Search: “ace”

Brands for Less is a store located in Salmiya opposite Eureka and NBK. Although they’ve been open for around 2 years now yesterday was the first time I passed by. Nat wanted a kitchen scale and she had heard there was a good one at Brands for Less so we went to check it out. The place although not very big was surprisingly interesting. They had a clothes and shoes section but I stayed downstairs where they had on display various electronics, stuff for the house and just really random stuff. I am trying to name some of the random items I saw but they’re just too many to list out. I mean they even have a unicycle!

The prices are very cheap, the cheapest I’ve seen in the market for what I was looking for and everything or at least the majority of the items were a German brand called Tchibo. All the product descriptions on the packages were also in German so its recommended you take a German speaking friend along. I ended up leaving with a few items my favorite being an Ethernet-Over-Power setup. The package came with three wall adapters and it cost me only KD13! Thats very cheap and although all the instructions were in German I didn’t need to set them up, they worked perfectly out of the box. There was only one more left so if you interested you need to hurry up.

I highly recommend anyone who loves places that carry random stuff to pass by. They’re located in Salmiya and their number is 25752456.

’11’ by Moza Al-Roumi at The Exhibition
On January 11 & 12 from 5PM to 10PM

Moza Al-Roumi is a talented Kuwaiti painter who is fresh out of college. On those two days, she will be displaying her abstract art paintings at The Exhibition. All of her artwork are for sale.

A little info about The Exhibition:
It is located next to Slider Station on ‘The Strip’ across from Alseef Palace in Jibla. It’s a place where artists, entrepreneurs, designers and others can show Kuwait their products and works of art. Whatever they want to exhibit.

Check out the-exhibition.com.kw or call 94066226 for more details.

Upcoming exhibition at The Sultan Gallery:

Beginning in 2005 Aziz + Cucher embarked on an exploration of how to expand their concept of art in order to create all encompassing environments where their dazzling imagery could be translated to a variety of surfaces and mediums. Aziz + Cucher offer now the possibility of not just ‘Living with Art” but of “Living inside Art”.

Aziz + Cucher have developed a highly visual language derived from patterns in the natural world , and with their constant interest in new developments in imaging and rendering technologies, are able to translate their vision to a multitude of materials that include limited edition photographic prints, hand-printed clay coated wallpaper, servo-digital routed and carved polymer panels, digitally printed glass and film for back- lit murals, hand –knotted carpets made of the finest silk and wool, and multi-channel video installations. Each one of these elements carry the distinctive style of Aziz + Cucher, and can be combined and customized in innumerable ways.

Event Info
Name: Aziz + Cucher Studio
Tagline: “Living Insider Art”
Host: Haitham Al-Ghunaim – The Sultan Gallery
Type:Art Exhibit

Time and Place
Start Time: Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 6:00pm
End Time: Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 2:00pm
(Exhibition open from 11am-2pm & 6pm-9pm)
Location: The Sultan Gallery

Here is a map to The Sultan Gallery [Link]
More about Aziz + Cutcher [Link]

Posted by K.

Surprise surprise, yes the Burger Challenge is still on. I’ve got a few places I still need to try out before I end this but I’ve been very busy (i.e. lazy) so I haven’t been able to get around to it. Anyway two people previously commented that I should try out this burger place in Al Manshar mall so I decided to pass by today and see what it was about.

First lets get the weird part out of the way. The place doesn’t have a name. I don’t know how that’s even legally possible! How could a place not have a name? I asked the employee what the place was called and her reply was that they don’t have a name but that it belongs to the same owners of Papa Johns Pizza. I think that’s very strange but I have a theory on why it doesn’t have a name which I will share later on in this post. For now though I’ve decided to call the place “Papa John’s Burgers”. Cheesy I know but its there fault for not coming up with one themselves and I need a name for this post.

Their burger surprisingly turned out to be really good. I had a cheeseburger combo with an extra cheeseburger on the side and although I wasn’t expecting to like it I actually ended up loving it. Their beef patties are ground fresh every morning and their buns are very McDonalds Fillet-O-Fish like so the end result is pretty similar to Johnny Rockets except for one thing, the sauce. The sauce they put with the burger is wayy better than anything I’ve had at Johnny Rockets, its kinda like the Rocket Single sauce except better.

Now the bad news. Their patties are pretty thin and I think that has to do with the price since their cheeseburger costs only 650fils. The result is too little meat for the bun, it looks kinda ok in the picture above but thats because I actually pulled the meat out so it would show in the picture. If it had double the patty it might have been a strong competitor for best burger in Kuwait but its not so I rate this burger a 3.5 out of 5.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way I can talk about other things not related to the review. First of all the price, its unbelievably cheap! Imagine a Johnny Rockets burger for only 650fils because that’s exactly what this is! A combo consisting of cheeseburger, fries and coke is only KD1.100! Thats cheaper than McDonalds and even cheaper than Naif! Their location really sucks, they’re located on the mezzanine floor of Fun Ahoy (an arcade/themepark) right next to Papa John’s Pizza. Which brings me to my theory on why the place doesn’t have a name. The owners of Papa John’s also own Fuddruckers so my theory is they needed a cheap burger place to serve the kids at Fun Ahoy so they probably use the same meat that they use at Fuddruckers and also have Fudds make their buns. Now legally I don’t think they can own another burger brand since they have Fudds so they just opened this random place that serves burgers and doesn’t have a name. Its only a theory of course so don’t take my word for it. If you do end up passing by which you should, be sure to do so in the middle of the week when there won’t be much kids around.

Papa John’s Burger is located in Al Manshar Mall in Fahaheel.
The cost of the Cheese Burger is KD0.650

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
The Burger Hub
The Little Oven
Wimpy

If you have an iPhone I highly recommend you get the Amazon app. Along with a fast and easy to use search feature, Amazon have included an amazing service called Amazon Remembers. Say while over at your friends place or while out shopping you found something you’re interested in, maybe its a CD, or a TV or as in my case a book, all you need to do is snap a picture of the item with the iPhone and the Amazon app uploads it online where a community of people research your photo and try to find the same product on Amazon.com. I just tried it now with a book I was interested and by the time I got home I had already received an email with a link to the product on Amazon.

Update: Just for the fun of it I took a picture of my dog eating his bone with the app and it got sent to Amazon. A few minutes later I got an email back pointing me towards a dog bone on Amazon! Amazing stuff, they’ve got a great sense of humor!!

Its the time of year again when AUK hold their annual car boot sale in their parking lot. If you’re interested in selling items out of the trunk of your car, one parking space is for KD10 while two is for KD15. The car boot sale will be held on January 10th, 2009. [Link]

This looks like an interesting place to try out. Amaya Seafood as you can guess from the name is a seafood restaurant which is located at the Mishref Coop. I haven’t been there but judging by the picture above it looks like a cozy place. Amaya also seems very affordable, KD1.900 for sweet & sour prawns or prawn curry is actually really cheap. They have a website with more details on what they offer including the prices. I am going to try and pass by this weekend. [Link]

Thanks miss ghesquiere!

Don’t know when this match took place but it was between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Pretty messed up but I’m an Ice Hockey fan so I find fights in sports entertaining. [YouTube]

Has anyone stayed at an easyHotel before? easyHotel is a no frills super budget hotel. I am going to London next month for 4 nights and I am looking for a cheap place to stay. The hotel I usually stay in costs around 130 pounds a night and isn’t anything special at all. I was checking out tripadvisor.com for other hotels in the area and I came across easyHotel in Paddington. It doesn’t have a closet, or a desk, or a phone, or Internet, or a safe but the room does have a double bed, window (there is cheaper option without one), and a cozy looking bathroom thats a size of a plane bathroom. The price for 4 nights comes out to 168 pounds. There is a flat screen TV but to use it I need to rent a remote which goes for 15 pounds for 5 days. House keeping is another 10 pounds. Reviews are all positive and since its in Paddington its 15 minutes from the airport via Heathrow Express so it seems practical. Still though, not too sure if I should go for it or not, should be an interesting experience if I do. They are opening up in Dubai next year which should be a big hit.

Update: Just booked a standard room with a window and a double sized bed for four nights. Total price with tax KD79. Thats just an extremely good deal. Makes London more affordable specially with the special offers like the one British Airways had, KD150 Kuwait – London Kuwait. Also found out they do have internet, 10 pounds for 24 hours and an extra towel is 1 pound. They also can store my bags, 5 pounds for 24 hours for up to 3 items. Thats perfect cuz last day my checkout is 11AM but my flight is in the evening so I can just store my bags with them while I shop. Early check in is also available for only 15 pounds. (1KD = 2.4 pounds)

Looks like Burger King is trying to get on board the sliders train with their new offering, Burger Buddies. Was Burger Boutique the first to offer sliders in Kuwait or was there another place before?

Update: Just had it today and it wasn’t bad at all. The bun was very soft, the patty was juicy although as some people have mentioned slightly dry. My only negative would be the fact that each patty is shared among two buns which means you need to rip them apart and sometimes that results in one bun having more patty then the other. Six sliders is for KD1.300 while the combo is for KD1.750

The video above is of the new Zain commercial, while the one below is the original from 1973. Same song, same singer. Its cool seeing the same thing but 35 years apart. Big difference of course is that the singer (Abdul Karim Abdul Kader) is much older, but I also noticed how the girls skirt is now much longer and Abdul Kader is no longer sitting next to her but standing a couple of meters away. Imagine a remake of Bye Bye London today, the whole play would probably take place at a Starbucks.

This is definitely definitely definitely one of my favorite ad campaigns ever. Burger King hired independent researchers to travel to remote places around the world and find people who have no clue what a McDonalds or Burger King is and who have never eaten a burger and then have them try both the Whopper and the Big Mac and see which one they preferred. Its pure GENIUS! Its a very short touching and entertaining documentary which you can watch on the Whopper Virgins site and although I hate Burger King in Kuwait I think I am going to go have a Whopper for lunch tomorrow.

I LOVE IT so watch it! [Link]

I posted just over a week ago about my kitchen from IKEA. Originally when I posted they were over installing my kitchen and it was a positive post but as the workers progressed with the installation things took a turn. In short they installed my kitchen bar crooked and had to fill the space on the side with a ton of silicon, also 2 panels were installed crooked and 2 major parts still weren’t in stock.

Surprisingly I got a call a few days later from a manager asking if everything was ok and if I had any feedback. He was a very nice guy and when I told him about my problems he offered to come by and check the kitchen which he did. He told us he would solve our problems and make sure the remaining items (two horizontal wall cabinets and two pull out corners) would be released from customs as soon as possible.

Today IKEA was back in my kitchen finishing up the install and fixing the problems from last time. When they were done I went to check the kitchen to make sure everything was fine. I opened the horizontal wall cabinet upward and the door came crashing down. I was like isn’t this supposed to stay open like the ones at display in IKEA? The employee was like this is the new model it doesn’t stay open. So every time I need to get something big from the cabinet I need to hold the door open with the top of my head while I use my two hands to take out an item? I didn’t get a response. I then opened the corner cabinets and to my surprise they had installed a rotating shelving system instead of the pullout I had chosen at IKEA. When I asked why they told me the pullout doesn’t fit in my cabinet, it needed a bigger cabinet. Fine but why didn’t the salesman tell me that instead of misleading me to believe I was getting the pullout? Not only that but we were really excited about the pullout shelves and we could have gone with larger corners if we had known.

A quick call to IKEA resulted in no help. There isn’t anything we can do about the corners, we were screwed by the salesman and to solve my wall cabinet problem they would replace our cabinet hinges with the older model off a display cabinet from the showroom.

The employees left and I was confused. The wall cabinet hinges are huge (pictured above) which doesn’t make sense if their only job is to open and close the doors. I also figured IKEA wasn’t stupid enough to make cabinet doors that don’t stay open so I took out the cabinet instruction manual and tried to see if I could fix it myself and guess what? I did! Turns out there was a screw they needed to rotate to the right like 30 times and that adjusted the door to stay open. The doors work perfectly now and stay open when lifted which means IKEA needs to start hiring people that read the goddamn manuals! My kitchen corners are screwed up but at least I don’t have to bang my head every time I take out a plate from the cabinet.

In conclusion, IKEA kitchens are affordable but you get what you pay for and that’s terrible finishing and sneaky salesman. If you do decide to get a kitchen from them make sure you not only go through the list of items one by one but also have the salesman show you each item one by one. A friend of mine had warned me about this based on his experience with IKEA and so I was careful but it seems not careful enough.

Last night I was checking out the Tamiya cars Frog and Hornet online and figured I would pass by the Tamiya dealer in Kuwait, My Toy to check and see if they had them. Today out of the blue my friend calls me up and asks me if I wanted to pass by the launch of the new My Toy store in Shuwaikh. Turns out they opened up a branch at the trendy Tilal Complex and the official opening was today so after work I passed by to check it out.

The new store is small but the location is really great and they had this huge indoor race track setup in the basement which I think RC fans will love. I spotted the Frog and Hornet on display but it was too packed to check out properly so I will have to go back this weekend. I used to love My Toy as a kid in the 80’s so its great to see the brand still alive.

Now someone please bring Kids “R” Us back to life!

IKEA are over today installing my new kitchen. My experience so far with them has been really great. I think it was around 2 months ago when I first approached them about getting a kitchen and they quickly sent someone over to get the sizes. After that it was kind of a long process for the design since me and Nat kept changing things around until we finally settled on something we were both happy with. After that it was all about trying to keep the cost down as much as possible and we were able to chop around 25% of the cost by removing things we didn’t need and when we finally paid we used an NBK credit card and got another 10% off as vouchers which dropped the price down even further. The guys installing the kitchen are telling me they need two days to finish the installation but they’re pretty quick so I think they might end up finishing today.

Update: I guess I spoke too soon. Its not even 3PM and the guys were packing up to leave, they told me they had another kitchen at 3PM they needed to go to. I was like WTF? My kitchen is 80% done and I booked this day over 2 weeks ago how could you leave after half a days work? So I called their manager up and complained, I told him I took a day off work and the employees came in at 10 and they are now leaving at 3. I told him the kitchen is nearly done so I don’t understand why they can’t work a full day on it and get it completed. He told me they only work from 7 to 3:30, I told him if they did come in at 7 we would be done by now plus they told me they have another kitchen they have to go and work on. The manager asked to speak to one of the guys over at my place and when he was done I was told they would stay longer and try to get the kitchen done today.