2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Coucou and Tiger Tiger are two new restaurants that are opening next week. Coucou is a breakfast and brunch spot while Tiger Tiger is a Pan-Asian restaurant. They’ll both be operating from the same location in Kuwait City, with one brand running in the morning while the other in the evening.

I tried both places yesterday and they visually looked like two very different restaurants even though it’s just the lighting that changes. While Coucou is bright and colorful during the day, Tiger Tiger has a completely different look at night with red ambient lighting and louder music playing.

Coucou is a breakfast and brunch spot but will also have a grab and go aspect to it for employees working in the area that don’t have time to sit and eat. Their menu consists of a variety of egg-based dishes including interesting ones like breakfast quesadillas, croque madame and spicy sausage shakshuka. Their opening hours will be from 8AM to 2PM.

Tiger Tiger isn’t a new brand, they’ve had a couple of pop-up events before and they’ve been on Carriage since last year. But they’re now going to have dine-in and a lot more new items on the menu. I loved the space at night with the moody red lights, good music and the night view of the street outside. It didn’t feel like I was in Kuwait while having dinner, and then when I walked out of the place, it felt like I was walking out of a pub or club. Such an odd feeling to get in Kuwait. Tiger Tiger’s opening hours will be from 4PM to 11PM.

I love the location of the restaurant, it’s located in the same building as Habra and Joa, but it’s right at the start of the building with large windows that overlook the busy road. Both restaurants close on Sundays and they’re both having trials this week with the aim of opening by next Monday. So if you’re looking for a breakfast spot in the city or a Chinese restaurant that is a step up from your average hole in the wall, it’s worth checking the place out. You can check them out on instagram @coucou.kw @tigertiger.kw

Here is their location on [Google Maps]

According to Avenues, phase 4 will be opening at the end of the month. They wouldn’t give me an exact opening date but I heard from one of their contractors that internally, they’re aiming to open on March 25th if nothing changes.

All construction related work will stop on March 15th so that they can then start the cleaning process. The two photos in this post were taken this week.

Update: I received a copy of a letter sent by Avenues to its investor with an opening date of March 22nd. [Source]

A Redditor spotted a Tesla charging station in the Al Shaheed Parking lot. We don’t have a Tesla dealer in Kuwait so I was curious to how this station came to be. Turns out it was donated to the park by a Tesla owner as a way to support the growing local EV (electric vehicles) community. The charging station is located in the basement of Al Shaheed Park 1 and the spot is reserved only for electric vehicles. Owners of any electric vehicle can park their cars in that spot and use the station to charge their cars for free. And yes, you can use the Tesla charging station to charge other electric vehicles like the Chevy Bolt or BMW i3 if you have the correct adapter.

A fighting game community (FGC) is a group of video gamers who get together to play fighting games like Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. FGC Diwan is one of Kuwait’s first fighting gams community with a dedicated streaming and tournament room.

Even though they’ve been open for around a month, they’ve already hosted their first event, a Dragon Ball Fighter Z Tournament where 13 entrants competed for first place.

Pricing is pretty reasonable:

2 Hours = KD 1
7 Hours = KD 3
12 Hours = KD 5

If you’re interested in fighting games and competing, check out their instagram @fgcdiwan

They’re also active on Twitch @fgcdiwan

This post is a throwback for those who’ve been reading the blog from the early days. Do you remember my posts on Shark of Kuwait? He was an interesting looking character that used to always park his vintage blue Buggati outside Starbucks opposite Fanar in Salmiya. Not sure what reminded me of him but I decided to check and see if he was on instagram and turns out he was! So if you want to see what he’s been up to for the past 10 years, check him out @sharkofkuwait

I should probably put together a series of posts called “Where are they now?” in which I get in touch with previously popular personalities I’ve featured on the blog and see what they have been up to. Like where is Big D??

Founded in 1868, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest is one of the oldest musical institutions in Eastern Europe and they’ll be coming to Kuwait at the end of the month to perform at JACC.

The George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing over three nights in Kuwait, from March 29th to March 31st. Because going to an orchestra isn’t a common thing in Kuwait yet, JACC were able to convince the orchestra to create a tailored program that would connect more with a local audience. The first night will feature their standard program, but the last two nights will have a slightly different one.

Amani Al-Hajji, the popular Kuwaiti opera singer will be collaborating with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and performing two songs on the second and third nights. In addition to collaborating with Amani, the Philharmonic orchestra will also be performing 15 minutes of Kuwaiti songs on the last two nights.

To make the event even more accessible to the general public, JACC have also made the ticket prices affordable with prices starting from KD15 and going up to KD55 for the platinum seats.

So if like me you’ve never watched a live orchestra performance before, this would be a great opportunity. For more info and tickets, you can check out the JACC website [Here]

On Friday (which was probably the hottest day of the year so far), my FJ’s air conditioning stopped working. Luckily the weather wasn’t that hot but it was still an annoyance. What was going to be more annoying though was getting it fixed. I hate taking the car to the dealership since it’s such a time-consuming process. You need to drop the car off, leave it for a few days, cab it back and forth to the garage and I just didn’t want to go through all that hassle. So I decided to try and fix the problem myself.

I kinda had an idea what the problem was. When I turned the air conditioning on no air would come out so I figured it had to do with the AC blower motor. So I googled it and found people who had similar issues like mine and the solution turned out to be one of two things:

1) Blower motor resistor failure
2) Blower motor module failure

The first one controls the speed of the fan, the second is what actually gives out the air. I watched a few videos and both seemed fairly easy to replace so I got my tools and headed to the Toyota parts dealer in Shuwaikh. First, I decided to check the resistor since it was the cheaper part of the two to replace (around KD4). I took it apart and it looked like it was still in good condition. Realizing it must be the blower motor, I walked into the parts dealer to buy a new motor. Fifteen minutes later I was out in the parking lot installing the part which was located under the glove box and connected with just three screws. Super easy swap and once I was done, I turned on the AC and it was working again. I got it all sorted by myself and even though it was an easy swap, I felt like I had accomplished so much. The new motor cost me KD59, I didn’t have to pay anyone for labor and more importantly I didn’t have to drop off my car at the dealership for a few days.

If you like Lego or putting together IKEA cabinets then you should try fixing things yourself. Everything is online nowadays including repair manuals and step by step video guides. If you also own an FJ Cruiser, here is a link to the dealerships [FJ Cruiser Repair Manual]

Not a lot of events this weekend but there are a couple of live performances taking place that are free to attend including the musical The Revenge of Peter Rabbit and the Armenian State String Quartet Aram Khachaturian. Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
SnowTown in K-Town
IWD Hackathon 2018
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Intouchables

Friday
SnowTown in K-Town
The Revenge of Peter Rabbit
Red Bull Car Park Drift
Armenian State String Quartet Aram Khachaturian

Saturday
SnowTown in K-Town
The Revenge of Peter Rabbit
QRun Kids Marathon 2018
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Live Music at Key’s Coffee
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Florida Project

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Borg McEnroe

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Borg McEnroe (7.0) ♦
Bullet Head (5.2) ♦
Cold Moon (4.3)
Cops and Robbers (3.9)
Hangman (5.1)
The Oddsockeaters (5.9)
The Shape of Water (7.6) ♦ ★

Other Movies Showing:
Black Panther (7.2)
Black Water (N/A)
Coco (9.1)
Death Wish (6.4)
Game Night (7.4) ♦
Gnome Alone (6.0)
Journey’s End (7.3)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ♦ ★
The Greatest Showman (7.9)
Wolf Warrior 2 (6.3)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

My friends @kickstq and @supersoulxxx have a cool event taking place tonight called Desert Run. They’ll be screening Space Jam outdoors adjacent to Arabica in Arraya, and they’ll also have a sneaker cleaning station as well as a basketball arcade machine with prizes that include Off-White for Nike, Adidas Yeezy Boost, Supreme and more. So if you’re interested and want more details, click [Here]

Alan Villiers (spot him above) was an Australian adventurer who came to Kuwait in the 1930s. He ended up joining the crew of the Kuwaiti dhow ‘Triumph of Righteousness’ and set sail with them, passing through numerous East African and Arabian ports documenting his experience with words and pictures. He eventually published the book “Sons of Sindbad” as well as “Sons of Sindbad: The Photographs”. I only found out about Alan a couple of days ago and was really intrigued by his story especially since I hadn’t heard of him before.

You can find both his books on Amazon [Here] and [Here] but, you can also find some great photos of Kuwait taken by him in the 1930s similar to the ones in this post. The photos are from the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich) and are available to purchase. So if you want to check out Alan’s photos of Kuwait, click [Here]

Supposedly there are still thousands of photos taken by him of Kuwait that need to be digitized.

Update: Supposedly both books are available for sale at the Al Hashemi Marine Museum.

Cinescape is putting together an Oscars film festival next week where you’ll be able to binge watch 10 award-winning films that include:

· The Shape of Water
· Coco
· I, Tonya
· Phantom Thread
· Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
· Loving Vincent
· The Insult
· Get Out
· Darkest Hour
· The Post

The film festival is taking place from March 11 to March 14th at Cinescape Laila Gallery in Salmiya. The ticket cost for this festival is KD10 (that will get you access to watch all the films). For more information and the film schedule, click [Here]

The Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC) will officially be opening to the public next week on Wednesday, March 14th. The cultural center houses a Space Museum, Science Museum, Natural History Museum and an Islamic Museum so I’m super excited to check it out.

To stay posted you can follow them on instagram @ascc_kw

Tamara is a really good friend of mine and I have no idea why I never posted about her before. She’s a super talented musician and she just released her first music video for her upcoming EP, Dust Bathing. The animated music video has been shortlisted and won awards at different film festivals and was directed and animated by the talented Pablo Lozano. [YouTube]

You can stay in touch with Tamara by following her on instagram @tamaraqaddoumi

Late last year, Burger & Lobster closed down their location in the Avenues and relocated to a new spot in the city. Over the weekend, that new spot opened up and I really like the location. The new Burger & Lobster is located near Arabica where Cereal Killer used to be, so it’s a convenient location to pop in for a quick lunch or dinner.

Burger & Lobster is open from 8AM to 11PM on weekdays, and 8AM to 12AM on weekends. You can follow them on instagram @burgerandlobsterkuwait