Kastana at Marina Crescent: kebab meat from Kuwaiti farms, ouzi lamb frozen from Italy

Kastana is a Lebanese restaurant and café on the first floor of Marina Crescent in Salmiya, open daily from 9am to midnight according to its website. The name means chestnut, and the nut is more than a name here: it goes into three dishes on the menu.

Where the meat comes from

At the end of its digital menu sits a section few restaurants publish, headed MEAT SOURCES, listing the origin and state of each product:

• Kebab meat and lamb chops: slaughtered in Kuwait from Kuwaiti farms, fresh and chilled.
• Ouzi lamb: frozen, from Italy.
• Beef fillet: frozen, from Australia, Paraguay or Brazil.
• Topside beef: fresh Kuwaiti, alongside frozen from Brazil and the UAE.
• Chicken breast: frozen, from Brazil, the UAE, Ukraine, Turkey or Oman.
• Prawns, large and small: frozen, from the UAE or India.

So the Kastana Mix Grill (KD 8.950), with prawns, chicken, shish tawook, kebab, tikka, lamb chops and fries, puts fresh Kuwaiti lamb on the same plate as frozen prawns and chicken.

Where the chestnuts go

• Sharkasiya Kastana: chicken in a Circassian walnut-and-garlic sauce over vermicelli rice, as the website describes it, with nuts and chestnuts added on the menu. KD 4.800.
• Himsat Lahm Kastana: meat, sweet pepper, white onion and chestnut. KD 3.500.
• Kastana Salad: greens with chestnuts, dates, walnuts, crisp bread and a pomegranate dressing. KD 2.750.

Also on the menu

Raw kibbeh made with fresh meat, bulgur and spices (KD 3.600), kibbeh bi laban (KD 4.800), shish barak (KD 4.500), and manakish from KD 1.800 for za’atar to KD 2.500 for lahm bi ajeen with cheese. Lebanese buffet catering starts at 15 guests; the 20-guest buffet is from KD 189.

First floor, Marina Crescent, Salmiya. Tel 2207 2004.

Photo: Levantine mezze of muhammara, hummus, moutabal and tabbouleh at a restaurant in Cyprus, not at Kastana. By Gerda Arendt, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: Kastana’s website and its digital menu, read on 28 October 2026.