Country dossier
Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries across Kuwait in the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Kuwait
Kuwait City's restaurants include rooftop North Indian dining, vegan and vegetarian cooking, Lebanese shawarma and Palestinian home cooking. Bukhara Restaurant has an extensive wine list.
At The St. Regis Kuwait, Bukhara Restaurant serves rooftop North Indian fine dining in an a la carte format. Tandoori specialties come from a traditional clay oven, and the room has views over the Kuwait City skyline. The wine list is extensive, and the drinks also include craft cocktails and zero-proof drinks.
In Bneid al-Gar, OVO Restaurant cooks vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian food in an a la carte format, with a standard wine program. Flavours come from Italy, the Levant, India and California. The space is sleek and minimalist, with lush garden seating, and the kitchen uses Gulf culinary traditions alongside contemporary technique.
Al-Sawabar is a Lebanese shawarma restaurant in Kuwait City. Lebanese shawarma is the focus of its cooking, and the restaurant serves its food through an a la carte dining format.
In West Abu Fatira, Matbakhi serves Palestinian home cooking prepared to order by Chef Sawsan. It offers small plates and an a la carte menu, with a minimal wine program. Palestinian and Levantine dishes include traditional breakfasts, charcoal grills, mezze and meat-filled pastries.
Tampopo and Bonjiri serve ramen and yakitori in Salmiya, while White Robata serves Japanese robata dishes in Shuwaikh. In Al Farwaniya, Ava serves Mediterranean cooking at Waldorf Astoria Kuwait, with a standard wine program and craft cocktails.
In Salmiya, Tampopo serves Japanese ramen made with homemade noodles and a 48-hour bone broth. Diners watch the chef prepare each bowl in an open kitchen, and the restaurant also offers counter dining.
In Salmiya, Bonjiri serves yakitori, grilling all cuts of chicken and duck from beak to tail over traditional Japanese barbecue. Maryam Al Nusif leads the kitchen. The restaurant serves small plates in an a la carte format.
In Shuwaikh, White Robata serves modern Japanese robata dishes cooked over live fire, with small plates, an a la carte menu and a standard wine program. Its open kitchen is within the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Centre.
In Al Farwaniya, Ava is the modern Mediterranean restaurant at Waldorf Astoria Kuwait. It serves a la carte, with a standard wine program and craft cocktails. The cooking draws on the French Riviera and Southern Italy.
Grand Hyatt Kuwait has this group's wine recognition: Star Wine List for 2026. Michelin 1 Key awards sit with Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya, which has rooftop dining, and The St. Regis Kuwait, with Italian and regional cuisines, while Waldorf Astoria Kuwait has Peacock Alley in the lobby and holds a Forbes 5-Star award and La Liste points.
In Kuwait City, Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya has rooftop dining across four culinary concepts. Its hotel awards for 2026 include Michelin Key recognition and a Forbes 5-Star award.
In Qibla, The St. Regis Kuwait offers personalised butler service and suites overlooking the Arabian Gulf. Its dining portfolio spans Italian and regional cuisines, plus a signature Bloody Mary bar program. The hotel holds a Michelin 1 Key for 2026 and a Forbes 4-Star award for 2026.
In Zahra, Grand Hyatt Kuwait connects directly to 360 Mall and has a wine program recognised by Star Wine List in 2026. The hotel also holds Michelin Selected for 2025. Skyline views, a luxury spa and tennis stadium access are part of the property.
In Al Andalous, Waldorf Astoria Kuwait has a signature Peacock Alley in the lobby, with a connection to The Avenues mall and panoramic city views. The hotel holds a Forbes 5-Star award for 2026 and 91 points on the 2026 La Liste Top Hotels index.
These restaurants all serve a la carte, with cooking that ranges from Italian dishes and Asian tapas to Kuwaiti seafood and Indian-Mediterranean food. Cure also serves small plates.
In Shuwaikh Industrial, Cantina serves Italian cooking in an a la carte format, with a standard wine program. It serves coffee, desserts, Caesar salad, whipped ricotta and pizza. It placed #18 in World's 50 Best MENA's Best Restaurants (2026).
In Shuwaikh Industrial, Cure serves modern Asian tapas through small plates and a la carte service. It serves craft cocktails, and its architect-designed interior features light wood, plants, pink tones and statement lighting.
In Rai, Midar serves a modern interpretation of traditional Kuwaiti seafood, inspired by the 1960s and 1970s. It has an a la carte menu and a minimal wine program. The interior features fish-scale patterns and vintage brass.
In South Sabahiya, KUMAR serves Indian-Mediterranean food in Warehouse Mall. The restaurant occupies a mall unit and draws repeat visitors from the neighborhood. Its a la carte menu includes biryani and desserts.
Kuwait City has the largest selection in our guide, with 18 of Kuwait's 25 venues, including restaurants, a bar and hotels. Salmiya follows with 2 venues, both restaurants: Tampopo serves Japanese ramen and Bonjiri serves yakitori.
Kuwait has no Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide. Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya and The St. Regis Kuwait each hold a Michelin 1 Key for 2026. Grand Hyatt Kuwait holds Michelin Selected for 2025.
Bukhara Restaurant has an extensive wine list, and Grand Hyatt Kuwait has wine recognition. Bukhara Restaurant, at The St. Regis Kuwait, has a wine list. Grand Hyatt Kuwait, in Zahra, holds Star Wine List recognition for 2026.
Awards on this page sit with Cantina, Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya, The St. Regis Kuwait, Grand Hyatt Kuwait and Waldorf Astoria Kuwait. Cantina placed #18 in World's 50 Best MENA's Best Restaurants (2026).
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Kuwait
Selected entries from the current guide for Kuwait.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Opened in November 2023 in Kuwait City's Shuwaikh Industrial district, Cantina brings Mediterranean cooking with an Italian focus to a dining scene hungry for it. The project comes from chef Basmah Marouf, whose tenure as executive chef at Madison Heig established her credentials at the sharper end of the city's restaurant circuit. The result is a room that reads as warm and considered rather than showy.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Open since spring 2024, Matbakhi has established itself as a serious dining address inside The Avenues, Kuwait's largest mall. The menu centers on Palestinian and Levantine cooking, moving from traditional breakfast dishes through charcoal grills, mezze, and meat-filled pastries. It draws a devoted local following that has little to do with the surrounding retail.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Al Shamam Restaurant sits within Kuwait City's broader tradition of ingredient-led Arabic dining, where the sourcing of spices, grains, and proteins from Gulf and Levantine producers carries as much weight as technique. The restaurant's name, meaning 'muskmelon' in Arabic, signals an orientation toward the seasonal and the locally specific that sets a particular expectation before a single dish arrives.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Al-Sawabar sits within Kuwait City's evolving dining scene, where traditional Gulf hospitality rituals shape the pace and character of a meal as much as the food itself. The restaurant occupies a city where communal eating culture runs deep, placing it in a category defined by shared plates, deliberate pacing, and the social architecture of the table.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Ava sits in Kuwait City’s expanding premium dining circuit, where imported produce, regional supply chains, and mall-adjacent dining rooms shape how restaurants compete. With no public awards, chef, or menu format attached, it is better read through the city’s broader appetite for polished, ingredient-led meals than through trophy signals.
Salmiya, Kuwait
On Baghdad Street in Salmiya, Bonjiri occupies a specific address in Kuwait's evolving dining corridor, where ingredient-focused kitchens have started to claim ground alongside the neighbourhood's longer-established international chains. The restaurant has built a following in a city where word-of-mouth travels fast and repeat visits define a venue's real standing. For anyone mapping Salmiya's current dining options, it belongs on the itinerary.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Bukhara Restaurant sits in Kuwait City’s dense central dining circuit, where regional hotel dining, long-running South Asian kitchens, and Gulf family restaurants compete for the same evening tables. The useful way to read it is through sourcing: in Kuwait, spice, rice, dairy, and meat choices are shaped by import networks as much as by kitchen technique.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Cure occupies an industrial address in Shuwaikh, placing it among Kuwait City's growing cluster of destination restaurants that operate outside the conventional hospitality corridors. With sparse publicly available data, the venue has built its reputation through word-of-mouth and repeat custom rather than awards infrastructure, a posture that positions it as a counter-point to the city's more visible dining scene.
South Sabahiya, Kuwait
KUMAR occupies a mall unit in Warehouse Mall on King Fahad Abdulaziz Street in South Sabahiya, Kuwait, placing it within a dining format common across Kuwait's suburban commercial corridors. The venue draws repeat visitors looking for a reliable neighbourhood option in an area with a developing restaurant scene. For broader context on eating well in the district, see our full South Sabahiya guide.
Rai, Kuwait
The restaurant draws a crowd that reads its menu with genuine curiosity rather than habit. Rai's industrial-residential character makes a venue like this easy to overlook, which is precisely why it rewards the informed visitor.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
OVO Restaurant occupies a notable position in Kuwait City's evolving dining scene, where a new generation of concept-led spaces is reshaping what the city's restaurants can be. The kitchen draws on broader Gulf culinary traditions while integrating contemporary technique. For visitors working through the city's better tables, OVO is a consistent reference point in local dining conversations.
Salmiya, Kuwait
Tampopo occupies a low-profile address on Lane 9 in Salmiya, sitting within a district that has become Kuwait's most concentrated stretch of independent dining. The name, borrowed from the Japanese word for dandelion, and from Juzo Itami's 1985 noodle-obsessed film, signals a kitchen that takes its references seriously. Practical details remain sparse, which in Salmiya's dining scene tends to indicate a word-of-mouth operation rather than a mass-market one.
Shuwaikh, Kuwait
White Robata occupies a setting that few Kuwait City restaurants can match: the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Centre on Arabian Gulf Street, where robata-style live-fire cooking meets one of the Gulf's most considered architectural backdrops. The format puts ingredient quality at the centre of the experience, making sourcing and technique the twin arguments for the visit.
Mangaf, Kuwait
Wimpy sits in the Spoons Food Complex on Street 209 in Mangaf, part of Kuwait's Coast Strip C corridor. The global burger chain has operated across the Gulf for decades, offering a familiar roster of grilled burgers and quick-service formats that place it firmly in the accessible, family-oriented tier of fast casual dining along this stretch of coastline. For the Coast Strip C area, it represents a reliable, low-barrier option.
Kuwait
Selected entries from the current guide for Kuwait.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Scoring 90.5 points on La Liste's 2026 Top Hotels ranking, Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya brings together 284 rooms across 21 floors, a rooftop dining programme spanning four culinary concepts, and a spa complex with a Moroccan hammam, all on Al-Soor Street, within walking distance of Al Shaheed Park. Room rates start from $411 per night, with suite upgrades running across 67 configurations.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
On Fahd Al Salem Street in Kuwait City's commercial centre, The St. Regis Kuwait occupies the upper tier of the capital's luxury hotel market with 135 rooms priced from $1,086 per night. Arab architectural references, mashrabiya-inspired screens, patterned marble floors, locally crafted brass and leather, run throughout a property that balances international brand standards with deliberate regional character. The dining portfolio spans Italian, regional cuisines, and the brand's signature Bloody Mary bar program.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Among Kuwait City's beachfront hotel options, Jumeirah Messilah Beach sits in a category of its own: a 405-room resort on Al Ta'awun Street that has earned recognition as a Regional Winner for Luxury Family Resort and Continent Winner for Luxury Beach Resort. Designed by New York firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, it pairs Gulf-facing private beach access with a 37,000-square-foot spa and a distinctly Arabian design identity.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
A Forbes 5-Star property carrying 91 points on the 2026 La Liste Top Hotels index, the Waldorf Astoria Kuwait sets Old World luxury codes against Kuwait City's appetite for scale and ceremony. Ikaros Club suite access, polished service, and a Hilton Worldwide operational standard place it at the upper tier of the city's international hotel market.
Hawally, Kuwait
The Regency Hotel Kuwait holds the 2025 World Travel Awards for Kuwait's Leading Luxury Hotel and the continent-level title for Luxury Conference and Event Hotel, placing it at the upper tier of formal hospitality in Hawally. The property on Al-Ta'awen Street functions as a reference point for large-format luxury in a district that sits adjacent to Kuwait City's commercial core. For travellers requiring both scale and recognised service standards, it anchors the Kuwait accommodation conversation.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Arabella Beach Hotel Kuwait, Vignette Collection by IHG holds dual recognition as both a Regional Luxury Business Hotel winner and Kuwait's Country Winner for Luxury Beach Hotel, a combination that places it in a distinct tier among Kuwait City's coastal properties. Positioned within the Arabella Complex along Coast Line A, it bridges Gulf-facing leisure and corporate infrastructure in a market where few properties do both credibly.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Positioned above the 360 Mall complex on Kuwait City's 6th Ring Road, Grand Hyatt Kuwait trades in scale and light: soaring atriums, curated marble interiors, and a wine programme recognised by Star Wine List in 2026. The property sits in Kuwait's upper tier of international full-service hotels, alongside peers such as the Four Seasons and Waldorf Astoria, and draws both business travellers and Gulf leisure guests.
Kuwait
Selected entries from the current guide for Kuwait.
Kuwait
Selected entries from the current guide for Kuwait.
No venues found.
