2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
The Avenues mall opened in Kuwait back in April 2007, 15 years ago! I was looking back through my old posts and I think IKEA actually opened there at the end of 2006, before the rest of the mall was open since I posted about my first visit to it.
Over the years Avenues kept expanding and growing to become one of the coolest malls in the region and even the world. It’s one of my favorite places in Kuwait.
Tim Hortons, the popular Canadian coffee chain is making a comeback in Kuwait after closing down all its locations a few years ago. They’re now coming back to the market with at least two new locations, one in Bida’a next to Melenzane and a second in Kuwait City next to Muthana Complex.
The UAE company Apparel Group is the master franchisee of the Tim Hortons brand in the Middle East. They also have a number of other brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Aldo, Jamie’s Italian, Cold Stone Creamery, and Rituals.
Thanks Basel
Below is the list of events for this weekend. As usual if I missed anything please let me know in the comments:
Thursday
Exhibition: I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi
Exhibition: “The Mystic Letters” By Antonella Leoni
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Expo
3rd GCC Games
Musical: MAMMA MIA!
Kuwaiti Women’s Week
Hoop Dreams
Movies at the Park: A Night at the Museum
FILA Opening Event
Friday
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Expo
3rd GCC Games
Musical: MAMMA MIA!
Kuwaiti Women’s Week
Hoop Dreams
Saturday
Exhibition: I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi
Grand Mosque Tour
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Expo
3rd GCC Games
Musical: MAMMA MIA!
Kuwaiti Women’s Week
Trash Hero: Messilah Beach Clean Up
Sea Trip: Sunrise Breakfast Cruise
The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:
New This Weekend:
Room 203 (4.5)
The Last Victim (5.3)
The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (4.9)
Top Gun: Maverick (8.7)
Yakari (6.4)
Other Movies Showing:
Fireheart (6.1)
Firestarter (4.6)Memory (5.6)
Samsam (5.0)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (6.9)
The Bad Guys (7.0)
The Batman (8.1)
The Cellar (5.3)
The Northman (7.5)
The Twin (5.0)
Classic Movies Showing:
Gladiator (8.5)
The films below are also showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:
IMAX Movies Showing:
Antarctica
Asteroid Hunters 3D
Ocean Odyssey
Turtle Odyssey
Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
As of this post, Kuwait is currently leading the 3rd GCC Games with 69 points and 25 gold medals. The games end on the 31st and there are still a lot of medals to grab so Kuwait isn’t in the clear yet. To stay posted on the games visit kuwait2022.org
Back in February, a Kuwaiti lawyer filed a lawsuit against the MOC demanding the blocking of Netflix due to the Arabic movie Perfect Strangers. The lawyer believes the movie goes against local religious and moral values and so wants Netflix banned in Kuwait. Well, the first day of the hearing is today.
I highly doubt Netflix will get banned but you never know here. Good luck Kuwait!
The Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre is hosting four evening events dedicated to Kuwaiti women who have made a difference in various fields. Starting at 7 PM every night for the next four nights there will be guest speakers covering a variety of subject matter:
Wednesday: Community
Thursday: Health Wellness & Lifestyle
Friday: Creative Entrepreneurship
Saturday: Parenting & Education
This event is free of charge but requires prior registration.
Check out the full program and guest speakers here.
To register for the event, click here.
Threadless is an online community of artists and an e-commerce website
teeplus is a local website that plays two roles, it allows you to buy apparel using local designs, and it allows you to sell apparel using your own original designs. It’s similar to the popular website Threadless except it’s local.
Buy Tshirts by Local Artists
The website contains hundreds and hundreds of designs submitted by various artists and designers with many of them being localized designs or ideas which makes them unique. Prices are pretty good with t-shirts starting at 9KD and sweatshirts for 15KD.
Sell & Create
As an artist, you can also make money by selling products that use your design ranging from t-shirts and sweatshirts to tote bags and phone covers. The way it works is you create an account, upload your design and then decide what you want to apply the design too. For every product, you sell through the website you make a profit ranging from 15% to 20%.
Even though teeplus is not a new idea, it’s still a great initiative since it creates an outlet for local artists to be able to generate money using their work. I’ve already added a whole bunch of t-shirts to my cart and still browsing for more as of this post. If you want to check out the designs or buy a t-shirt, the website is teeplus.co
One of the guys at my office just shot this pretty cool timelapse of the dust storm hitting the city. We had a great view since our office looks out at the sea so we saw the storm coming from the North. Check it out below.
Shot by @Oa4_
Staged in Kuwait, the popular local English community theatre group is ending its tenth season with a warm and wonderful production of the smash-hit musical, “Mamma Mia!”.
Packed with ABBA hits, Mamma Mia! promises to leave you with a smile on your face. The musical is going to be fun and will be taking place over 6 days with tickets starting at KD7.5. The first performance is this coming Thursday so you need to hurry and book now since they’re close to being sold out.
If you’re interested, here is the link.
My favorite Bahraini grills spot is still Ghadeer al Bahrain in Salmiya, even though after the pandemic they had to increase their prices by around 100 fils. But last night, I decided to try another Bahraini grills spot in the city called Tekka Lumee. This past winter whenever I drove by Tekka Lumee in the evening it would be super packed with people, they actually had to expand their outdoor seating and double the size because of their popularity. I was with a friend in the city last night and we were originally planning to walk over to Little Ruby’s for dinner when we decided to give Tekka Lumee a shot.
Tekka Lumee is a small place across the street from the newly opened Assima Mall. Unlike Ghadeer al Bahrain which has been around for 30+ years, Tekka Lumee is a new concept that opened up over a year ago. Their menu has a pretty good variety of items and you can check it out online here. We ended up getting hummus to start with and Tekka Lumee grills, Tekka Yogurt, Kebab Special and Special Tawooq for the mains.
A couple of minutes after placing the order the food started coming out. First the freshly baked Irani bread with the hummus, and then all the grills. If you’re hungry and don’t want to wait too long for your food then this is the place to come to. I quickly started digging into the food and right away knew what I liked and what I wouldn’t order again. Both the Tekka Lumee and Tekka Yogurt were great, especially the Tekka Lumee which had great flavor. The Tawooq was the third-best item, I usually wouldn’t order chicken at a Bahraini grills place but was curious to try it here but wouldn’t have it again. The most disappointing item though was the kebab, it was fairly dry, a bit bland, and was the only thing that we didn’t finish on the table. It sucks because I usually like ordering kebab with my tikka but wouldn’t do so again here.
Even though Ghadeer al Bahrain is a low-end hole-in-the-wall restaurant, I do feel like I have to compare it with Tekka Lumee only because they both basically sell the same food. Pricewise Tekka Lumee is surprisingly pretty good, their grills are around KD2.500 a plate and contain 5 skewers. What is important to point out is their skewers are longer than that of Ghadeer and contain more meat, so you could say close to double the size of Ghadeer’s. This means price-wise it’s fairly competitive to Ghadeer Al Bahrain even though it’s a much nicer (cough cleaner cough) place with a better dining experience. Tastewise the tikkas at Tekka Lumee were great but the kebab as I mentioned was a disappointment. The kebab at Ghadeer is much better but I’d still go back to Tekka Lumee for the other items (and for the bread which was crazy good). The total for two people including 3 drinks came out to around 13KD. If you want to check the place out, their Instagram account is @tekka.lumee, and here is their location on Google Maps.
If you’re looking for something to do tonight check out the Hoop Dreams exhibition opening at Sadu House:
Hoop Dreams is an exhibition showcasing basketball hoops as creative installations that integrate elements of basketball with art. Concepts for these hoops include local patterns of Sadu as well as traditional fishing nets and pearl colored basketballs that represent Kuwaiti culture.
The exhibition opens tonight at 7PM and will be running until May 27. For more information check out the Sadu House Instagram account @saduhouse
Saveco supermarket no longer have any locations left open and their Instagram hasn’t been updated since April. Their original location in Al-Rai which opened back in 2014 was demolished a few months ago, their Avenues location closed down last month, and their Wholesome Foods organic supermarket concept in Salmiya has now been taken over by Sultan Center.
I used to pass by their Avenues location whenever I visited the mall since they were on my way out when heading to my car, but during the pandemic, it was also my favorite supermarket to go to since it was always empty while most other places were overcrowded and chaotic. They were meant to open a new “Urban Market” in Shuwaikh but I’m not sure if that’s still happening. My contact at Saveco no longer works there and when I asked them on Instagram about it they didn’t respond to me. The sign is still up so maybe they decided to close all their locations and just focus on this new concept, we’ll have to wait and see.
No idea what’s going on but this weekend is jam-packed with events and things to do. Check out the full list below and as usual if I missed anything, let me know!
Thursday
Exhibition: I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Expo
French Diwaniya
Dear Zoo Live!
Friday
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Expo
3rd GCC Games
Kids Workshop: What is a Rainbow?
Kids Workshop: What is Light?
Suns of Beaches 2022
Dear Zoo Live!
TrashTag Beach Cleanup – Shuwaikh Beach
Kuwait Music Academy Gala Concert 2022
SUP Race Series
Saturday
Exhibition: I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi
Grand Mosque Tour
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Expo
3rd GCC Games
Peak 2022 Vertical Race
Summer Music Nights
Shakespeare By Candlelight
International Museum Day Art & Eco Friendly Bazaar
Authenticity Storytelling with Bibi AlSabah
Artists & Muscians Open Day
Our Coffee Trip
Dear Zoo Live!
The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:
New This Weekend:
Random Act Of Violence (5.2)
Survive (4.6)
The Cellar (5.3)
The Northman (7.5)
Other Movies Showing:
Fireheart (6.1)
Firestarter (4.6)
Memory (5.6)
Morbius (5.1)
Samsam (5.0)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (6.9)
The Bad Guys (7.0)
The Batman (8.1)
The Lost City (6.6)
The Twin (5.0)
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (7.5)
Classic Movies Showing:
Gladiator (8.5)
The films below are also showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:
IMAX Movies Showing:
Antarctica
Asteroid Hunters 3D
Ocean Odyssey
Turtle Odyssey
Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.