Review: Beit Dickson Restaurant


On New Year's Eve, my girl friends and I had lunch at Beit Dickson, a Kuwaiti restaurant in Salmiya.  The restaurant has been on my "must visit" list for a while and we jumped at the chance to leave work early to try it out. 

The interiors are amazing and has been done up like an old souk with heavy wooden doors, lamps, old pots, pans and kettles, etc.  There is even a tented area set up like a diwaniya.  The restaurant has a dining room as well as small private rooms and the staff are also dressed in traditional Kuwaiti attire. 

The restaurant was empty when we arrived (I guess we were a little early for lunch) but the dining room quickly filled up soon after.  Having very little knowledge about Kuwaiti food we asked our server for recommendations and we were told that the Matabq Zubaydi was their best seller so we had to order it.  We also ordered the Kumar's Biriyani (listed as beef but it was actually mutton), the Dickson Kebabs, the hummous with meat and pine nuts and the Margog which is described as layers of meat and flour. 

The hummous was amazing and it was so tempting to go back and lick the bowl!  We were also served two large platters of naan like Arabic bread.  The bread was served hot and crispy and tasted so good. 


The Kebab Dickson was another good choice.  The kebabs were so juicy and succulent and I wished we'd ordered a few more plates of that. 
The Margog was just plain weird.  I was expecting something that resembled lasagna but this was more of a soupy texture with lumps of dough and a few scraps of meat.  We hardly touched the dish and will not be ordering it again.
Both rice dishes were also a mistake.  The Kumar's biriyani was the better of the two and we actually finished the dish.  It tasted like a blander version of an Indian biriyani.  It was a good dish, but nothing to write home about. 
The Zubaydi however I will not be ordering again.  I'm not much of a fish eater and usually never order fish unless its deep fried and wrapped in newspaper.  But being the restaurant's best seller, I was really expecting loads of flavor.  The fish smelled and tasted, well, very fishy and though it had been fried, the skin was soggy.  We just had a taste of it and kept it aside. 
After our meal, we took a quick walk through the restaurant ooohing and aaahing over the interiors.  We were invited to have an Arabic tea and some sweet sticky dates in the diwaniya. 


That was definitely the highlight of our lunch and we were probably giggling and laughing a bit too much as an older Kuwaiti lady gave us a disapproving glance as she walked past us.  Was the diwaniya area only for men?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, we quickly took a few more photos and then packed and left in fear of the old lady returning. 
Over all, it was a good experience.  Price?  Our meal came up to just a little over 17KD.  Not bad for 4 main dishes.  I loved the interiors and will definitely be back for more kebabs and hummous!

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