The Bagel Bar and Coffee House

Last visit: 2, 3, 9, 10 March 2017
Taste: 4/5
Cost performance: 3/5
Location: The Residence, Sara Tower

Loved this cafe, nice interior and good menu.
Got to know this place since I stay in the tower.

The first time I came, I tried the soup.
Only one soup, i.e. soup of the day.
When I visited on 2 March 2017 (Thursday night), it was leek and potato soup.
I think the taste was OK.

The next day, I came for the breakfast.
I ordered from the breakfast menu, a set of bagel sandwich and Irish Coffee (non-alcohol).
I was happy with this choice.
It was QAR 40.

The following week, on Thursday night, with a friend, I just had a hot Chocolate, which was OK.
QAR 18 for medium size.

The next day, I came again for Friday morning breakfast.
They were nice, not really strictly implementing the Friday prayer time :)
I ordered the new bagel menu called New Yorker, plus an Irish Coffee.
The bagel itself was QAR 35, so it was more expensive than the set, but the New Yorker was yummy.

Will certainly come again when I stay in Sara Tower.

Oasis Chinese Restaurant

Last visit: 13 February 2017, dinner
Taste: 5/5
Cost performance: 5/5
Location: next to Sharq Village & Spa, inside Oasis Beach Club

Sadly, this my favorite restaurant in Doha cannot sell alcoholic drink anymore.
Their drought beer and fried dumpling are used to be my and most Japanese living in Qatar's favorite.

This was my first visit after the alcohol ban and nobody else beside us was in the restaurant.
Not even the regular band.

The food was still good.
Just my favorite chili sauce became too watery.
 
Their location was still hidden, and they are not listed in zomato.com.

From our bill:
- Fried Dumpling, QAR 40
- Mix Noodle Soup, QAR 34
- Sweet Corn Chicken Soup, QAR 17
- Chinese Cabbage, QAR 35
- Sizzling Beef, QAR 40
- Soft drink, QAR 12
- Green tea, QAR 12

Gong Restaurant

Last visit: 16 February 2017, dinner
Taste: 4/5
Cost performance: 3/5
Location: Best Western Plus Hotel, 15th floor

My second time to this restaurant (first time review is here).
This time, we chose the seating in the karaoke room.
Sadly, we could not order the hotpot inside the room.
So we ordered food from a la carte menu and many beers.

The karaoke was OK, but choosing Japanese songs was a bit difficult.
We were 10 persons, and spent QAR 1661.
The owner was kind giving us some beers for free.

From our bill:
- white rice, QAR 6
- Heineken, QAR 30
- Corona, QAR 35
- hot pot, QAR 68
- seafood dumpling, QAR 38
- fried seafood dumpling, QAR 38
- eggplant chongqing style, QAR 48 --> good
- lamb chops with bean, QAR 88
- kongpao chicken, QAR 48
- hongkong vegetable with garlic, QAR 48
- chicken wings and prawns, QAR 128
- fried noodles with chicken, QAR 38
- yangchou fried rice, QAR 38
- deep fried spring rolls, QAR 38
- green tea, QAR 38


 

Grand Brunch at St. Regis Hotel

Visit: 17 February 2017, brunch
Taste: 3/5
Cost performance: 2/5
Location: St. Regis Hotel
Price: QAR 350 (soft drink package), QAR 450 (alcoholic package)

Wanted to try this brunch since long since I thought it was the grandest brunch in Doha.
It was indeed grand, with the huge area, spread from Vine restaurant, the middle terrace, through Opal by Gordon Ramsay restaurant.
Abundant food was a wow.
However, below I listed my disappointment points:
- The quantity of items were a wow, but not the quality.
- For soft drink package, the choice of drink was disappointing, only Coke, Fanta, and water. When I asked for fresh juice, the waiter said she would confirmed first, though finally it was provided. I was expecting choice of mocktails like in Four Seasons' brunch.
- There was no lobster, like in Four Seasons' brunch.
- All the grills were using machine, not charcoal.
- The seating was a bit squeezed. We were seated in Vine restaurant room, but the gap between seats was too narrow.
- The yamcha choice was only 2 items, shiumai and shrimp dumpling (hakao), and the taste was not good. Four Seasons' brunch yamcha had a yumcha car (like typical in Asia) and much more choices.

In general, Four Seasons' brunch was in my favour.
Though it was not cheap, it was really crowded, mostly by westerner expats, with some birthday celebrations.

Zengo

Visits: 14 February 2017, lunch
Taste: 4/5
Cost performance: 4/5
Location: Kempinski Residences & Suites

Had an Express Lunch here.
QAR 95, very good value, we got five items from Soup/Salad, Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dishes, and Desert.

Nice location in 61th floor of the tallest building in Doha, nice interior design.
Good service.
Water and soft drink were included in the package, but not coffee/tea.

Baladna The Farm

http://www.baladna.co/en/home.aspx

Visits: 10 February 2017, 4pm
Taste: 3/5
Cost performance: 2/5
Location: Off of Shamal Road in Al Khor (Exit 40), follow Google Map

Baladna is a sheep farm, located in Al Khor, off of Shamal (North) Road, Exit 40, we followed Google Map to reach here.

It is a huge farm with 20,000 sheeps, equipped with the meat and other product factories, a restaurant, a cafe and shops selling their product.

Visited with a friend for late lunch at 4pm on Friday.
The restaurant was crowded with Arabic people. Initially we were told to come back at 6pm, but somehow we managed to get the table from a group of guest just finished their meal, showing that they were not really organized allocating the tables for waiting guests.

The restaurant was not big, but quite nice, with few unique stations.
There was a station for the popular pot, meat and vegetable stew covered with a pie, and baked in the charcoal stove.
There was also another station for fresh labna (yoghurt), desert, meat meal.
We ordered the pot, the meat meal and labna, and paid QAR 327, not cheap, but we enjoyed the meal, though it was too oily for us.

We also tasted the halawa cheese desert, a chilled desert, and was good. QAR 40 for half kilo, can be kept for 3 days in the fridge.

After the meal, we did a small excursion, provided for free, on a golf car.
The driver answered our questions about the farm.
We saw so many sheeps.
Mainly, they are breeding Syrian sheep for the meat. There were also Syrian goat for the milk.

After the excursion, we visited the cafe which was selling chawpati and drank karak tea (QAR 6).

Our bill:
- Baladna breakfast tray, QAR 149 --> the pot
- Lamb Cutlets 400g, QAR 135
- Americano, QAR 15
- Capuccino, QAR 18
- Fresh Ayran Glass, QAR 10