Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Name Your Worst Ramadan Buffet Experience

Ramadan used to be fun. I used to go out with friends to coffee shops and enjoy the evening over cheap eats.

Whatup now? Now, you can't go ANYWHERE in Kuwait without there being a mandatory cover charge or a buffet. Buffets are bad enough during normal times in Kuwait (no thermometers to monitor safe food temperature; which should be a steady 140 degrees F, by the way or people WILL get sick), no one monitoring how long the food has been kept out (most of the time it is just left there until it is gone); and food revival (has the food just been put out/is it fresh or if they are just reviving yesterday's meal --- iftar buffet working its way into suhoor meal) ... ew. How many sneeze guards have you seen over buffets in Kuwait???? (Sneeze guards are the metal or glass coverings, so that people don't sneeze, breathe, cough, or spit-while-talking on the food!) On numerous occasions, I have even seen "people" in Kuwait EATING OUT OF THE CHAFING DISHES! Further, the prices are astro-nomical: 5KD here, 8KD there....

Who wants to go out unless you sit in your car on Shaar al Mataaem? That's just so ridiculous.

Ok peeps - holla at me: Where is the WORST ever buffet experience during a Ramadan meal. Did it make you sick or just queezy? Was it a rip-off?

My #1 absolutely worst Ramadan experience ever was at Baalbek Palace. The Romanian and I were HONGRY at iftar time and all the restaurants we went to were full. First of all, I got stampeded by a bunch of extremely rotund people. (The Romanian reminded me last night that the electricity also went out, so there was no AC, no lights, and it was hard to tell how they were preparing the foood... ) Then the restaurant ran out of food. I got sick. I had to eat my meal while watching a table of transvestites flirting with each other. It took 30 minutes to get the bill.

9 comments:

Purgatory said...

Stay away from Buffets, just eat at a normal restaurant you know.

I do not go much for buffets in Kuwait, but sometimes I go to Safir Hotel because their food is usually good, usually quiet also.

Worst buffet experience in Bahrain, Nibaq can tell you about it.

Slowly Fading Away said...

Bad experience #1- The Jungle in Landmark in Salmiya! Nasty buffet, nasty food, dirty plates, dirty chairs...must I go on...?

Bad experience #2- OMG! Now just so u know this wasnt in Ramadan but I have to tell you anyway. Peppes Pizza salad buffet- I warn you never to venture down that road! Seriously! A lady was straight up tasting and sniffing everything in the buffet, including dressings. Gross much? Yeah I think so!

Where did all the good places go?

Desert Girl said...

Purg - Please define "normal" :) I haven't tried Safir... I'll have to do that sometime. I like quiet.

Slowly - You know, we were going to try the Jungle one time. I'm glad we didn't.

Purgatory said...

normal means no buffet.

Safir is "usually" quiet, so don't go in Ramadan, try it on a weekday night afterwards.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if you could call it food bad but... our work had an Iftar Meal for us at Jean's Grill on the seaside. It was like a feeding frenzy with the Arabic staff.. you would think they had been fasting for DAYS not just hours!! It was sickening to see them pile their plates... the food would have fit on 2 or 3 plates, I'm sure!!

(I promise to someday get a name...I've commented here before)

Anonymous said...

Not sure about during Ramadan, but if you like quiet, you might want to try the SAS in Salwa. A little pricey at KD10 per person. But the food is always delicious, decent selection, fresh grilling going on outside all evening, covers on all of the hot dishes, and I see them refreshing the foods often.

Honestly, I am always pleasantly suprised when I go there. Unless of course I am with American friends (male) and we have a Filipino waitress. Then I suddenly become invisible and wonder if she even heard me scream "DIET COKE, PLEASE!" as she was thinking of creative ways to get her phone number to the men at the table. Perhaps if I tattoo, "I will give them your number" on my forehead, my service would improve drastically.

Other than a little prostitution at mealtime, it's a great place!

PaLoMiNo said...

ana agoool mako 3ala akil il bayt ;p

Desert Girl said...

Anonymous - I will try the SAS sometime. Sounds interesting. I know the F&B manager there, so I will stop by sometime. I'll also let him know about his prostitution problem! That is hilarious.

Is everyone looking for a free ticket to the Land of the Big PX? :)

Palomino - Sorry painted pony, but yo no habla no trasliterated Arabic. Se habla English dans la blog ici.

If someone wants to teach me, that's cool.

nomad rocker said...

"ana agoool mako 3ala akil il bayt ;p" translates into "nothing beats home cooked food"