Tag: pizza

SOLO PN, the local pizza joint were recently invited to compete in a pizza competition at the Italian Cuisine World Summit 2015 that was held in Dubai. At first they ended up winning first place in the GCC under three categories, Best Pizza Napoletana, Best Special Pizza and the Fastest Pizzaiuolo. That took them to the world finals in which they ended up coming in third place. A pretty impressive achievement by itself but the fact that it’s by a pizza joint based out of tiny Kuwait is even more impressive. I’m sure it caught everyone by surprise. Check out their instagram account for more details. [Link]

Thanks teenum

Pizzeria Volpe is a new Neapolitan pizzeria that has been open in Mahboula for a couple of months. The pizzeria is a small hole in the wall place with just three tables inside and a couple of more outside. The pizza chef is a Kuwaiti who studied and got his certificate under the famous chef Enzo Coccia. Enzo runs the pizzeria La Notizia in Naples which was the first pizzeria in the world to be recommended by the influential Michelin Guide and fork. Volpe are still in their soft launch stage but I passed by anyway earlier this week to try them out. We were two people so we ended up ordering:

Garlic Bread KD2.000
Margherita con Funghi KD4.500
Peperoni Pizza KD5.000
Pistachio Dessert KD2.750

The first thing that arrived was the Garlic bread and it was super garlicy and delicious. Lots of flavor and when there was one piece left on the plate I wanted it. After the garlic bread the pizzas came one after the other. The pizzas were both great and similar in style and taste to traditional Neapolitan except for one minor edge, the Kuwaiti chef rubs a bit of garlic oil around the edge of the pizza to make the crust edge more enjoyable to eat. It works. It’s not as powerful in flavor as the garlic bread but you definitely get some flavor. Finally for dessert we ordered their Pistachio dessert. Not sure if I should call it Pistachio bread or pistachio pizza but whatever the actual term is doesn’t matter, the dessert was actually the best part of the whole dinner. It’s probably the single dish that would make me want to drive out all the way out to Mahboula again. Even though they had a Nutella pizza I really wanted to try something new and the pistachio pizza turned out to be a ridiculously great alternative.

If you live in Mahboula or in the vicinity, Pizzeria Volpe is a no brainer, probably the best pizza place in the area if not the only authentic pizza place there. On the other hand is it worth the drive from the city all the way to Mahboula? That I’m not so sure about although the pistachio dessert is definitely worth trying out at least once. Pizzeria Volpe is open from Saturday to Thursday, 7:30PM to 10PM. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

Update: Based on the comments it seems Volpe are randomly closed sometimes so might be better to give them a call on 98927436 before you head there.

Pizzeria Amami used to be located in Salmiya near AUK and behind Smash Burger, but last week they moved to a new location in Symphony Mall. I hadn’t tried the place until earlier today when I passed by for lunch with a friend of mine.

The place was empty and quiet so we picked a table near the window overlooking the Gulf Road. Once we sat down an Italian waitress came up to us with the menus. From what I could tell everybody working there was Italian which was a great first impression. The menu on the other hand was fairly disappointing being just A4 sheets of paper printed and then enclosed in transparent plastic. Mine was all bent and it just looked very cheap. The waitress recommended us the Parmigiana di Melanzane to start with which was fried eggplant with cheese and tomato sauce. I also ended up ordering the closest thing to a simple mushroom pizza I could find on the menu which was a pizza called Capricciosa containing, tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, olives and artichoke (I asked them not to include the artichoke). The waitress asked me if I wanted fresh mozzarella with my pizza and I figured the alternative was frozen mozzarella or something so I said yes. Once the bill arrived later I realized by fresh mozzarella she meant extra cheese on my pizza. Not cool but it must have been a lost in translation moment.

The first thing that arrived was the Parmigiana di Melanzane starter. Although the presentation wasn’t appealing the dish did taste better than it looked. But, I’d still order something else next time since it tasted more like a pizza topping than a standalone starter. Our main dishes arrived once we were done, my pizza was pretty big and looked delicious. I was hesitant to ask the waitress for ketchup since I know it’s usually frowned upon at Italian pizzerias but turns out they didn’t have any issues with ketchup and I was able to get a bottle. The pizza was good although I found it pretty heavy the rest of the day. I left there feeling like I had eaten something very unhealthy but I think that had to do with the fact my pizza had all the extra cheese on it which I hadn’t asked for (I should have said no to fresh mozzarella).

My biggest issue with the place was with their prices. My pizza cost KD5.5 while my friends Penne Al Formaggio (cheese pasta) cost KD6. With two mains, the starter, three soft drinks and 750fils for the extra cheese, the bill came out to KD19.250. The pizza barely makes it into my top 5 favorite pizzas in Kuwait ranking, maybe at #5 so combine that with the restaurants atmosphere and interior which was bland and the total experience just wasn’t worth it for me. If you’re interested in trying out the place they’re located on the Mezzanine floor of Symphony Mall in Salmiya [Map]. They’re open daily from noon till 11PM except for Fridays when they open a bit later at 2PM. Their phone number is 25770733 but the waitress told me it will only be active from next week.

Yesterday I was invited to pass by and try the newly opened Margherita pizzeria at the Arabella project. It’s a Lebanese franchise that I had already tried a few years back in Lebanon for the first time so it wasn’t really new to me. I ended up going with two of my friends who love my food reviews (not really) and whom I love taking with me when I’m going to review food (also not really). Even though they’re very difficult to please we all ended up leaving the place with the same impression, that we would definitely go back again.

Arabella is a fairly new project, it’s been open for a few months now but the majority of the restaurants there are not open yet. Currently the biggest two are Red Lobster and Olive Garden but there are a whole bunch of Alshaya restaurants opening there soon including Texas Roadhouse and The Cheesecake Factory. Margherita is located on the ground floor of the project and has a beautiful wooden façade that wouldn’t look out of place on a street somewhere in Europe. Once you walk into the restaurant you have the pizza kitchen on the right hand side and the dinning area on the left. We ended up sitting next to the window overlooking the inside of the still quiet and vacant Arabella project.

Since we were three people we ended up ordering a whole bunch of things inclduing:

Minestrone soup
Burrata cheese with cherry tomatoes
Grilled calamari with a side salad
Prosciutto E Funghi pizza (Tomato sauce, mozzarella, turkey ham, mushrooms and basil)
Diavola pizza (Tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy beef pepperoni and basil)
Homemade oven baked beef lasagna
Grilled beef “Tagliata” with sautéed spinach and mashed potatoes
Classic Italian Tiramisu
Lemon crème brûlée
Hazelnut chocolate fondant with ice cream

I think from everything we had the only thing we didn’t like was the Lemon crème brûlée. I really enjoyed my minestrone soup especially since it was freezing cold outside, the grilled calamari was a great healthy starter and the burrata cheese was delicious although I don’t think I’d be willing to pay KD8 for it (or any starter for that matter). The pizzas followed quickly right after. While we were on our way to Margherita I was telling my friends that the only issue I had with the pizzas in their Lebanese branches was the fact their sauce was a bit too strongly flavored. Thankfully that wasn’t the case here and I made sure I told the chef that I preferred his tomato sauce at Margherita Kuwait more than the one at Margherita in Lebanon.

We also shared a lasagna which although it was good I’d probably always choose a pizza over it. Finally our last main course arrived which was the grilled beef “Tagliata”. We had asked for it medium rare but our steak arrived partially medium rare and partially just medium which wasn’t an issue as soon as we started eating it since the beef was really really tender. The desserts turned out to be the biggest surprise of our lunch. If you put aside the Lemon crème brûlée which neither of us liked, the tiramisu and the chocolate fondant were ridiculously good. My favorite was the chocolate fondant which I was having alone mostly since my friends were attacking the tiramisu which according to one of them is the best tiramisu he’s had in Kuwait. To quote him, “this isn’t a classic Italian tiramisu, this is better than classic”.

For those of you who used to frequent Al-Forno in the Avenues when they first opened and up until three years ago will recognize the chef, Marcello Piazza. I used to see him the whole time while I was dinning there so I recognized him when I spotted him in the restaurant. Turns out he left Al-Forno three years back and moved to England, but now is back in Kuwait and working at Margherita.

Anyway, the food was great and when I go back next time I’d probably just have the soup (if it’s cold outside), one of the pizzas and the chocolate fondant. To give you a general idea about the price, the pizza’s were around KD5, the lasagna KD4, and the steak KD9. I’d definitely recommend the place. Here is a link to their [Website]

Update: I went back to Margherita on a Saturday for lunch and the place was packed and the service was horrible. Although the food was good the experience made me really dislike the place and if I was to ever go back it would not be on a weekend.