Kuwait Restaurant Review : The Noodle House
On Saturday I went to The Noodle House which has just opened next to Johnny Carino’s on the Gulf Road (where Big Al’s Steak House used to be). I had never heard of The Noodle House before and later found out that it is a Dubai based franchise. We got there at around 2pm and the restaurant was about half full.
Food
The menus are ripped off from a pad which are on each table and you pick your dishes by ticking the boxes and giving it to the waiter when you are done. There was a good selection of dishes. 7 or 8 appetizers, five different types of soup noodle dishes and another half dozen rice and wok fried noodle dishes. There are also a few speciality dishes of chicken, lamb, duck, prawns etc but these don’t come with noodles or rice.
We shared a dish of salt and pepper calamari (deep fried squid) as a starter with tom yam dipping sauce. The calamari was well cooked. Light and not oily. Wasn’t that keen on the side sauce, then again I like my calamari served simple with a squeeze of lemon. It didn’t look like it would be enough when it arrived but the portion was a good size to share.
For the main course I had the bakmi goreng noodles with chicken and prawns. The dish was served hot like noodles should be and had just the right amount of spiciness. The dish was pretty tasty and had good amounts of chicken and jumbo prawns. The noodles were cooked in a nice sauce so it wasn’t dry and not sweet either. My feeling was that the food had good quality ingredients, was well cooked but didn’t Wow me if you know what I mean.
Again it was a generous portion and I actually had trouble finishing my dish. Unfortunately there was no room to try the desserts although I was tempted to try either the Mango pudding with vanilla ice cream or the Sumatra chocolate and coconut pot.
Decor
Very nice indeed, a mixture of mahogany style tables with cushioned benches and regular square tables. The tables are nicely spread out so its not Wagamama style. We managed to grab one of the benches near the window with a view of the sea. There are large windows all around so there is a lot natural light in the resutarurant, which is something a lot of oher restaurants don’t have in Kuwait. You also get a view of the kitchen cooking the food (but not the smell of the food being cooked :) ). They had RnB music in the background while we were there which was bit of a weird choice for this type of restaurant I thought.
Service
As you would expect in a place like this here in Kuwait, service was good. The waitress who served us had good knowledge of all the dishes and was helpful in explaining the differences. We didn’t have to wait long for the food to arrive and they left a good amount of time between between serving the starter and main dishes.
Price
Tough one. By Kuwait’s standards I would say cost is above the average. The meal we had which was the calamari appetizer, 2 noodles dishes and drinks came to around KD14 in total including service, though I have to say we were completely full when we left. The main specilality dishes (which we didn’t order, and had no roon for anway) cost around KD 4.500 each.
Overall
A great looking restaurant which is more upscale than the name suggests. Good quality food with generous portions, but not the tastiest I have had. Prices overall are a bit on the high side. Would probably go back again just to try the other dishes on a menu which has good selection of different dishes to choose from.
17 Responses Leave a comment
I like the chopsticks photo.
Now, be honest did you really use them for the whole meal , including the noodles!!
Does it taste as good as it looks?
Please, stop making me homesick!!
Well first of all thats not me holding the chopsticks. I’m taking the photo :) However I am expert in using them and did so to full effect with the noodles. If you dont believe me I will show you all the sauce that splashed on my T-shirt as proof ;) Yup the food is really good but not outstanding.
I cant wait to go… I have been to the one in Dubai! It was good. You get to share a table with others (loooong tables), is it the same way here in Kuwait?
I know what you mean but sounds like the one in Kuwait is different (probably because people here are too fussy about their personal space! ).They do have long tables but they can only take 4, maybe 6, people at the most.
Thats funny Gasman I was wondering the same thing…were those the hands of the mix holding the chopsticks..
I am looking forward to trying out this place when I get back. Please tell me that they provide proper cutlery at the table, I can’t use chopsticks to save my life..lol!!
Don’t worry Night Flower, I have a feeling knives and forks are already there on the table (just in case:))
Oh yea the hands - lol I never noticed them before! I think I was just overwhelmed with the picture of the calamari, looks very good and the portion is quite generous too!
The calamari as an appetizer is definitely way too much for one person.
With all the focus on the hands holding the chopsticks, I’m surprised no one spotted the ‘ghost’ behind the glass door in the 1st photo…
Blame gasman for starting the controversy regarding “the hands”..lol!!
I demand that you reveal the identity of the Hands!!
Please, I can’t take this any more.
The suspense is too much.
Night Flower : Wait till I get my hands on gasman ! (no pun intended ;))
gasman : The suspense is too much ? Well its just going to last a little longer (cue evil laugh hahaha:)
The Noodle House has a special place in my heart and everyone else’s who studied in UAE.
Ok, so now I know why there is this buzz about it opening in Kuwait
I know… in Belgium, PQ also have common tables for you to sit with everyone else, but not in Kuwait!
I also heard it’s the same with Paul’s in France..
Had lunch there today. The location is great and the decor is elegant. Service is very friendly. Unfortunately, the food was bad. There were 5 of us and no one enjoyed the meal. We had 3 apetizers, 2 noodle dishes, a chicken dish and a beef dish and we shared. The food was far from tasty and very salty. Could not eat the beef dish. Noodle Factory is way better.
Wow that’s suprising to hear, but then we only had a couple of dishes. Doesn’t sound like its worth a repeat visit then. I haven’t been in Noodle Factory in ages, but don’t remember it being anything special.