Salt Seafood Restaurant at the Messilah Beach Hotel

Last week I was invited to pass by the new seafood restaurant at the Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel called Salt. I personally think the hotel is the nicest one we have in Kuwait right now so I was pretty interested to try this new place out. One thing I really hate about the hotel though is you’ve got two options for parking, either (a) you give your car to valet or (b) you park in the sand lot across the street. Since I don’t trust valets with my car I have to use the sand lot and it’s never a great start to dinner when you have to spend the first few minutes cleaning the dust off my new fancy sneakers.

If you’ve been to Messilah before then you probably know that most of their restaurants are located in the lower level of the main lobby. Salt is located there as well and they’ve taken up the whole left side area. Once we walked into the restaurant we could immediately tell that they wanted to be the most luxurious seafood restaurant in Kuwait and at the moment they probably are. The restaurant is long and not very wide with two kinds of seating areas, on one side they have curved couches going along the wall and it’s nicely lit. On the opposite side is a much brighter open floor layout with beautiful chandeliers. So far the experience was very fancy until the menu arrived and I opened it up to reveal bright yellow text on a dark blue background which looked really tacky layout (take a look). If I could change one thing in the place it would have to be the menu thats for sure.

Because this is a high end restaurant, everything has to be top notch especially the service which in this specific case I found difficult to judge for a number of reasons. First is the fact I was invited and so they knew who I was, and secondly they had barely been open for a week. Still, if I did compare it to other hotels and restaurants in Kuwait I would say the service was in the top 10 but not top 5. In other restaurants where the service is in the top 5, the staff have been working there long enough to see me grow old while Salt has just opened.

Since we were two we ended up ordering the following items from the menu:

Acqua Morelli Sparking Water (x2) KD7.000

Baked Chermoula Prawns KD7.500

Pan Fried Scallops KD7.250

Lobster Bisque (x2) KD9.500

Whole Lobster (Medium) KD28.000

Whole Sea Bass KD15.000

Pearl of the Ocean drink KD3.350

Messilah Journey (mixed dessert) KD5.750

From the two starters we ordered I was expecting the Baked Chermoula Prawns to be my favorite since it was prawns stuffed with scallops. But to my surprise I ended up preferring the Pan Fried Scallops instead. That’s because the scallops dish had so many different flavors from the scallops itself to the stuffed calamari, squid ink risotto and even the puree which were all delicious. Once we were done with the starters they brought over a soup plate which large chunks of lobster inside but no soup. I started thinking to myself maybe this was their interpretation of the lobster bisque? Just as I was thinking that the waiter came over and started pouring the soup over my large lobster chunks. Presentation was an easy 10/10 and from everything we ordered I would also have to say the Lobster Bisque was by far my favorite dish.

The main courses were served once we were done with everything else and this is where I think we could have ordered differently. We had their two specials, the Whole Lobster and the Whole Sea Bass. In hindsight I don’t think we should have ordered the lobster since it was the safest option on the menu and probably the least exciting dish. It was cooked perfectly and the presentation was fantastic but there really wasn’t anything to make it stick out from fresh lobster dishes anywhere else. The Whole Sea Bass on the other hand was the one that I thought had a lot of potential but ended up being the most disappointing. The sea bass is cooked in a salt dough and they bring it over to your table still in the dough which looks like a piece of bread in the shape of the sea bass. They then cut open the dough to reveal your juicy fish before the waiter debones it for you. The presentation again was an easy 10/10 but I think my issue with this dish was the lobster tarragon sauce on the side. I think the sauce overpowered the flavor of the fish and I didn’t like the sauce much but since I had already poured it all over the fish it was too late.

I really like the hotel and Salt has the potential to be a great seafood place. Personally I wouldn’t pay KD3.500 for water or KD28 for a lobster but I would definitely go back for their lobster bisque. Nearly all their main seafood dishes cost under KD10 which is very reasonable and looking back at the menu now there are a couple of dishes I would want to go back and try. But, I would do two things differently the next time around. First I’d sit in the dimmer lit areas off to the side which actually look a lot more comfortable, and secondly I’ll make sure to drink a lot of water ahead of time. The opening times of Salt are 7PM to midnight and for reservations you can call them on 22269666.

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