If you follow me on Snapchat, you’ll know that as of late I’ve been travelling a fair bit for work. While these trips have been exclusively day journeys to the not-so-far-away Kuwait, the mere prospect of a business trip still excited me. My passion for travel knows no bounds.
That said, despite the fact that my travel has been limited to only about an hour-long plane journey each way, don’t let anybody fool you; air travel, is not glamorous. In fact, I’ve found that one-day journeys are often more exhausting than a week-long one. Through my short stint of day trips however, I’ve come up with a few key survival tips, if you will:
- Always have a filling breakfast – you never know when your next meal will be.
- Water is your best friend – stay hydrated whenever possible.
- Travel with a handbag large enough to fit a change of comfortable shoes in a ziploc bag (toms are perfect for this).
- Make the most of your time at your destination in question.
When I first heard about OVO, it had only been open for a couple of days before I was next due to touch down in Kuwait City. Needless to say, I was quite excitable. The restaurant touts itself as a vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian eatery – meaning that they do have a couple of non-veg dishes on the menu, but that was hardly going to deter me.
After virtually no arm-twisting at all, a good friend of mine and I headed there for an express lunch.
A quick survey of the menu and we were ready to order, seated outside in the extremely tastefully decorated surroundings.
First up – we opted for the Raw Beetroot Carpaccio.
Topped with avocado, spinach, nutritional yeast, walnut crumble and a red tahini sauce – this was absolutely divine. While raw beetroot isn’t usually my cup of tea, this was sliced paper thin and delicately marinated.
What came next however…
Chickpea fries, with cashewnnaise sauce and raw ketchup. Words cannot begin to describe just how incredible this dish was. Similar in texture to polenta fries, these wedges were crisp on the outside but soft and creamy on the inside, beautifully spiced and paired expertly with both sauces. Afterwards my friend and I both agreed it was the star of the show, hands down.
For my main I opted for the fusion coconut curry, which consisted of chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, spinach, pine nuts and lemon zest on a bed of brown rice.
Simple, light and well cooked, but slightly lacking in flavour. Having sampled many a chickpea curry in my time, I would have preferred something with a little more punch to it, but it was by no means a bad dish overall.
Dessert was a double feature of raw chocolate brownies and a raw mango cheesecake – to share of course. The cheesecake was nothing to write home about if I’m honest, but the chocolate brownies were perfect – dense, naturally sweetened and rich with raw cacao.
Aside from the food, the entire experience was lovely – the staff and owner of the restaurant were very accommodating and hospitable, and everything arrived in a timely fashion to boot, which was much appreciated given that I had a flight to catch shortly thereafter. Not one to be missed if you’re ever in Kuwait!
OVO is located at Bneid Al-Qar, Massaleh East Complex, Block 2 and is open from 1pm to 10:30pm, closed on Sundays. Telephone numbers: 00965 22575324, 0096522575374.
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