2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Every year I try to put together the most comprehensive list possible, of restaurants in Kuwait that have either a Ramadan buffet or set menu. Below is this years list and like always I’ve highlighted the price increases over the previous year in red, and the decreases in green. Check out the full list of places below:

Abdel Wahab
Buffet Price: KD10
Telephone: 1821000

Al Forno
Set Menu Price: KD9.5
Telephone: 22214996 or 22283498

Al Jahra Copthorne Hotel & Resort – Taima’a Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD12 (+2.000)
Telephone: 24590000

Al Noukhaza Restaurant
Buffet Price (Mangaf): KD11.950
Buffet Price (Shaab): KD14.950 (+2.000)
Telephone: 24757775 or 1823888

Al Sanawbar Lebanese Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD9.950 (+1.000)
Telephone: 25756273

Applebee’s
Set Menu Price: KD8
Telephone: 1844466 or 25381481

Assaha Lebanese Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD11
Telephone: 22533377

Avanti Palace
Set Menu Price: KD3.500 (+0.300) – min 4 people
Telephone: 25751081

Baker and Spice
Set Menu Price: KD8.750
Telephone: 22407707

Burj Al-Hamam
Buffet Price: KD12.5
Telephone: 22529095

Cafe Blanc – The Avenues
Buffet Price: TBD (starts mid Ramadan)
Telephone: 22597568

Courtyard by Marriott
Buffet Price: KD13
Telephone: 22997000

Crowne Plaza – Al Ahmadi Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD14 (+1.050)
Telephone: 1848111

Dar Hamad
Buffet Price: KD13.5
Telephone: 22275555

Hilton Resort – Teatro Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD15.500
Telephone: 22256222

Jeans Grill
Buffet Price: KD7.750 (+0.200)
Telephone: 22264503

Jumeirah Messilah Beach – Garden Cafe
Buffet Price: KD19
Telephone: 22269600

JW Marriott
Buffet Price: KD15 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22455550

Katsuya
Set Menu Price: KD12.5 – serves up to 4 people
Telephone: 22283195/6 or 22214985

Kababji
Set Menu Price: KD5.5
Telephone: 1861616

Kosebasi
Set Menu Price: KD7.50 (-2.250)
Telephone: 22251303

Kuwait Towers
Buffet Price: KD14
Telephone: 22081999

La Brasa Argentinian Grill
Buffet Price: KD13
Telephone: 99052419

Leila
Set Menu Price: KD9.5 (+0.500) – min 5 people
Telephone: 22996414

Max Restaurant
Set Menu Price: KD12 – serves up to 4 people
Telephone: 25750647

Millennium Hotel & Convention – Lamar International Restaurant
Set Menu Price: KD14 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22050505

Movenpick – Free Zone – Bays Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD12 (+0.100)
Telephone: 24610033

Movenpick – Al Bida’a – Breeze Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD15 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22253100

Naranj
Buffet Price: KD12.5 (-0.500)
Telephone: 22268666

Palm Palace
Buffet Price: KD8.9
Telephone: 67009575

Paul
Set Menu Price: KD7.950
Telephone: 22208204

Pop A Loop
Set Menu Prices: KD8 to KD14 (5 menus to choose from)
Telephone: 22271439

Qasr Al-Saraya
Buffet Price: KD8.5
Telephone: 25711101

Radisson Blu – Al Bustan Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD14
Telephone: 25673000

Ruby Tuesday
Buffet Price: KD9.950 (+3.000)
Telephone: 22444454

Saladworks
Set Menu Price: KD5
Telephone: 22201888

Sheraton – Coral Tent
Buffet Price: KD17.250
Telephone: 22422055

Swiss BelHotel Plaza – Al Dallah Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD9
Telephone: 22436686

Symphony Style Hotel
Buffet Price: KD11 (-3.000)
Telephone: 25770000

Tallu Hbabna
Buffet Price: KD10
Telephone: 22200325

The Regency Kuwait – Silk Road Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD18
Telephone: 25766880

Vapiano
Set Menu Price: KD5.550 (+0.600)
Telephone: 22597171

Veranda
Set Menu Price: KD12.450 (+0.450)
Telephone: 22283141

Villa Fayrouz
Buffet Price: KD10 (-3.000)
Telephone: 22650052

Zafran
Buffet Price: KD7.5
Telephone: 22285203 or 97281007

Zahr El Laymoun – 360 Mall
Buffet Price: TBD – starts next week
Telephone: 25309511

If you’d like to add a restaurant to the list above [Email Me]

Note: I’ve been adding restaurants to this list as I get emails about them so keep checking the above list for new additions.

Hello everybody and Ramadan Mubarak to you and your families. Since a part of Ramadan is being grateful to the things around you, I thought I would write to let you all know (and Mark) that I am very grateful for the chance I get to connect with you all through 248am and share my legal knowledge.

A lot of my readers are concerned about working hours in Ramadan, yet the law is very clear about the maximum hours. They are 36 hours a week, that averages to 6 hours a day because it is a 6 day working week (usually with Saturdays off as a paid leave).

I know that a lot of businesses have divided their shifts into two, one before and one after iftar, and a lot of you are asking, is this legal? Yes it is as long as you don’t work for more than 36 hours a week (anything more you should be paid overtime with cash and not extra days off, unless that’s what YOU want).

I hope that helped, and I hope you all have a lovely Ramadan.

Feel free to email me on [email protected] with any legal questions. I do not have the capacity to answer everyone for free (but I try), and I am happy to announce that I am currently working with a great team and therefore we are able to reply back to all emails with a reasonable time frame.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

“تفضل” which roughly translates to “come in” is a short documentary on Rihab Complex that was released a couple of months back but I only got to watch it a couple of days ago. For those of you who’ve never been to Rihab Complex, it’s an old shopping complex in Hawalli filled with video game stores. The documentary gives a bit of a rundown on the on the complex as well as interviews some of the shop owners to get their story as well as explanations on why some games are expensive, while EU games are cheaper than US and other things. Sadly the video is in Arabic so if you can’t understand Arabic you’re not gonna get much out of it. [YouTube]

I’ve personally been going to Rihab since the late 90s (when the best gaming console ever the Dreamcast was released). But before Rihab, during my SNES and Game Gear days I used to get all my games from the shops in old Salmiya. There used to be a bunch of great shops in the building right next to mine, I don’t remember their names but I do remember there were three of them, two on the main street and one inside the complex. One of the ones outside used to have a 3DO in the display playing either the Night Trap demo or the original Need for Speed on loop while the store inside the center had a Neogeo on display playing mostly Samurai Showdown. You also had two computer shops upstairs, one called Computer World where I got my original copy of Windows 95 from and the other shop right next door where I used to buy my pirated games from. You’d buy a game and then have to wait for the guy to make copies of it and some games like Duke 3D for example used 13 floppy disks so you had to either go and come back or wait there patiently until he finished copying them. Then you had Burj Al Abyad (White Tower) further down the road which was the gaming center of Kuwait back then with most of the shops also housing arcade machines.

This post is really making me regret selling all my old gaming consoles. All I kept from the bunch are my Game & Watches.

If you really want to step back in time, back in the 80s there used to be a computer shop in Salhiya, I think it was on M1 or M2, it was right across the Korean restaurant that used to be there. I also got my Coleco in the mid 80s from a video game shop in Kuwait City that was located in the hexagon shaped blue glass tower. Kuwait was so different back then.

Looking for somewhere different to travel to during Eid?

Thanks Pat

Starting from today Entertainment City will be closed for renovations. No time estimate was given to when the renovations will be completed but my guess is since they closed it on the first day of Ramadan, then they’ll reopen the park just in time for Eid a month from now. That is unless it’s a major overhaul and the rumors about Six Flags taking over are true then expect it to be closed for awhile. But since nobody goes there anyway, I doubt anyone will notice. I just hope they fix the Australian log ride, that ride has been closed for years and it was the best thing there.

via Frankom

Adidas released the list of official retailers who will be carrying the new YEEZY Boost 750 and Harvey Nichols Kuwait is on that list. The sneakers have a world wide release date of June 11 and an expected retail price of KD105 ($350). Hopefully Harvey Nichols Kuwait won’t be selling them for KD210 since . I doubt they will though since I heard they got into trouble for doing that (thanks to everyone who emailed Adidas complaining). [Link]

Update: The list was edited and Harvey Nichols are now no longer on it. Looks like Harvey Nichols are still banned from carrying the YEEZY’s.

I wonder if that booth at the 30 second mark was the DJ booth for the discotheque that was originally part of the Kuwait Towers plans… [YouTube]

Thanks Mohannad

Back in the early 70s Muhammad Ali came to Kuwait while touring the Middle East on his way to Hajj. The picture above was taken here in Kuwait while he was out dining. No idea what restaurant that is but my friends dad is in the photo.

Thanks Motez!

Maybe a bit too honest…

via @qatami

Not a lot of events taking place in terms of quantity, but quality wise this weekend has some pretty interesting ones taking place. Check out the full list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: What’s Your Location?
Exhibition: Tensile Modulus By Omar Khouri
Movie & Dinner: Robocop
Dreams & Nightmares Illusion Show

Friday
Extreme Stunts Show
Summer Chamber Music
Dreams & Nightmares Illusion Show

Saturday
Extreme Stunts Show
Workshop: Building Your Comic Book World 101
Nutrition Talks
Korean Fan Calligraphy Event
The Last Brunch: A Charity Affair

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 double check info with organizers.

The 2016 edition of the Global Slavery Index was released a couple of days ago and Kuwait came in 108th place. There are an estimated 18,200 slaves in Kuwait at the moment putting Kuwait in 25th place in the “Estimated Proportion of Population in Modern Slavery by Country” list. [Source]

I ain’t surprised.

No idea who TeamHP are or what this video is for and although it looks like a commercial for a local supplement store called Protein & Vitamin, I highly doubt it is. [YouTube]

Thanks LQ!

The Boulevard park/mall/food plaza is now kind of open. Basically right now there is Chilis and 5Napkins open in the food plaza overlooking the lake and thats about it over there. Inside the mall there is only Caribou Coffee right now but according to an employee there a few other stores are supposedly opening in the next few days. So if you’re thinking of passing by might be a good idea to do it next week since its open but not really open right now. If you don’t know where Boulevard is, here is the link on [Google Maps]

For more pictures of Boulevard plus a list of all the stores opening up, click [Here]

The website doesn’t work, I can’t figure out if the website doesn’t exist anymore (it’s an old campaign) or if I spelled it wrong. kuwaitpneumoccocalvaccinationcampaign.com

Thanks Forzaq8

The past few weekends have been pretty exciting for me, I had a Lotus for three of them and then this past weekend I had the new 2017 model year Porsche 911 Carrera S. It was actually perfect timing since I had recently taken out the Lotus Evora which I consider a direct competitor of the 911 so it was a good opportunity to compare the two. This wasn’t my first time in this current generation 911, I had previously raced one around the Dubai Autodrome during the Porsche World Roadshow a few years ago. But this model I drove this past weekend was the face-lifted version which they’re calling the 911 II.

Visually the exterior of the 911 II doesn’t look that different from the previous years with most of it being just aerodynamical upgrades. But, there are some important changes that take place under the hood. The new Carreras are now turbo charged giving both the regular Carrera and the Carrera S an extra 20HP each. This upgrade has allowed the Carrera S to hit 0 to 100km/h in under 4 seconds making it the first Carrera to break the 4 second barrier. The previous model hit 0 to 100 in 4.1 seconds but this new model now does it in just 3.9.

Another major upgrade is the infotainment system which now includes Apple’s CarPlay. I’ve been using CarPlay since 2014 and although it looks pretty, it’s fairly buggy and lacks some important features. Luckily you’ll still be able to use your phone via bluetooth in the Porsche, something I sadly can’t do in my car. An important thing to mention is you now no longer have multiple options of the infotainment system to choose from. I think thats great because end of the day this is a Porsche so you’d expect all the cars to be fitted with the best infotainment system available. But previously what came standard was an infotainment system that lacked features unless you were willing to plough down around 800KD for the proper one. Now all the 911’s come standard with this new system which is great. Finally one more new feature which I personally loved is the new steering wheel with a rotary switch that controls the driving mode similar to that of the Porsche 918. The steering wheel was oddly my favorite thing about this 911, it felt great in my hands and the design will surely look great years down the line, something I can’t say about the older Porsche 911 (996).

The 911 is pretty much flawless, there really isn’t anything I can fault about the car, even the trunk was surprisingly big. The car was fast, lots of fun to drive and the model I drove had a flashy lava orange color with a beautiful black interior. Which reminds me…People of Kuwait I have a request, STOP ordering Porsches with Bordeaux Red or Beige interiors! Please stop it! Seriously there needs to be an intervention. I was so surprised when I realized I was about to get into a 911 with a black interior in Kuwait, I figured it must have been an international Porsche dealer guideline or something. The Porsches interior looks so much sportier and hotter in black, it’s really the only way to go. Anyway, back to what I was saying, the car was fantastic and I can understand why everyone in Kuwait has one, it’s probably the best daily driver sports car you can get.. which is why I don’t think I’d ever buy one myself.

The cars local success is the cars biggest downfall for me. Every other person in Kuwait seems to have a 911. When I want to plucker down KD40,000 for a car I don’t want to blend in with half the population of Kuwait. I mean I get why everyone is buying the car, it makes perfect sense but Kuwait is such a weird place, you’d think these cars were so much more affordable based on the number of them out on the road.

Still that doesn’t stop me from heading over to the local Porsche dealers website every few weeks and building my own car. If you’ve never checked out their website before you should, there is an option to build a Porsche but the best part about it is it will tell you how much it will cost (Jaguar you guys need to add the prices on your website). So I’m on their website every now and then building a Cayman GT4 or a 911 for fun trying to fill it up with options that make sense and offer the most value and I take it fairly seriously as if I’m buying the car even though it’s all just imaginary. After driving the 911 this weekend there is one option I’m taking off the list for sure and thats the KD900 Burmester sound system. It’s not worth it, the car I drove this weekend had it and I was disappointed with the sound. It was extremely boomy and I can’t imagine the stock sound system sounding any worse. Another option I won’t be adding? The Lane Change Assist (a KD210 option), there aren’t any blind spots on the car and anytime the lane change warning light came out, the other car would be in clear sight of me. There are tons of options you can add to the car and they quickly add up. For example the Carrera S starts at a very reasonable KD34,000 but the model I drove costs around KD43,000 because of all the options it had in it. You don’t need door sill guards in stainless steel and illuminated (KD220 option), or the air vent slats painted (KD360 option) or the Porsche crest embossed on the head restraints (KD60 option) or a bunch of other superficial options. So if you hold yourself back with the options you should still be able to get a 911 at a fairly affordable price (for what it is).

I ended up dropping the car back to the dealer earlier then planned, that should basically summarize my feelings towards the car. I’ve driven a ton of cars over my lifetime, a lot of them were dull and a lot of them were exciting. When I took out the Camaro ZL1 or the Lotus Exige, I was a completely different asshole in them, when I took out the Mercedes S-Class I felt like a pimp. But with the 911, I just felt like a boring and responsible person, it didn’t excite me in anyway. On the plus side, they’ve introduced the Miami Blue color which reminds of the old 90s Riviera Blue 911 (993) which was and is my favorite Porsche of all time. FYI, thats the color to get with a full black interior.

Like I said, if you haven’t done so already, head over the Porsche Kuwait website and build your own car [Link]