What is the Best Qatari Cuisine to Experience?

If you enjoy being a foodie on your travels, then Qatar is one destination to explore. Qatari cuisine is a delightful blend of dishes from the region, where you get to savour popular flavours from Lebanon, Persia, India, and North Africa. The cuisine is very traditional, with each dish weaving its own tale of ancient customs and ways of life. Read on to discover the best way to experience Qatari cuisine, packed full of flavour, aromatic spices, and ingredients that make you feel satisfied.

Spicy Meat Broth Saloona

This lovely broth is made with meat such as chicken, lamb, fish, or beef, or with only vegetables. Its thick consistency and fragrant, spicy flavours make it a favourite that is enjoyed on its own or as an accompaniment to rice. You can savour saloona at popular eateries in Doha. It is considered a comfort food that offers a nutritious boost for anyone needing additional energy. 

One Pot Machboos

A very traditional dish, machboos is a slow-cooked rice dish that is similar to biryani. The rice is cooked in a blend of spices, which gives it loads of fragrance and flavour; meat in the form of chicken, lamb, or camel is often a firm favourite, while prawns also add loads of flavour to the seafood options. Explore the best restaurants in Doha for the traditional variant of machboos, which is packed full of flavours. You can explore in-house restaurants at places similar to the Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels, where restaurants specialise in all sorts of regional cuisine, ranging from traditional Arabic dishes to Moroccan favourites, Qatari dishes, and Indian food. 

Fragrant Madhruba

This dish is a special during the holy Ramadan season, but is served at restaurants in Doha all year round due to its popularity. Madhruba can be described as a type of creamy porridge, of which the consistency is achieved by consistently beating a mix of rice, butter, and spices like cardamom and cloves. This is not a sweet dish — it is a filling mash that is served with meat like chicken, often stewed with baked beans for a lovely mix of sweet and sour flavour.

Ghuzi, Delicious Roasted Lamb

This dish is a crowd pleaser and is traditionally made with a whole roasted lamb that is accompanied by rice and sides of nuts and vegetables. The meat is tender and well marinated to offer loads of flavour. If you do get a chance to attend a large gathering or ceremony, the chances of this dish taking centre stage are high. Otherwise, you can order smaller portions of Ghuzi at the top restaurants in Doha.

Sweet Delights of Luqaimat

Feed your sweet tooth with luqaimat, a delicious sweet that is also a festival food, often gracing the tables at Ramadan. A dough of flour, milk powder, and sugar spiced with cardamom and saffron is used to form little chewy deep-fried balls, later dipped in sugar syrup for a truly decadent treat. This tasty bite-sized dessert will leave you feeling very happy on a sugar rush.

Local Lasagne, Thareed

Made with bread instead of lasagne sheets, Thareed consists of a stew made with carrots, potatoes, meats, onions, and spices that are cooked with thick tomato sauce to form a rich gravy. The bottom of the pan is then layered with bread, over which the rich stew is spooned. This makes the bread soak up all the gravy like a sponge, so the bread ends up soft and oozing with the flavourful sauce. Thareed is a comfort food that you must try at the end of a long day sightseeing and exploring the best attractions in Doha.