a shabestan or shabistan is an underground space that can be usually found in traditional architecture of mosques, houses, and schools in ancient persia - in kuwait, shabestan is an iranian restaurant under the crowne plaza chain of restaurants that include sakura, ayam zaman, alnawkhaza etc..
though shabestan at 360 mall has a totally different look and feel than the one at crowne plaza hotel, the interior decoration is fantastic - the attention to details is impressive, you sit there and can't help contemplating the color world, textures, fabrics, tiling, furniture, cutlery... everything looks beautiful - the purple curtains hanging down the ceiling are absolutely gorgeous, they act as tables separators and give the restaurant a magical feel...
though we're not big fans of iranian food, we thought it was delicious - the appetizers were good, the kashk bademjan was actually excellent (fried aubergines with dried yogurt, dried mint and labnah) but the nargesi was simply ok (fresh spinach sautéed with a hint of garlic and kashk) - the salads were good especially the meygo salad, (shrimp and avocado salad with cocktail sauce)
as for the main course we have to point that the portions are filling, you better share the food otherwise you'll end up with leftovers - ghelo kabab & sultani was succulent, that's kabab and meat steak with rice, so was the ghelo kabab & kubideh - we didn't like the stew, we tried potato stew or gheimeh sibzamini and that was not what we expected - not that it wasn't good, but we didn't like the taste - service was great, no complaints.
the only thing missing was the caviar, we wanted to get that iranian caviar but the price did not encourage... kd 50 for 50 grams!! well, maybe another time and especially not with pepsi!!
final verdict: a strong recommendation for shabestan, however watch out for what you order - it is a bit expensive but worth the experience and by the way, they have delivery service!
