Cilantro Café @ The Village - Abu Hasaniya, Kuwait: The Cilantro Café is located in The Village Café and Restaurant Complex in Abu Al-Hasaniya area at exit 208 off Highway 30 in Kuwait. Cilantro has cafés in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and this café in Kuwait joins a few of their other properties in Kuwait . This café opened its doors to diners in January, 2012.

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Situated beside WOW and The Kitchen, this café in Kuwait had two floors and an outdoor seating area. The outdoor space was beautifully done up. Inside, the décor of the café was bright, cheerful and quite informal. A big mural was hanging on one wall. A bakery case displayed some of the goodies on offer. The downstairs area seated around 20 diners. Dining space was also available on the first floor.

I visited the Cilantro Café with a colleague as we were on the lookout for some good food, service and privacy so that we could talk some business. Since I did not know much about this café in Kuwait, I assumed it to be an Italian restaurant. As soon as we entered the café, I asked the waitress about the type of food they serve and she answered that soups, salads, pasta, sandwiches, paninis and a wide array of coffees and other drinks were available. While this was not exactly what I was expecting, I decided to give it a try.

We headed to the upstairs “dining room” only to find that it had a similar café style set up as below. We were promptly handed the menu. To my chagrin, the menu was not so enticing and had only a small number of items listed under soups, pasta, salads, snacks, bakery and pastries and cold and hot drinks. However, the sandwiches section had a decent variety of club sandwiches, brown toast, wraps, panini and baguettes along with a couple of specials.

I ordered the Penne Polo with chicken and mushroom and requested that some red sauce be added to make it creamy and peppers to make it spicy. To my surprise, I was informed that the food is actually made in a kitchen off premise and is just heated up at the café. The waitress offered me some ketchup. As much as I appreciated her ingenuity, it wouldn’t have worked. I ended up getting what as they had it. However, the taste was quite good. Though the portion size was on the smaller side, it was the perfect size for my lunch. My colleague had the Chicken Caesar salad. Again, the size of the salad was small, but she said it was tasty. The salad was reasonably priced at 1.500 KD.

Overall, Cilantro Café offered a quiet place to meet, a small selection of fresh dishes and a nice atmosphere. The main negative was that the food is made off site and cannot be altered to meet our requests. While I was expecting a full fledged Italian restaurant, I was still quite happy with my experience at Cilantro. Our rating for this café in Kuwait is Almost Bombastic.

What I liked: The food

What I didn’t like: The food could not be altered to match my taste

Rating: Almost Bombastic

Address and Telephone Number:
Cilantro Café
The Village
Abu Hasaniya, Kuwait

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