Cafe Coco – Grand Avenues Mall – Restaurant review

Cafe Coco’s review post has been the single most viewed post on this blog, 600 views as of today. The second most review post comes in at 116 views only. I hope whoever views it actually gets something out of it. Here’s the link to the first reviews.

The high view count has encouraged us to go back again and try out some more dishes, at least I tried some new ones, can’t say much about my counter part though.

We went on two separate occasions for lunch and this is the combined list of dishes we ordered:-

– Chicken Caesar Salad

– Salmon

Grilled salmon served with peas and mangetout casserole and roasted vine tomatoes

– Chicken Burger

Pan-fried chicken breast, halloumi  cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and caramelised onion, served with harissa mayonnaise

– Basmati Rice – side dish

– French fries – side dish

– Lemon butter sauce

– Date Cake

– Lemon ginger juice

– Pomegranate juice

When we first visited the restaurant, it had just opened and we had high expectation but they didn’t delivery. It’s very common in Kuwait that when restaurants first open they’re overrated and just hype. They usually loose their cool within the next 6 months, some die away while other gather a sufficient following. What we liked about Cafe Coco is that our experience has been the opposite of the mainstream fate of Kuwaiti restaurants. Our initial visits when the place first opened weren’t as good as posted before here, but with time the place has gotten much better. Contrary to what I had said before, I did try some other main dishes.

This time, the grilled salmon was better compared to the first and second times. The portion is still generous and the combination of supplementary ingredients compliment each other to give a wonderful taste.

Chicken burger with halloumi and caramelised onions was a great combination for the tastebuds to discover.

The side of fries were also much better than before, much less oily and much more enjoyable. Basmati rice was nice, I remember the first time being better though.

The Date Cake was the perfect finale. We really enjoyed the warm spongy cake with caramel. Ask for a scope of vanilla ice cream along with the cake, this will add a nice warm/cold punch.

 

Ambiance

The place still has great ambiance, nice seating areas and décor both inside and outside.

Music is also appropriate for an international bistro.

Service

The service was ok, despite being the busy lunch time. Waiters were polite and offered to change our juice a few times since it wasn’t what we ordered.

It goes without saying, that the staff has a dramatic impact on the overall experience and it was evident from the recent visits. On these two recent occasions, two different waiters had served us. The first was excellent in all respects. The second waiter wasn’t as much so, which did make a big difference – more than we expected – even though he was always polite and courteous, something just wasn’t right.

Value for Money

It’s what you would expect for a mid-range restaurant. Both visits cost a total of about 47.000 KD.

The Verdict

I give this place 4 stars because of the food quality improvement and continued good service.

The restaurant is run by Al Shaya, if you use your NBK credit card at some of Al Shaya outlets or restaurants you can get either a discount or NBK reward points. When we asked, no one in the restaurant was aware of either. I just checked the NBK rewards program page here for participating outlets to see if Coco Cafe was added, but seems it’s not there. So I can’t confirm if you get reward points for dining.

The restaurant is still on our “Good” list, they have many choices and are conveniently located.

Still a recommend place to visit and enjoy.

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