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Today I decided to pass by Prime & Toast and try their burger since it was recommended by a few readers. It was my first time there and I was eager to see what they had to offer. It was 3PM, I was hungry and a good burger is exactly what I needed.

They only had one burger on the menu so I ordered it medium well. Twenty minutes later my burger arrived looking pretty cool. The presentation of the burger was impressive, it was big, came on a small wooden plank and had a good amount of fries on the side. I quickly dug into the burger really expecting to be stunned by the flavor but instead I was greeted with a messy burger that just tasted too complicated.

The Prime Burger as its called on their menu is made up of the bun, cherry tomatoes, rocket lettuce, mushrooms, cheese and a meat patty with some kind of red colored spice covering it. The problem I had was that I couldn’t really taste the burger. The mushrooms and baby tomatoes were cut up into large chunks so their taste was overpowering the patty. If that wasn’t bad enough the strange spice that was part of the burger really just confused things. The burger just felt fake, like they tried really hard to make it special. I was very disappointed, I had just plunked down KD5.750 for a burger that didn’t taste like a burger.

I really wanted to give the burger a good score, it had everything needed to be a great burger. It looked good and was pretty big in size but the taste let it down. I wanted to at least give it a 3.5 or even a 3 but the thing is, I wouldn’t have the burger ever again, even if it was for half the price that still wouldn’t be enough to entice me into having it again. Not that price is playing a role in these burger reviews but its just something I was thinking to myself to see if it was the price that was putting me off. The burger wasn’t exciting and I really wanted a thicker patty just so that I could at least taste the meat. And whats with their red powdery spice they cover everything with? It was on my burger and all over the fries. Pretty weird. The final score for their burger is a 2.5 out of 5. The place is nice and cozy but I wouldn’t go back for their burger.

Prime & Toast is located on the Gulf Road opposite the Seef Palace
The cost of the Prime Burger is KD5.750

The last time I had Wimpy was pre Gulf War and even back then it wasn’t a really popular place. Today I think they only have one branch in Kuwait which is in Nouzha and thank God for that.

Nibaq recommended I pass by and try their burgers which I happily did yesterday during my lunch break. The place looks shabby on the outside but since their burgers came highly recommended I decided to still go ahead and give them a shot. I ordered the two most popular burgers according to the cashier, the Quarter Cheese and the King Size. One’s a rip off of McD’s Quarter Pounder while the other the Big Mac. I picked up the burgers and went across the street to Shrimpy where my friends were having lunch.

Once I sat down and opened the bag the first thing I noticed was the smell, it was horrendous. It smelled like a cat thats been dead for a week in a public bathroom. Even my friends sitting next to me asked me what that awful smell was. Even with the terrible smell I still went ahead and tried the burgers because they were recommended by my so called good friend Nibaq.

Just yesterday I mentioned that its impossible to go wrong with a burger yet Wimpy have managed to prove me wrong with just a day into this burger challenge. These had to be the worst burgers I ever had. Now I’m a big fan of cheapo burgers so don’t think I am a burger snob or anything of that sort. My favorite burger place in Lebanon was called Gringo and was one of those shipping containers turned into a eat and die place with a large orange mexican looking horse painted on the side. But the Whimpy burgers were really nasty, like really bad. I honestly thought I would get food poisoning and thats why I waited till the next day to post the review. Their burgers are so bad that I decided if I got food poisoning they would get zero stars but if I survived unharmed I would give them a half a star and thats what they got. Its been nearly 24 hours since I had the burgers and I am still walking and talking without any side effects. It’s a good thing I didn’t listen to Nibaq and order the Quarter Cheese with Eggs thats for sure. I am going to end this post with an advice to everyone, stay away from Wimpy!

Wimpy’s telephone number is 2531372/4
The cost of the Quarter Cheese burger is 750fils
The cost of the King Size burger is also 750fils

I am going to start “The Best Burger in Kuwait” challenge with a burger review from a place that many haven’t heard of. The Little Oven is a take out and delivery restaurant located in Bneid Algar. In the office we usually order sandwiches and maneesh from them but a friend recommended I should also try their “Famous House Burger”.

The Little Oven burger is made using homemade patty, caramelized onions, emmental cheese and grilled mushrooms. It arrived inside a rectangular box which made me expect to find fries on the side but it turned out to just contain the burger which came cut in half.

Visually the burger looked appetizing and the bun felt soft and wasn’t covered in sesame seeds just the way I like it. The general size of the burger wasn’t very big but the beef patty itself was pretty thick. I could easily devour two burgers and very possibly a third if I was really hungry so its not really a filling burger. The burger was surprisingly good considering it wasn’t a proper restaurant nor a burger place. It was delicious and the caramelized onions didn’t over power the burger with flavor while the bun was pretty good although I highly doubt they bake the bread themselves. When done I felt like the burger was a bit dry and might have used some Heinz ketchup but it was too late for that plus they didn’t provide any ketchup packets.

It was a really good burger, one that I am craving for right this minute but I am going to be hard with these burger reviews because really I can’t imagine any burger being really bad. Its very hard to fuck up a burger unless you’re really an idiot. When reviewing these burgers I am NOT going to take into consideration anything except the burgers. Location, service, price and quantity will not matter since its not a restaurant review its a pure and simple best burger review. I am hovering between a 3.5 and a 4 for the rating but I am leaning more towards a 3.5 because I truly believe when it comes to burgers in Kuwait its going to be a really tough competition. We have a ton of places here and I am expecting to be truly impressed. So the final score is a 3.5 out of 5.

The Little Oven telephone number is 2517899/8
The cost of the burger is KD2.400

I was talking to a friend of mine two weeks ago and he pointed out to me an article in TimeOut Dubai magazine on the best burgers in Dubai. Their winner? Johnny Rockets. I thought that was very sad since although Johnny Rockets burgers are great they’re no where near being the best burgers in Kuwait. Thats why I decided to start my own “The Best Burger in Kuwait” competition. I will hopefully be having at least two burgers a week from places you might or might not have heard of and once I decide I have enough burger reviews (maybe after 15 reviews?) I will crown a champion.

If anyone has a place they want me to try out, please leave a comment below with the name and location of the restaurant and I will try to make sure I check it out.

Update: Here are the burgers I have reviewed so far…
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Eighty 6 Bistro
Fauchon
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

Event: 5th Annual Exhibition of Architecture
Host: Kuwait Architectural Student Association [KASA]
Type: Exhibition of the students work
Date: March 9th to the 13th, 2008
Location: Al-Raya Complex, Sharq district, Kuwait City

Click here to view the banner in full size. [Banner]

I just found out that Dj Uruj will be leaving her show the Night Ride. At first I thought management had fired her but it seems it was on her own accord. Maybe she couldn’t handle all the negativity? Whatever her reason is, I guess this is good news for all the listeners.

Some readers in the forum have been experiencing account access issues when using Fasttelco. When you login into a website (FaceBook, Gmail, Forum), it informs you that you have been logged out and then you have access to someone else’s account (and vice versa). There are screenshots in the forum of a user being redirected to several different gmail accounts and even gaining access to post under different user-names.

If you are unable to use another ISP to access your sensitive information, I suggest using a proxy, vpn or anonymizer (such as Tor) to bypass the Fasttelco cache server. For those who already logged into sensitive websites; login using a different ISP (or the methods suggested) and change your password.

This is most likely due to the Fasttelco cache server (which stores information locally to speed/conserve bandwidth) incorrectly passing data. If you are a user of Fasttelco, call up the help desk and demand that the cache server be disabled until they can fix it.

Link to the topics [here] [here] [here]

Thanks 36o!

-Posted by K.

Al Mayass is a very popular Lebanese and Armenian restaurant in Lebanon but for some reason I hadn’t heard about it until it opened up here in Kuwait. Since I’ve been hearing only good stuff about the place I decided to try it out and see what it was all about.

Al Mayass is located inside the Shiik Resort which I think is a pretty strange location because I can’t imagine girls in bikinis walking by conservative families on their way into lunch not end up being a problem. Anyway once you walk into the place you will notice it doesn’t look very Lebanese but thats not a big deal since the colors and design of the place is leaning more towards Armenian. What would be a Lebanese look anyway? I don’t think we have one for restaurants.

I only found three problems with the Al Mayass and one popped up right at the beginning. Its not actually a problem more like a nitpick. I found the napkin too small to properly place over the lap. If I am complaining about napkins then you already have an idea on which direction this review is heading. The second problem followed nearly instantly, they don’t have soup on the menu. I was eager to start off with their lentil soup since it was cold outside and wanted something to warm me up. I even asked the waiter about it hoping they had a soup de jour which wasn’t on the menu but he apologized telling me they sadly didn’t have soup on the menu. I think this is a permanent thing and not just temporary which is disappointing.

We then went ahead and ordered a bunch of cold and hot appetizers including hummus, hummus with meat, labne with garlic, tabboule, batata harra (hot potato?), cheese beurek and ras asfoor which translates to bird head although the dish is actually meat chunks. For our main course we ordered chicken taouk and kabab with cherry.

One by one the dishes started to arrive and everything was tasting great. The hummus with meat was probably the best I had ever had and the batata harra was also really great although pretty filling. The cheese beurek is basically a cheese puff and from all the appetizers is the only one I wouldn’t order again. We ordered two cheese beureks at KD1.500 a piece but they were really tiny pieces, each the size of two matchboxes placed side by side. Actually now that I think about it I wouldn’t order the ras asfoor again since that dish cost KD5 and really wasn’t that great.

Once we were done with our appetizers our main courses arrived. The chicken taouk (KD4) was good and very tender but really didn’t grab my attention as much as the cherry kebab (KD4.5). I hadn’t had cherry kebab before but a friend of mine told me I would love it and he was absolutely right. The cherries turned an ordinary dish found everywhere into something much more interesting. The combination of kebab with the sweetness of the cherries resulted in a very flavored kebab which I would definitely want to have again.

By the time we were done with all the food we were pretty full but we still went ahead and ordered the Mayass knefeh which needed 15-20 minutes of preparation time. I guess the waiting period raised my expectations because usually my knefeh gets served instantly but to wait 20 minutes for one meant it had to be really special. It wasn’t, the knefeh tasted like regular knefeh although it did come in a different shape from the usual. My feelings are its just not worth the wait, if you want it make sure you order it while your main course is being served.

Overall I liked Al Mayass even though I am not usually a fan of Lebanese grill. I usually find Lebanese kebab and taouk dishes pretty dry and bland but the cherry kebab has sparked an interest with me. The Lebanese waiters were very friendly without being the talkative type and their service was fast. The lack of soup is a disappointment and the prices of two of the dishes I ordered were expensive. As you can tell though if I am picking on the size of the napkin its because there isn’t much to pick on. The place is great and is probably the only Lebanese restaurant I would want to visit again. The final score is a 4 out of 5.

My friend the blogger Stallion attended the Anti-Segregation Rally that was held yesterday and has posted a short write up and pictures from the event. You can check his post by clicking [Here]

With the writer striker almost over, the big question is “when are shows coming back?”. Luckily TvGuide has a list of what is in store for us.

Some highlights:

24
Season 7 likely postponed until January ’09.

Desperate Housewives
Expected to shoot 4 to 7 new episodes to air in April/May.

Grey’s Anatomy
Expected to shoot 4 to 7 new episodes to air in April/May.

Heroes
No new episodes expected until fall.

Lost
Six pre-strike episodes remain. Six additional episodes could air this season.

Nip/Tuck
Season 5 concludes Feb. 19. Production on the show’s eight-episode sixth season expected to start up this summer. Airdate TBD.

Prison Break
Two pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.

Saturday Night Live
Could be back on the air as early as Feb. 16.

Overall most shows will not be returning till fall or later, others will release their pre-strike shows and begin production soon. [Link]

Posted by Nibaq

As promised, here is the breakdown of current DSL speeds/prices (as of InfoConnect 2008):

If you are looking speeds of 2mb or higher .. you can’t beat Qnets pricing (infoconnect special). And in addition to a free wireless router you also get a scratch (instant prize) and raffle (Mini) coupons for every 20kd spent. I upgraded my connection to 4mb and ‘won’ a extra couple of weeks on my subscription through the scratch coupons.

For those interested in speeds of 1mb or lower; Zajil is the clear choice with their aggressive pricing structure with 1mb at 300 KWD (almost 1/3 the price of last year).

Apparently, there is a new DSL company called Wasel, which has recently been placing advertisements in the newspapers. And while they might be advertising offering DSL, they don’t have a booth at InfoConnect or even a website; We don’t have much information on their offers.

-Posted by K.

*Prices listed are collected from Brochures, Official Websites and Sales Representatives .. prices displayed are for yearly subscriptions.

Its advancements like this that makes me look forward to the future. [Link]

via gizmodo

A friend was telling me that the old buildings in front of Seef Palace that contain all the trendy restaurants and shops is going to get demolished. Supposedly the government doesn’t want these kind of places in front of the oalace and will be demolishing the buildings and probably replacing them with a large park. My friend heard about this from his friend who owns a store there whom they’ve already approached asking him to close down.

I know the owners of Slider Station and Pink Moon Boutique check my blog so maybe they can confirm this story.

update: According to the owners of Slider Station and Pink Moon, their building will not be demolished but the group of shops and restaurants closer to the roundabout where Shay W Nana and Berts are located will be.

Tagine is the new Moroccan restaurant that opened up at The Palms. I haven’t gone to it yet but after reading Desert Girl’s review I am not as excited to try it out. [Link]

I was flipping through a book on the history of Kuwait called “The voice of the Oud” when I found a photo of a kid who looked exactly like me. The book is full of amazing old photos of Kuwait and here I was in one of the pictures. I checked the date of the photo and it was 1983 and taken in Mubarakieh outside the carpet souk where I used to tag a long with my dad every Friday morning.

I scanned the photo and emailed it to my mum just to be sure that the picture was of me when i was a kid and she called me to confirm that it was. I think its pretty cool especially since the book has a ton of cool shots of old Kuwait. The girl in the picture was my neighbor who is no longer in Kuwait and I am also no longer chubby although I am still very white.