Benihana Kuwait: No Love for Bloggers, Tisk Tisk

Kuwait is buzzing over the lawsuit against a popular blogger in Kuwait. Mark at 2:48am wrote about his experience at the new Benihana Kuwait at the Avenues. He didn't like the food but gave a good rating to the overall feel of the restaurant. He recommended other Japanese restaurants in the Avenues as opposed to Benihana which upset the sponsor/owner of the Benihana restaurant. Mr. Al-Mutairi the owner filed a lawsuit against the blogger and the trial is set to begin on March 8. If you read the Arab Times daily you will know that rapists and murderers go free all the time. I don't think anyone gets convicted in Kuwait due to wasta. Trust me it's not the lawyers it's all about wasta and of course your nationality. Citizens seem to get off all the time mostly due to lack of evidence or the police not following protocol. The writer of the article is Lebanese which may be one of the reasons they are going after him. I wanted to visit the restaurant but it opened after I left to the states.

In the states the chefs are Japanese and skilled. They give you a show at every meal. The chefs would crack an egg and then flip the egg shells up onto their hat. Way cool. Japanese restaurant with Japanese people in a nice quiet place with light Japanese music. Nice and calming. Fast forward to Kuwait. My mother and her hubby went to Benihana at my request. She said the place was nicely decorated and the people were nice. They had Arabic music playing in a Japanese restaurant. Umm ok. The servers were Philipino and her chef was Indian. She said he didn't really know what he was doing and when she told him about the egg shell flip he decided to try it - with a full egg. Umm clean up on aisle 9. Duh!

Overall my mom wasn't impressed. I would have still visited if the owner didn't make up this suit. Now as a blogger I won't visit once I get back to Kuwait. What the owner doesn't know is that he has brought negative publicity to himself. Yes, people read blogs and take in account the opinions posted but that doesn't mean they would have boycotted his restaurant. People are so uptight in Kuwait and have nothing better to do than sue the little people. He has money to burn via lawsuit and fancy lawyers. Instead why don't you donate that money to orphans or some other charity. Once again a prime example of too much money and free time. I'd say a control issue. How dare someone speak badly or voice an opinion. Freedom of speech doesn't exist.

Benihana people you make the chain look bad. Good job.


Read the full Article:

Kuwait restaurant sues blogger for bad review - The National