Hakkasan Doha — Restaurant in Doha

Food was good and pretty consistent with Hakksans I’ve visited to in other parts of the world (Shanghai, London, Vegas, San Francisco [now closed]). The duck salad was delicious as well as the cod, soup was comforting. Dim sum was a bit dry compared to Shanghai location though. Been coming to Hakkasan for 10+ years so it’s good to have some consistency.

I booked as a single diner since I’m traveling solo for this portion of my trip and they seemed hesitant to take me as party-of-one… though I can understand since it was a Friday night. So I’ll give them a pass for that.

While the experience was overall fine, A Couple things did surprise me negatively about the Doha location:

(1) first was the pricing which seemed a bit stratospheric relative to other locations. Not only the food, but the drinks - the price to quality ratio on the wines on the wine list was bad. I ended up ordering just a rosé brut which disappointingly came in a small champagne flute instead of an actual wine glass or Zalto flute ; moreover the price for my glass (250 QAR) would have made sense if they were serving Krug - but Lanson rosé is no Krug, and as an expert wine taster I’d recommend they switch their wines by glass to better quality overall - I’d gladly give them my recommendations here :)

(2) Second huge surprise was that this location does not pack up food to-go. This was especially unfortunate as I had ordered too much, and instead of throw away the remaining half of my duck salad I opted to finish it and left the restaurant feeling downright bloated. I know for a fact this is not Hakkasan policy as I live in Shanghai and dine there regularly - Shanghai Hakkasan has packed up anything I’ve told them to, from uneaten entrees to unfinished bottles of wine... There may be a Qatar policy reason for this but I suspect it’s because this Doha location seems to be trying hard to be a ‘high-end’ restaurant. While many Hakkasan locations do have Michelin stars, I would honestly say that 1-star is the ceiling for any Hakkasan, and that’s not a bad thing but something that must be realized by the management and calibrated for.

Overall the experience felt a bit pretentious and the Hakkasan spirit is supposed to be “high-end comfort,” not pretentious. The service staff were not pretentious and were quite lovely, but the take-out policy combined with pricing and poor wine list suggested a young restaurant looking to prove itself as a hip destination, that could do better by relaxing a bit and...

We visited today brunch at Hakkasan. Overall we liked it. The food, selection of cocktails and quality of drinks everything was good. It was also nice to sit at the terrace, enjoying the weather. The only thing was kind of upsetting - our waitress, she was quite arrogant. It was very obvious, she is Russian speaking. So when she asked me something i replied in Russian. She ignored my answers and kept asking the same thing until i replied in English. After some time, i asked where is she from, she said, she is from Russia. Then i asked why did she ignores my replies, and why doesn't she like Russian speaking guests. There was no answer. But the difference in attitude was very obvious, she was very sweet with the German guests at the table next to us. They even knew her name. She never introduced herself to us and didn't have the name tag. In any country the waiters are doing their best to understand you, even if you don't speak the language at all. So if i wouldn't speak English i wouldn't be served? Even though i was speaking her native language?? I didn't expect such poor service...

The friday brunch IS NOT A BRUNCH. Food was amazing. Really delicious, the service..not so great. Waiter had an attitude about our orders because we wanted to repeat certain dishes.. if it's a sit down "brunch" and I am paying that amount of money for it, I should be able to have as much as I want of whatever is being served. However, we were refused a specific dish because they were making "one of each" which is the opposite of brunch and is not in the literature explained at all. They kept saying they were making "exeptions" and ended up bringing half a serving because we insisted! like, really??.. What's advertised as a "brunch" is actually a several course meal where you receive frowns and refusals when you order more of whatever you want. . . Even getting drinks was an issue because.. it seems they wanted to call it brunch to get people to come but once you are there, they want to control how much you eat or drink by either refusing, questioning or having you sit in front of empty glasses and plates for extended periods of time..

Again, food was delicious but wouldn't go...