Review: Caribbean Hut

Caribbean Hut is a small tiny restaurant located in Abu Halifa and owned and run by a Puerto Rican chef who’s helped out by his father. I found out about Caribbean Hut by chance when I accidentally landed on trip advisors top restaurants in Kuwait list and I noticed Caribbean Hut was ranked first. A restaurant I hadn’t heard of ranked first in Kuwait? I knew I had to go check it out for myself.

First things first just so you don’t get mislead by the beautiful food shots. Caribbean Hut isn’t a big fancy restaurant in a nice mall. It’s a small place located in a dodgy part of Abu Halifa, the restaurants surroundings aren’t pretty and the restaurant itself doesn’t have a good looking interior either. They didn’t even have cute Caribbean music playing and the whole place was lit up by cold energy saving lightbulbs. So don’t go there with expectations of fine dining even though the food is very well presented. That’s really the only negative thing I have to say about the place because everything else about it was pretty great.

I got there at 3PM just as they were opening. The chef was there alone since his father works a full time job and only comes by to help once he’s done. I hadn’t had Caribbean food before so I had the chef help us choose our dishes and in the end we decided to go with the following:

— Appetizers —

Chicken Empanadillas
Puerto Rican styled patties deep-fried and prepared with chicken
KD0.500

Beef Empanadillas
Puerto Rican styled patties deep-fried and prepared with beef
KD0.500

Tostones (Plantain Chips)
Deep fried plantains
KD0.750

— Main Course —

Beef Carne
Mashed fried plantains filled with fried beef, seasoned with Caribbean spices, served with white rice
KD1.750

Shrimp Camarrones
Mashed fried plantains filled with sauteed shrimp, seasoned with Caribbean spices, served with white rice
KD3.500

Trinidadian Chicken Curry
Trini style chicken curry served with white rice
KD1.750

— Dessert —

Leche Flan
Made with condensed milk, sweetend milk and caramel
KD0.500

Tembleque
Made with coconut milk, sugar, and cinnamon
KD0.750

From the two Empanadillas I preferred the minced beef and would order that again. Even though they were deep fried they didn’t taste or look oily, if anything they actually looked and tasted like they were oven baked. The Tostones were very interesting and would have even been better if they had salsa on the side to dip them into. They actually do have salsa on their menu but it wasn’t available to order when we were there.

Once we were done with the starters the chef brought over our main courses. We started with the Trinidadian Chicken Curry which was in the menu under the section called “Our Neighbors” alongside the Cuban Stewed Beef and Jamaican Pulled Chicken. The Trinidadian curry tastes fairly different from the traditional Thai or Indian curry and although it was good, after trying the other two dishes I probably wouldn’t order this one again. The Beef Carne and the Shrimp Camarrones were both incredible dishes with lots of new flavors I hadn’t experienced before. The presentation looked great and I wouldn’t be able to choose between the two the next time I pass by. I’d probably order them both again.

Finally when we were done we had our desserts. From the two I preferred Leche Flan which is similar to Creme Caramel and like Creme Caramel, it’s not very exciting. While having the desserts I chatted with the chef who’s the owner as well. I thought they had opened a few months back but turns out in a few days it’s going to be their one year anniversary. It’s pretty surprising how a great place like that has been open for so long and isn’t well known yet.

If you’re looking for something new and different to try then I would definitely recommend Caribbean Hut. The food was great, the owner was really friendly, it’s a small family business and most importantly, it’s not another burger joint. Other than the location there really isn’t anything to complain about. Price wise it’s a steal. We had two starters, three main courses, two desserts and four soft drinks and the total came out to be KD9.550 and that’s mostly because of the shrimp dish which was double the price of anything else on the menu. If you want to find out more about the place or the exact location you can check out their website where they even have their full menu available [Link]