Search: “salmiya”

Found this list online and no idea how they came up with it but seems a bit odd to me. Check out the top 7 below:

1. Mutlaa Ridge
2. Al Kout Beach
3. Seif Palace
4. Green Island
5. Liberation Tower
6. Souq Al Mubarakeya
7. Salmiya Palace

I would have expected JACC, Kuwait Towers, Avenues and Al Shaheed Park to be on a top 7 list. I definitely wasn’t expecting Salmiya Palace or Seif Palace. Link

My friends and I are looking for a good place to get sneakers cleaned. Previously we used to use the service KLEAN but they’re no longer around. Delicates in Salmiya clean sneakers but they’re also super expensive charging KD15 per pair compared to the KD2.750 KLEAN used to charge.

If you have any recommendations let me know in the comments.

Over the weekend I passed by a place called Tea Party Sweets that had Sunkist and Vimto soft serve which in theory, sounded like the best idea ever. They have two locations, one in Ardiya and one in Salmiya right off the 4th Ring Road. I went to the Salmiya location since it was nearest to me and the place looked like one of those random dessert shops that open up and never get a single customer. Except in this case, the place was packed and everyone was there for the exact same reason, Sunkist and Vimto soft serve.

I picked up both to try out and was looking forward to the Sunkist one the most but sadly it didn’t really taste like Sunkist. If anything it tasted closer to Tang than Sunkist. The Vimto one, on the other hand, tasted exactly like Vimto but in soft serve form.

It’s a fun idea and probably doing really well since it’s a great Instagram gimmick. I just wish the Sunkist tasted more like Sunkist. You can find Tea Party Sweets on instagram @tea_party_sweets

Yesterday I passed by the newly opened Momo Zaa for a late lunch. I nearly bailed out since I was starving and when I’m starving I generally don’t like trying anything new just in case the food turns out to be crap. But, I was having lunch with my brother and he wanted to try it so he convinced me to try it and I’m glad I did.

Beef, chicken and vegetable momo’s

Momo Zaa is a small hole in the wall opposite Boulevard Park in Salmiya. There were around four tables inside and the place felt cozy with pictures up on one wall and Ashtamangala symbols up on the other. Momo Zaa describes themselves as the first Bhutanese restaurant in Kuwait and I heard the place belongs to the daughter of the Bhutanese ambassador (Update: Turns out it doesn’t). It was my first time experiencing Bhutanese food and I honestly didn’t know much about it, just that they had dumplings which I never say no to.

The menu had a variety of options including noodles, momo’s (dumplings) and curries. I took pictures of the menu and you can check out the front page here and the back here. We decided to go with three kinds of dumplings (beef, chicken and vegetables), a dry chili and cheese curry, Wai Wai Chow fried noodles and the crispy chili potatoes. Everything was pretty good except for the steam vegetable dumplings, I didn’t like it much but I did like the steamed beef and fried chicken dumplings. My favorite item though had to be the crispy chili potatoes.

Crispy Chili Potatoes

If you’re looking for a new place to try or want to experience a new cuisine then you can’t really go wrong with Momo Zaa. The service needs a bit of work since the waiter wasn’t very knowledgable, but the chef was super helpful and took our order while explaining all the dishes to us. Their prices are really reasonable and if you like dumplings then you should definitely check them out. They’re open from 11AM to 11PM but closed on Sundays (but they will be open today from 6PM). Here is their location on Google Maps and they’re also on instagram @momozaa.kwt

Over the weekend a video started making its round via social media of a bullfight that took place in Kuwait back in 1972. The video was fairly low quality and the audio was completely broken so I did a bit of research and turns out the original video is actually owned by Reuters and you can watch the longer and much better version on their website.

According to Reuters, the bulls were imported from Spain for this event which was the first ever bullfighting show in Kuwait. The video is from the show that took place on Thursday April 6, 1972 but there were two other shows that took place on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th of April. Below are some more details:

A Spanish bull faced Spanish matadors in Kuwait on Thursday. It was the first time the Arabian Gulf state has seen a bull-fight. The event was organized by the Salmiya Sports Club and sponsored by the Kuwaiti Minister of the Interior and Defence, Shaikh Sa’ad Al-Abdalla As-Sabah.

A large crowd of spectators packed into the arena to see the novel exhibition of bullfighting skills and physical courage. Among those watching were the Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly and other Assembly members. The event was much enjoyed by the spectators.

Aficionados in Spain may know more about the technicalities, but in Kuwait the crowd understood well enough the perfect judgment needed to plant these darts in just the right place.

The show had opened with the playing of the Kuwaiti and Spanish national anthems and the grand entrance of all the bullfighters. There was no doubting the success of this first bullfighting spectacle in Kuwait. Other shows were scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

So if you want to watch the video, click here.

I’ve been a fan of Shure earphones ever since I got my first pair back in 2004 and have owned a number of different pairs since. But, I’ve always had to order my Shure’s from Amazon because I could never find them locally until now. Last week I found out that the local musical instruments store Salmeen carries Shure earphones and for the most part, they aren’t that overpriced. Here are the prices compared to Amazon (not including tax or shipping):

Shure SE215 Wired
Salmeen: KD49
Amazon: KD30

Shure SE215 Wireless
Salmeen: KD55
Amazon: KD45

Shure SE425
Salmeen: KD85
Amazon: KD82

Shure SE425 Wirless
Salmeen: KD99
Amazon: KD91

Shure SE535
Salmeen: KD150
Amazon: KD136

If you’re interested in getting Shure’s, Salmeen has two locations, one in Salmiya and one in Avenues but they also have an online shop with all their items.

The Joystixx Barcade located in the basement of Symphony Mall in Salmiya is now finally open. They have a bunch of old school arcade machines as well as a pinball machine and a section with video game consoles.

They have arcade games like Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Mortal Kombat 4 (so disappointed they didn’t get MK1 or MK2), Metal Slug, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, The King of Fighters ’97 and more. The arcade machines take regular 100fils coins while the consoles you rent out for 1.5KD an hour.

If you want to check the place out they’re open daily except for Sundays from 1PM to 11PM. They’re also on instagram @joystixxbar

Thanks Wahab!

Yesterday I was driving by the new Kuwait Bowling Club in Salmiya and noticed a security guard walking around. So I decided to ask him when the bowling alleys were gonna open and to my surprise he told me it was open and I could come in. So I quickly parked my car in the arena’s multistory car lot and went in to check the place out.

The Kuwait Bowling Club is huge!

The building is 7 floors with the ground floor containing a 48 lane arena as well as a smaller and separate 10 lane VIP room. The rest of the building will be for different facilities including a mall, coffee shops and restaurants, a gym with a swimming pool that overlooks the bowling lanes as well as a hotel with rooms that also overlook the bowling lanes. The multistory car park is large enough for 1,000 cars.

Since I was there and the arena was open I decided I might as well stay and bowl a few rounds. I got there around 8PM and it was fairly empty but by the time I had left at around 9:40PM the arena was fairly busy with other bowlers.

Their Ramadan timings and prices are as follows:

2PM to 6PM: 1KD/game
6PM to 12AM: 2KD/game (or 3 games for 5KD)
After 12AM: 3 games for 4KD

During Eid the timings and prices will change to the following:
10AM to 4AM – 2.5KD/game or 4KD/game in the VIP Room

I asked about the timings after Eid but they didn’t have them yet so will update this post once I get them. The bowling club has been open for four months now and they also offer a bunch of bowling-related services including training, lockers, ball polishing, ball drilling and ball plugging services. Since the club is pretty close to where I live I might end up taking bowling lessons just for the fun of it.

If you want to pass by and check the place out (which I highly recommend you do), here is the location of the club on Google Maps.

Update: As of September 12 the price has gone up to 3KD per game and 5KD for the VIP.

Got this video forwarded to me yesterday. Looks like it was taken sometime in the 80s on Plajaat street in Salmiya. Wish it was a bit longer.

The Better Books bookshop has been around for a very long time but I never got the chance to pass by the place until just a few days ago. Recently a friend of mine started volunteering there and when I looked up the bookshop on Google Maps, I realized it was actually walking distance from my apartment. So, I decided to pass by the bookshop and check it out.

Better Books have over 10,000 used books (and some new ones) ranging from children’s books to cookbooks, novels, self-help books, you name it. The place is small but also really cozy with different seating areas and is stacked with books everywhere. They also have a cool buyback policy. When you buy a used book from Better Books and you’re done with it, you can sell it back to them for half the price. If you also have books you don’t need they’ll also take them off you and give you store credit for them.

Better Books are located in Salmiya and you can find them on Google Maps. They’re open daily from 4PM to 9PM on weekdays and 10:30AM to 8PM on weekends. They don’t have an Instagram account or website, but they’re on Facebook.

Around a year and a half ago, Vigonovo, the cozy Italian restaurant that was located in Salmiya closed down. But, they’ve now found a new location and will be reopening tonight!

The new Vigonovo is located in the Khaleejia Tower in the City, and I passed by and checked it out last week. The space is a lot bigger than their older location but Chef Marco still managed to keep it cozy. They also now have an outdoor area that overlooks a busy intersection, and since the weather is still good right now, I think that’s where everyone will want to sit. The whole place just looks and feels a lot nicer than the older one and Marco also has a bigger team to help him out this time around.

If you’re looking for a new place to try out then pass by them. For more information you can visit their instagram page @vigonovo_kw

The pop-up restaurant which uses a crane to raise diners up into the air got shut down by the municipality. According to Arab Times, the pop-up was shut down for violation of safety conditions and because they had not obtained the necessary license from the authorities.

I just checked the Dinner in the Sky instagram account and they don’t mention anything about being shut down. In fact, as of last night, they were still open and serving dinner according to their story.

A barcade called Joystixx is currently under construction in the basement of Symphony Mall in Salmiya. A barcade is basically and arcade with a bar. I’ve been to a few outside Kuwait, and the ones that I’ve been to usually have old classic arcade games and are really fun places because you can just get drunk and play fun old video games with friends.

The one opening in Kuwait obviously won’t have alcohol, but from what I understood it’s going to be a similar concept, except more of a cafe instead of a bar, so I guess a cafecade? Not sure that’s a real word. They’re hoping to open it sometime during Ramadan. Fun.

Starting today, City Center is now carrying Waitrose products inside their stores. At this moment the Waitrose products are only available at their Salmiya location, but they will soon be adding them in their Dasma and Shuwaikh stores soon.

Currently, only around 30-40% of their total shipment has arrived, with the rest of the Waitrose products expected to be in store in around a months time.

This isn’t the first time Waitrose products have been made available in Kuwait, around 5 years ago Sultan Center started carrying Waitrose products as well. The biggest difference this time around is that City Center have segregated the Waitrose products into their own section which makes it easier to find stuff.

A couple of months ago a new hot pot place opened in Salmiya called Da Wang. It’s a small hole in the wall located right behind Holiday Inn. I passed by in the evening and the first thing that stuck out for me was how incredibly bright the interior was. Just super bright white lights with very white walls. The place was empty except for one table that had a couple who were finishing up their meal and watching TV which was hanging on the wall in front of them.

Da Wang’s menu is fairly small [Link], on one side they have 10 Asian dishes with favorites like Bulgogi and Bibim Bap, while on the back side they have their Hot Pot menu. Their Hot Pot menu is pretty cool, you get to choose between a normal chicken broth, a spicy one, or a hot bot split into two, normal and spicy. You then have a large list of all the proteins and veggies you can order for the hot pot and since we were there for the hot pot, that’s what we ended up ordering.

If you don’t know what a hot pot is, this is how wikipedia describes it:

Hot pot is a Chinese cooking method, prepared with a simmering pot of soup stock at the dining table, containing a variety of East Asian foodstuffs and ingredients. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table, in a manner similar to fondue.

But if you’ve never had a hot pot before you shouldn’t worry, what I loved about Da Wang the most was the extremely friendly service. Every step of the way the waiter would double check with us if we knew what to do and if we didn’t, he was willing to step in and show us or explain things.

The reason I felt like having hot pot is because I recently had an amazing experience at a place in Dubai called Fujiya. It was an eat all you can eat Wagyu Shabu Shabu Japanese restaurant that a friend recommended, and there might have been a lot of alcohol involved, but I do remember the food being incredibly good.

My experience at the Da Wang wasn’t as good as at Fujiya, and it’s mostly because of the quality of the meat. I ordered lamb and beef and between the two I preferred the beef but, it could have been sliced a lot thinner and the quality could have been a lot better. A friend told me I did it wrong and I should actually buy my own meat and then take it with me to Da Wang. I guess I’m going to have to try that.

The bill didn’t come out to much but if you do decide to go to Da Wang make sure you take cash with you since they don’t have knet yet. If you forget it’s not that big of a deal since there is an ATM machine inside Holiday Inn across the street. Da Wang are on instagram @dawangkuwait and here is their location on [Google Maps]

If you have a favorite hot pot place in Kuwait let me know about it.