The third article describes in more detail part of our experience in Qatar during a 6-month Fulbright visit.
This is one of the most difficult articles to write, although one of the most important for those planning to visit Qatar. I am not a restaurant expert, I am simply giving our family’s experience. If I sound like I’m advertising a restaurant, I’m not, we just must have really liked it. To be honest, the food is probably what we enjoy the most in Qatar.
Qatar offers a very wide variety of food options with a wide range of costs. The first restaurant I visited in Doha was Turkey Central on Al Mirqab street, a few hours after arriving in Doha. He didn’t look very fancy, but he was hungry enough and he wasn’t so sure about future meals, since he didn’t have a car at the time. The menu consisted mainly of grilled meats and a mix of Middle Eastern salads. My host, Mohammed Alsayed, an engineer from Qatar University, proposed a mix of chicken and beef skewers and a set of mixed salads that included Taboli, Hummus, green salads, yoghurt and aubergine salad. The prices were very reasonable under $6 per person. The aroma of the food as it was being delivered was unbelievably delicious. The food itself looked and tasted very good.
This no-frills, low-cost restaurant became our favorite restaurant during our Fulbright visit to Qatar. We particularly enjoyed their chicken kofta sandwiches which consisted of chicken kofta rolled in a pita bread with tomato sauce. Both were served sizzling hot and were extremely appetizing with their savory taste. There were several restaurants that have much better ambiance, service and similar menu, but somehow Central Turkey remained the favorite when it came to taste. So we learned to order to go. Across the street was another restaurant, Al Bukhari, which we visited once. They are very famous for their lintel soup and it is worth a try.
One of the restaurants that offers a similar menu, but in a much more elegant environment is Almajlis Al-Arabi. It has at least 2 branches, but the one we visited several times was a very short distance from the iconic Mall, an upscale shopping center in Doha. The problem was always finding a parking space. Doha has grown so much in a very short time and parking has become a very difficult problem throughout the city, but especially in the shopping malls. After a few visits to all these restaurants, we got a little tired of the same theme of grilled skewers. On the recommendation of another Fulbright scholar we decided to give an Indian restaurant called Caravan a try.
The Caravan restaurant is in a square off Salwa Road. The square has other different restaurants including Pizza Hut, Pandarosa and Starbucks. After wrestling with the parking issue, we head into the restaurant, the entrance is inviting, and an Indian host in western clothing leads us to our table, lights a candle, and leads us to the buffet. A large room lined with 20-30 food items. The highlight of the buffet, for us at least, is a small whole grilled lamb served on a bed of rice. I tried carving but didn’t seem to be that handy with knives and a server soon came by to save me from carving my fingers.
Around the room were other Indian, Thai and even Arabic dishes. Everything looked and tasted great, but the savory flavor of the lamb remains etched in our memory. The most popular of the sweets in Doha is Omm-Ali. It seems that different countries are fighting over the ownership of Omm-Ali, but the name supports the Egyptian claim to this delicacy. The buffet was QR 25 per person. I don’t think this is less than a $25 buffet in the US.
There are many other smaller restaurants on Salwa street near the Plaza where Caravan is located. The ones we tried for breakfast were Syrian and Lebanese restaurants selling falafel, hummus, Foul (beans), brinjal and other traditional Arabian breakfast treats.
Qatari society is a very closed society. It is very difficult to be invited into a Qatari home, but we managed to experience the closest we can get to Qatari cuisine at a restaurant on the Corniche overlooking the gulf called Bulhambar. We ventured there without references. It was just a perfect winter afternoon with the temperature in the 70s F. Walking along the Corniche, near the great symbol of the Asian games, it’s hard to miss that building. It is only a few years old, but it is decorated with traditional Qatari rugs and photographs of old Qatar. This is the first time we have seen workers in a restaurant who were Qatari. The location and authenticity of the environment is priced at 100 QR ($35) per person. It is an open buffet. All the food has Qatari names which were difficult to decipher. The food was very delicious and mostly consisted of different types of meat (chicken, lamb, beef, fish) packed in rice and cooked very tenderly. The elegantly spiced rice captures the full flavor of the meat. The experience was great, but we didn’t venture there very often.
Although several American chain restaurants like Pizza Hut, Chilli’s, Applebee’s, Pandarosa are in Doha, we weren’t in Qatar long enough to miss the American chain’s food. The prices in the American chains are a little more expensive than their prices in the United States. Starbucks was the only American chain we frequented for a caffeine recharge. A decent cup of coffee can easily come to 25 QR. Famous hotels in Doha, including the uniquely shaped Sheraton and the Ritz Carlton, offer very elegant Western dining experiences. I loved the salad bar at the Ritz with the fancy smoked salmon, shrimp cocktail, and sushi bar.
It is enough to summarize this article by the fact that I gained 15lbs in the period I spent in Qatar even though I was exercising during the same period.