Best Local Food in Qatar

Al Liwan Restaurant, located at the Sharq Village & Spa, is the only restaurant in Doha offering a Saturday brunch buffet devoted to Qatari food. The dishes prepared by the Qatari home chef includes: lamb hares, shrimp mashkoul, chicken madrouba and balaleet, among others, all of it interspersed with South Asian delicacies. There is live music and the whole place seems wrapped up in authentic Arabian atmosphere. A children’s buffet is also available, with supervised activities to keep them entertained. Price: 250 QAR ($69)

Café Asherg, located in Souq Waqif, is a no-frills hang-out place popular among locals. The menu, like the atmosphere of the place, is simple: Hummus, Baba ganoush, tahini, kofta, Shish tawouq, liver and a limited variety of sandwiches are all it takes to keep patrons coming back over and over again. Cafe Asherg, is also the place to smoke apple-flavored shisha and watch the souq from the open-roof terrace. Nothing on the menu costs more than 10 QAR ($3) and the view is priceless.

Al-Mourjan, the only restaurant on the corniche, offers a wide selection of gourmet Arabic food. With an impressive spread of hot and cold mezze appetizers, raw meat dishes, local and Lebanese seafood delicacies, Al-Mourjan serves dinner in the very lavishly decorated dinning hall or al fresco on the terrace by the sea. An extension of the terrace is a platform floating over the water, which gives their patrons a multisensorial experience as they dine, while seeing, smelling, feeling the Arabian Sea all around them. It doesn’t sell alcohol.

Shay Al Shoomoos, located in one corner of Souq Waqif, is a restaurant owned and actively run by Shams Al Qassabi, a Qatari mother of five. Shay Al Shoomoos’ specialty is Qatari food. Their menu includes hot plates of baid o tomate (eggs and tomato), baid shakshoka (scrambled eggs), aseeda (local porridge made from wheat or corn), khobiz regag (crepe-like bread), macboush (rice with chicken, lamb or goat, smeared with a tomato paste marinade, then crisped up in a hot oven), and balaleet (sweet egg omelet breakfast dish made with vermicelli, turmeric, and sugar), among others. This restaurant not only serves authentic Qatari food, it also serves as a symbol of women’s financial freedom in a country where they have traditionally played a domestic role. This distinction got a stamp of approval when Sheikha Moza visited the restaurant and its owner in 2014. Lining the restaurant’s walls are the pictures of numerous regional celebrities, Kuwaiti footballers, ministers, and food critics. It’s not a fancy place; instead Shay al Shoomoos is a gem of authentic Qatari food, in the most authentic place in Qatar: the beloved Souq Waqif.

Al Majles Al-Arabi restaurant has two locations: one, next to the Landmark Mall and the other tucked away in the busy streets of Doha’s Al Sadd - among the electronic and clothes shops. Al Majles Al Arabi Restaurant’s decor is simple and old-fashioned, yet inviting. Guests have the option to have their Arabic food either at a table or on the floor. For a true Arab experience, the option of eating on the floor and using one’s fingers rather than utensils is too appealing to decline. It’s an opportunity to have the kind of sensuous connection to the food and a feeling of sharing and community that many tourists don’t have in their homeland. The service is efficient and the menu promises cold and hot Arab mezzes, traditional salads, different rice-based regional dishes, and a modest, but fresh, selection of desserts. The restaurant offers take-away and home delivery services.