and certification by the above bodies, on every shipment.
Being meticulously selected from Australia, our Hallal bobby veal meat is unbeatable in terms of quality. Most importantly, the animals used are growth hormone and antibiotic-free, are fed a vegetarian diet and of course, are humanely raised.
Furthermore, once the meat arrives to Kuwait, our production facility specialists handle it with utmost respect and attention to the BRC standards which is a leading global product safety and global certification program, which our production facilities strictly follow on a daily basis. You can read more about BRC on their website: https://www.brcglobalstandards.com/
In the end, yes, we may be a bit more expensive when it comes to our products, but our customers are also paying for unparalleled quality and flavour, with safety measures on a global standard.
Thank you once again for your initiative and we will do our best to continue offering our valued customers with the highest quality products and services.
We look forward to receiving feed forward from Kebab-ji fans and comments that can help us improve and better serve our valued customers.
Please do feel free to contact me directly on 97285651 or email me at [email protected]
Best Regards,
Miguel Angel Estevez- Gonzalez
KFG – Group
Director of Operations CD & IDD innovation Officer
Update 3: Kababji 2012/2013 is NOT eadible! It’s such a shame that Lebanese restaurants that are very successful in Lebanon are not maintaining the same quality level they have had when they first opened in Kuwait.
Replacing lebanese chefs with Filipinos or Egyptian chefs or whatever other nationality(with all do respect to these nationalities) just to cut down on labor cost…. they end up loosing all their lebanese customers!