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Back in September, I posted about a cool new 3D printing service at Best Electronics where you can get a very realistic miniature figurine of yourself (and of you and your friends). That didn’t last long since the very next day Best were forced to close down the service due to religious reasons.

But, Best recently opened up a new store in The Avenues, it’s near Saveco in the basement in a pretty hidden location. But, the good news is they’ve brought back the 3D printing booth and have it set up there. So if you previously wanted to 3D print yourself but missed out, you should probably pass by Best quickly before it gets shut down again.

The current Municipal Council building would be turned into a museum under the umbrella of the National Council of Culture, Arts and Letters, said Chairman Osama Al-Otaibi Monday.

After relocating to a new one, the old building would be preserved due to its historic significance, Al-Otaibi told a press conference. Source

I’m so glad they realized the importance of the building and won’t be demolishing it. After the decision to demolish Sawaber and the Ice Skating Rink, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if they had decided to demolish this building as well.

The Kuwait Municipality building was designed by the architect Sami Abdul Baki and constructed between 1959 and 1962 by The Arab Contractors. I tried to find information on the architect but really couldn’t find anything other than a design he had proposed for the Martyr’s Square in Lebanon that never came to be. Interestingly, the Kuwait Municipality building features arcs similar to the one in his Martyr’s Square design (check below). So either that was his design signature or, maybe since it was never executed in Lebanon he decided to implement it into this building.

If anyone knows what other buildings he might have designed in Kuwait let me know in the comments below.

Image on top and building information was taken from Modern Architecture Kuwait 1949-1989

There are new ones being constructed near Khiran so my guess is that’s where this happened.

via reddit

If you’re vegan and are looking for a new place to eat there is a new restaurant that recently opened up called Wilgrow. I haven’t been to the place yet since I’m generally only interested in vegan food when my vegan best friend is in town but, going by the pictures alone, it looks like a cute place.

Wilgrow is located in Al-Bidea area at the Dhai Complex and you can find them on Google Maps. They’re open daily except for Sundays. @wilgrow.kw

Photos from @formkw

Last week I posted about a pet cat called Winston that got lost and later died at the airport after it was taken from its owner to be sent to the cargo terminal.

The cat owner has now set up a gofundme page to pay for her legal fees in suing NAS, the company that the airport uses to transport the pets from the main terminal to the cargo terminal and the ones who lost her cat. She also wants to try and change the procedures for arriving pets at the airport. From some of the comments I’ve read by other people who’ve traveled with their pets, the procedure at the Kuwait airport is inconsistent and in most cases unnecessary.

If you want to support her fight then here is the link to her gofundme.

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.

Not sure what’s with the latest car storage trend in Kuwait but right now I’m aware of four of them and three just popped up recently. A car storage facility is basically a managed parking lot for people who don’t have a place to park their nice cars but don’t want to park them in random public parking lots. Different facilities offer different services like trickle charging for your battery, air conditioning, 24h security and more.

Last year I posted about a car storage facility called The Vault which was aimed towards the high-end market, but recently a more affordable place opened up called Curated. Curated is located in Kuwait City behind Al-Awqaaf Center, in the multistory lot next to Centerpoint. The lowest basement level is closed off from the rest of the parking and only members are allowed to use it. Their prices are as follows:

Monthly = KD65
6 Months = KD360
1 Year = KD660

Currently its the most affordable managed car storage facility I’m aware of but there are two more I need to visit, SERV which I think is priced similarly, and Cartel which is described as a luxury car hotel so most definitely more expensive.

If you’re interested in Curated, they’re on instagram @curatedkwt

Back in February, the Ministry of Interior decided to cancel the use of residency stickers inside passports. Instead, you need to have a valid Civil ID card when traveling as a means of verifying your residency.

The name on the Civil ID card has to match your name in your passport or you’ll risk being denied travel in or out of Kuwait. But, having your name misspelled on the Civil ID is a pretty common issue and my previous post on how to fix your name constantly gets comments from people with similar issues.

But now the Ministry has issued a statement that they will no longer correct spellings at PACI but instead, all requests must now be made online. They even have a dedicated section now for misspellings.

So if you need to fix the spelling of your name on your Civil ID, click here.

Generally, when you travel you can rent and drive cars with just your regular Kuwaiti license. But, back when the driving license was just in Arabic, you needed to get an international driving license. Not really sure which country nowadays won’t accept your Kuwaiti license, but in case you need to get an international one you can now do so online.

Price is KD10 for the license and you then have the option to pick it up yourself or have it delivered to you for an additional KD3.

Thanks Fahed

If you’re not fasting during Ramadan and want to order food before Iftar, then below are some restaurants that will deliver early. This year there are a lot more places that deliver before Iftar and so I decided instead of listing them all here, I’d share a smaller curated list.

China Garden
Chinese / 11AM
Telephone: 1805080 / Carriage / Talabat / chinagarden.com.kw

Clean Eats
Vegan / 12PM
Telephone: 60488799 / Carriage

Domino’s
Pizza / 10AM
Telephone: 1800800 / Talabat

Eighty Six
Burgers / 2PM
Deliveroo

Enab
Lebanese / 2PM
Deliveroo / Talabat

Joa
Japanese / 2PM
Carriage

Kau
Burgers / 12PM
Carriage

Leila Min Lebnen
Lebanese / 2PM
Carriage

Mana
Variety / 2PM
Carriage / Deliveroo

Q at the Yard
Variety / 12PM
Telephone: 99696718 / Carriage

Rustic Thai Kitchen
Thai / 12PM
Telephone: 22204758 / Talabat

Sim Sim
Middle Eastern / 2PM
Carriage / Deliveroo

Tashi
Japanese / 2PM
Carriage

The Untitled Deli
Sandwiches / 1PM
Telephone: ‭22273354‬ / Carriage / Deliveroo

Tiger Tiger
Chinese / 2PM
Carriage

Vigonovo
Italian / 2PM
Deliveroo

Wendy’s
Burgers / 1PM
Carriage / Deliveroo

I’ll be updating the list above as I find out about more places, if you know of a place that delivers before Iftar (like 3PM or earlier) let me know.

Kuwaiti racecar driver Zaid Ashkanani was on the winning team at the season opener for the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup a few days ago. This was not only Zaid’s first debut with the Dinamic Motorsport team, but the team themselves were also making their first debut at the Blancpain GT.

Dinamic drivers Klaus Bachler, Zaid Ashkanani and Andrea Rizzoli (all pictured below) started 23rd on the grid but managed to end up winning by a 14-second margin in a second-generation Porsche 911 GT3-R. They gave the Porsche brand their first Endurance Cup victory since 2012.

This was the first race of the season so there is still a long way to go but nevertheless, it was an incredible debut. You can stay up to date on Zaid’s activities by following him on Instagram @zaidashkanani

Impossible Foods is a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy products. They went viral a couple of years ago when they introduced their burger patty which not only looked like real meat but supposedly also tasted like real meat. Their burger patty was positioned as the future of meat since it used 96% less land, 87% less water and released 89% fewer emissions compared to burgers made with cow meat.

The Impossible burger grew in popularity and became available in a number of high end restaurants like Momofuku Nishi in NY and the Michelin-starred restaurant Public, but it also became available at more casual places like Umami Burger and White Castle. Now the Impossible patty has found its way to Kuwait.

The local burger chain Rock House Sliders launched the Impossible Slider funnily enough on April 1st. I haven’t tried it yet since I just got back to Kuwait, but I’ll be having some tonight since I’m really curious to try it. They have four different sliders made using the Impossible meat and they’re all priced at KD2.750 which is more than double the cost of their real meat sliders. So not cheap. But, if like me you’re interested to try it, RHS is on Talabat, Carriage, and Deliveroo. For more info visit @rockhousesliderskuwait

Singa Pura is a new Singaporean restaurant that just opened up last week. I think it’s the first ever Singaporean restaurant in Kuwait since I don’t recall there ever being one. I actually had never had Singaporean food before, nor did I know what to expect so I was very curious to try them out. Now that I have, I think the best way to describe Singaporean food is that it lies somewhere between Thai and Indian cuisine, but closer to Thai which makes sense since they’re near each other.

Although Singa Pura just opened, they’ve actually been around for a while in the form of a home catering business. They still have their catering business active so if you don’t want to visit the restaurant you can also do that.

When I passed by Singa Pura for lunch it was pre-opening and so we didn’t have access to the full menu or final prices. But, I’ll be passing by again soon and once I do I will update this post with their menu. For now, if you’re interested in checking them out they’re located in the basement of Dasman Complex in the city. Here is their location on Google Maps and they’re on instagram @singapurakw

Arabica’s Mall 30 location was featured in the design and lifestyle magazine Wallpaper* last week. I haven’t been to that location yet because it’s so out of my way, but I had seen photos of it and it really is a beautiful space.

The interior was designed by the Japanese design studio Nendo and opened up last December. If you’re interested in passing by, here is the location on Google Maps.

Here is the link to the article on Wallpaper*.

The store was also featured on Design Boom where they have even more pictures of the space.

Usually, when I write about new restaurants that just opened up I talk about the food, but not in this case. The Cardamom Club is a new Indian restaurant that recently opened up and I think it has the best looking interior of any restaurant in Kuwait.

The restaurant is part of the Napkin Affair group who also own the concepts Ubon, Ananas, Simsim, and Mana. They designed all their restaurants in house and until recently I had thought Ananas was their best work, but not anymore. So far I’ve been to The Cardamom Club twice and on both occasions, I thought the food was average but the interior really beautiful.

If you’re looking for a new place to try out you should give The Cardamom Club a visit, they’re located in Kuwait City right next to the pizza place Pinocchio’s. Here is their location on [Google Maps] and their instagram account is @cardamom.club