2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Yesterday the Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued a decision where all restaurants and cafes in Kuwait will now be obliged to have tap water as an offering. Now that this was announced I realized how odd it was that this wasn’t a thing considering the tap water in Kuwait is actually really clean and safe to drink straight out of the tap.

Years ago I was invited to the Water Resources Development Center located in Shuwaikh where they explained to me how the water sent to homes is clean and safe to drink. The Water Resources Development Center also has two laboratories, a chemistry lab and a bacteriology lab and every single day water samples are collected from various institutions around Kuwait (schools, hospitals, mosques etc..) and delivered to their laboratories for testing. If the water is contaminated, the source of that water is closed down right away and only reopened once the problem has been fixed.

The government is responsible in providing you clean and safe water up until the building meter, after that point it becomes the building owners responsibility. If the water you’re getting at home isn’t clean, thats most likely because of a problem with your building pipes, boilers, or storage tanks. In that case, you’re recommended to use a filter which is what most restaurants will also be using.

But the answer is yes, Kuwait’s tap water is safe to drink but only if your building or home is maintained correctly, if not, you’ll have to use a filter.

A new Korean supermarket opened up last week next to my place in Salmiya call Haeng Bok. It’s a pretty tiny place and it opened in the same place where the clothing store Rima used to be located for nearly 50 years.

Because of the size of the supermarket they only sell Asian products, so you’re not going to find Pepsi for example or any item you can find at your local Coop. That makes it easier to shop but I’m not sure if they have anything you haven’t already seen in Singarea. Because the store is smaller, it just feels more curated than Singarea.

For me this place is convenient because it’s a 2 minute walk from my place so I can drop in pick up noodles or chips easily. Not sure I’d recommend you drive all the way to old Salmiya and spend an hour looking for parking just to shop there, I think it opened just to cater to the neighborhood. If you want to pass by, here is the location on Google Maps. At the moment they’re open from 4PM to 12AM.

An interview with a Michelin Star chef popped up on my TikTok feed last week and he said something really interesting which was basically that food is the third most important thing in a restaurant, with ambiance and service being more important. I think thats true and I realized that while I was putting this list together.

Sometimes I wonder why certain places are always busy while I’m sure other people wonder why I like a certain place, it really comes down to our individual experiences. I eat out pretty much every single day and the list below are some of my favorite places in Kuwait:

Breakfast
Cocoa Room (@cocoaroom) is the spot I go to when I want to have breakfast on a Friday morning while Alf Layla wLayla (@alf_laylawlayla) is the spot I have breakfast with friends midweek when the weather is good (Tip: Bring your own chapati from Sound Indian Restaurant at the roundabout next door).

Healthy-ish
Ever since OVO (@ovokwt) opened their new location in Shuwaikh I’ve loved going there. M.E’AT (@meatkwt) is my don’t think about it, just go build a bowl eat and leave spot.

Kuwaiti
Al Shemam (@alshemam1) is mine and everyones favorite with delicious grilled fish options and kebabs but I also really like Midar (@midar.me) in The Avenues.

Italian
Vigonovo (@vigonovo_kw) has been my go-to spot for the past 7 years ago but this past year I’ve been bouncing between them and Leccino (@leccino.kw).

Asian
EDO (@edo_restaurant) is my favorite Japanese right now while Great China Wall (@chinagreatwallrestaurant) is my favorite Chinese/Hot Pot spot.

Indian
Cardamon Club (@cardamom.club) is my favorite “fancy” Indian place while Paratha King (@paratha_king) is my hole in the wall.

My Comfort Food
Tampopo (@tampopo.ramenshop) because it’s simple and right next to my house. I still love Solo Pizza (@solopn) even though there are a lot more pizza places nowadays. And finally, one of my favorite restaurants in Kuwait, Oak & Smoke (@oakandsmoke). I would also have added Five Guys here if it wasn’t a franchise.

These are my favorite spots, let me know if your favorite place should have been on my list.

This past week other than Yellowstone I started watching Yellowjackets again. I had stopped at episode 8 a couple of years ago because I was finding it super boring and decided I’d give it a shot again. Nothing has changed, I still find it uninteresting but I’m just powering through and using it as background TV.

On the other hand I did start rewatching Reno 911! from the start. I’d only watched it when it had originally come out and remember it was hilarious, all those years later it’s still as funny and the jokes all hold up. Only issue is I realized Peacock crops the footage so it fits the 16:9 aspect ration so it all feels too zoomed in and also it’s not HD.

What have you been watching?

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
The Collective (3.2)
The Nun II (6.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Blue Beetle (6.8)
Cats Museum (4.4)
Elemental (6.8)
Gran Turismo (7.0)
Meg 2: The Trench (6.0)
Oppenheimer (8.7)
Retribution (5.5)
Sound of Freedom (7.8)
The Dive (5.6)
The Equalizer 3 (6.9)
The Hero of Centopia (6.2)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Bringing Up Baby (7.8)
Space Jam (6.5)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

This is a completely random tidbit that popped up on my feed this morning. Renan Barao, the former UFC bantamweight champion is making his return to the fighting scene after leaving the UFC 4 years ago with a fight next month here in Kuwait. Source

Barao will face Peter Ligier in the main event of Fera Championship’s debut card on October 7. I checked the @ferachampionship Instagram account and it’s still empty as of this post with just a mention in the profile that says the event is on October 6 & 7.

If you’re a UFC fan this looks like it might be a pretty interesting event to go to.

I wasn’t planning to sign up for a new phone line, I was playing around with the Red Bull Mobile app checking out their prices for my post when I decided to just get a new number. Mainly because I wanted to separate my blog number from my personal one, but also because it would give me the opportunity to experience the process for my post.

Red Bull Mobile is Zain and it’s not a secret since it’s plastered in all their communication. It’s also why their prices are pretty similar with Red Bull having a slight edge. Below are the cheapest and most expensive Red Bull Mobile ready plans:

Cheapest:
– 100GB (4G)
– 100 Local Minutes
Price is 6KD a month or 4.2KD a month if you sign up for 6 months

Most Expensive:
– Unlimited GB (5G)
– Unlimited Minutes
– Free Gold Number
Price is 18KD a month or 12.6KD a month if you sign up for 6 months

I went with the unlimited package just so I could pick a gold number that had the digits 248 in it. I don’t really need an unlimited package since I have one with my personal Zain line, so I will be downgrading to the cheapest plan I can get next month.

The process of getting a number was super easy and quick. You just pick a plan in the app and then when you’re ready to check out, the app uses your Mobile ID to authenticate and connect the new number to your Civil ID. You then just pay and choose if you want to install the number as an eSIM, or if you want to have a physical SIM card delivered to you. I chose eSim and a few moments later I got an email with the QR code so I could install the number.

So what are some benefits? If you renew your plan on-time you get double the benefits in the second month, and triple in the third. Your remaining GBs and minutes also rollover to the following month. You get access to special zones at local Red Bull events and access to Red Bull TV. Finally, you also get access to some interesting Red Bull rewards. For example, there is a draw coming up for a trip to Qatar to watch the Formula1 race. So F1 fans like me and sports fans in general will most likely benefit from these rewards.

And that’s pretty much it. If you have any questions about the sign up process or want me to test anything out, let me know in the comments. Here is a link to their website.

The Restaurant & Bar Design Awards announced their list of winners for the Middle East & Africa category, and one of my favorite designed places in Kuwait just won.

Abuelo which was designed by Studio Nesef and is located in The Avenues won the award for the best designed cafe. I’m glad it did because I really do believe it is one of the nicest designed places in Kuwait. When it first opened I actually messaged Studio Nesef to let them know how much I liked the interior, it’s so visually interesting.

If you’ve never come across the place, it’s located in the alleyway adjacent to % Arabica in Avenues Phase 4.

To check out who else won, visit @restaurantandbardesignawards

AMG are beginning their new season with Mozart concertos at the new AUK theatre. If you’re looking for something to do and are interested to hear their orchestra perform, tickets are now on sale. The back row seats are for 15KD while the front row ones are for 20KD.

To get your tickets, click here.

Whenever I flip through old newspaper there are random things that always catch my attention. Recently while flipping through a 1976 issue of Kuwait Times I came across this ad for what supposedly is (according to the ad), the first Chinese restaurant in Kuwait. Never heard of it and can’t find anything online about it either. I can’t even find the building it was located in.

If anyone has any information about “Golden Nest”, let me know!

Update: I found another ad (above) and this one has a map. So I tried to figure out where the restaurant used to be located and if Al Shuhada Street used to be called Al Hilal Street back in 1976, then I think Golden Nest was located in the same block as where Al Assima Tower and Solo Pizza are located today. I overlapped the map onto Google Maps and if you line up the streets and roundabouts they match. Whoever drew the map though placed Shaab gate on the wrong corner of the intersection though.

Back in 1978, James Brown came to Kuwait and performed over 7 days at Al-Andalus Cinema in Hawalli. The event was organized by a person called Hussein Abul who over the years had brought other performers to Kuwait including Boney M, Demis Roussos, and Santa Esmeralda.

I also heard an unconfirmed story that Hussein had also signed a contract with Michael Jackson to come to Kuwait, but due to cultural changes in Kuwait taking place at that time, concerts started to get banned and Hussein ended up moving to Brazil permanently.

The James Brown event on the other hand was a huge success to the point the organizers had to add more performance slots. Saif Abu Baker from the local band The Scorpions used to be managed by Hussein and ended up getting the job of driving James Brown around since Saif spoke both English and Arabic. That opportunity later got Saif to play bass on the track Super Bad with James Brown on stage.

I’ve previously found newspaper clippings of the concert but only in Arabic. But, thanks to @kuwaittimes giving me access to their archive, I managed to find a few ads for the event as well as two articles.

“Had not the Andalus authorities exercised diplomacy on the audience, the cinema hall would have turned into a dance hall when the celebrated musician James Brown made his debut in Kuwait yesterday. – Kuwait Times, Dec 1978”

The ticket prices for the concert ranged from KD2 to KD10 which in todays money would be around 10KD to 50KD which is actually a pretty good deal.

Rawan Alsaffar, a Landscape Architect published a paper recently that had an interesting story which I hadn’t come across before, the first flood from back in 1934. The flood caused a lot of physical and political damage which was felt for years to come and although tt’s a bit of a long read, the paper does cover more than just the flood. Here is the link.

A scan of a postcard from 1972 showing the beautiful Commercial Bank of Kuwait building from back then. For more old postcards, click here.

I was just made to take down the post on Al Shaheed Park Phase 3. I do have a strict policy of not removing posts but didn’t have a choice in this matter, sorry about that.

While writing this post up I realized I haven’t really watched a lot of TV this week, not unless you count TikTok as TV. Other than catching up on shows like Foundation and Physical the only new show I watched this week was Yellowstone. Binge watching it and I’m liking it so far. I kinda was hoping it would be background TV but it does need a bit of focusing.

What have you been watching?

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Puppy Love (6.3)
Retribution (5.5)
The Hero of Centopia (6.2)
The Dive (5.6)
The Equalizer 3 (6.9)

Other Movies Showing:
Blue Beetle (6.8)
Cats Museum (4.4)
Elemental (6.8)
Gran Turismo (7.0)
Haunting of the Queen Mary (4.9)
Meg 2: The Trench (6.0)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (8.2)
Oppenheimer (8.7)
Sound of Freedom (7.8)
The Adventures of Jurassic Pet (3.7)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (6.5)
The Secret Kingdom (5.0)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (7.4)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Bringing Up Baby (7.8)
Space Jam (6.5)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

The building that used to house Elevation Burger and M’EAT on the Seef Strip just got demolished. No idea why, or whats going to take its place but I really like that strip and the area in general so its pretty disappointing it was demolished.

But, as I was discussing with someone on twitter, since the Ice Skating Rink and Entertainment City got demolished I no longer care as much about landmarks getting demolished. It’s become so normalized I’m just like that sucks 🤷🏼‍♂️ and a minute later I’m back to flipping through TikTok aimlessly.

I used to joke with a friend about that location being jinxed since everything that opened there always fails. But, Elevation had some great days there especially when they had their events.