So the sweet life… this new restaurant is more a café and shisha joint but with an Italian twist. The interiors are a far cry from the warm and mellow interior of a typical Italian restaurant. It is in fact quite the opposite with loud purple and yellow strobe lights and red chairs placed randomly in the singles and the family sections. Large plasma TVs cover the walls and provide entertainment whilst groups of young ladies blow perfect circles from their tantalizing shisha pipes. The interior is not the norm but it is a change from Jeddah’s café culture.

Well, we’re here to tell you that there’s hope after all. The answer to your problems is tucked away on a very unlikely side street off Horreya Street. The Karvin Hotel looks terribly businesslike but thanks to its Indian owners it boasts MASSALA, the best Indian restaurant this side of New Delhi (or at least in Cairo).

MASSALA serves authentic North Indian cuisine conjured up by Indian chefs using the tastiest seasonal ingredients. Creamy butter chicken, spicy dhal and yummy naan are served with the crispiest Indian pickles and the mintiest raita in town.

With a spacious garden and fountain area (fit for a party), which happens not to be part of a five star hotel, Massaya is worth checking out.

Inspired by Lebanese mountain restaurants, the menu is slightly different from the staple mezze and mechoui dishes you might find everywhere else (though you can order those too). Think “Lahme bi karaz” (meat with cherries) and “djejj wa einab” (chicken with sour grapes). Not exactly the usual options... 

With Ramadan over, Kuwait’s burning of the midnight vegetable oil has reduced to a gentle roil, and we can all return to our higher senses. Gone are the orgiastic 3 am traffic jams on Salem Mubarek Street and, thankfully, the conspicuous consumption of KFC and Krispy Kreme (simultaneously) that cause them.  

Here is a new place that is unpretentiously cool with the perfect mix of lounging and quick dining. There is also alcohol so people can enjoy their meal and sip their pint.  Best of all, you can enjoy the last few days of summer while gazing at the fabulous garden right below.

The menu is not typical. It offers the best of every cuisine: penne arrabiata, buffalo wings, you name it. The decor includes abstract paintings with wide screens showing football matches (on mute!) for the boisterous lads.

Tanjia: 

Who: The Steak House
What: Cheap, easy and casual. The Iftar scheme offers soup, a variety of sandwiches and salads, along with the staple juices and dates. The menu is a mere 45 SR and it changes daily.
Where:  Millennium Centre, 2nd floor - Tahlia St - +9662 6829955.


Who: The Meridien Hotel
What: For those who want to splurge with no bad surprises.

On a wintry day in early 2006, a new tenant moved into number 138 along London’s New Bond Street. Unlike its neighbor’s Asprey and Chanel a few steps away, the elegantly appointed store neither traded in fine jewels nor high-end ready-to-wear.

The store marked the first European outpost of Bateel, the haute Saudi confectioner and patisserie.

When the day is done, and the hunger pangs kick in, is there anything more satisfying than a good meal?

But if you find your kitchen lacking in ingredients, skills or utensils, take-out is usually the order of the day and we all know how badly that can go – MSG anyone?