Orient Pearl — Restaurant in Doha

Terrible experience—this place is a disaster!

I visited this restaurant around 12:30-1 PM and asked for breakfast, only to be rudely told the breakfast menu was no longer available. I politely requested if they could make an exception since we really wanted breakfast, but their dismissive and unfriendly response made it clear they couldn’t care less about their customers.

To make matters worse, we were seated indoors when the staff abruptly informed us that they were “still preparing the outdoor area,” implying that because we sat down, others followed us outside. Apparently, it’s now the customers’ fault for something the staff failed to manage—what a joke.

The kids’ play area was a nightmare. One child vomited, and my daughter ended up crying because she accidentally got some on her. Instead of handling the situation compassionately, a waiter had the audacity to blame me, rudely claiming the vomit “wasn’t possible” because they supposedly clean everything. Blaming the customer for a situation beyond their control is absolutely unacceptable.

Adding to the list of failures, I asked for an umbrella because it was a bit sunny. The waiter—once again rude and unprofessional—told us the umbrella was torn, sarcastically suggesting we either wait two hours for the sunset or go indoors if we didn’t like it.

The service was appalling throughout. The food took ages to arrive, orders were constantly forgotten, and the waiters behaved like they couldn’t be bothered. For the prices they charge, this level of incompetence and disrespect is beyond unacceptable.

Save your money and your sanity. This place is a total disgrace, and I wouldn’t recommend...

Came here on hubbys recommendation from when he tried it a few years back. Lovely atmosphere/view/building when you can sit outside. Staff were amazing.

The good... The mains we tried were quite nice. The meat kofta was pleasantly flavoured and tender, though we needed to ask for a sauce as we were not going to add more overpriced and basic tasting sides and the meat needed something to go with it. The eggplant kofte was nice as it was.

Staff were kind and attentive. Gave us some complementary dessert, although we don't usually have dessert, especially the very sweet arabic ones, but these were very yummy!

The bad... The starters were the real disappointment. Worst hummus I've tried in Qatar, better options in the supermarkets here, fatoush is 60qr almost for a bowl of lettuce and a tomato basically! The best thing about arabic food is the mezze/starters so this was super disappointing. The batata harra was so lacking in flavour and I've never had a bad one till now. If these were priced cheaper then I wouldn't be so upset but for the price the lack of flavour/effort was terrible.

Probably wouldn't come again because as I said the best thing about arabic food is the exciting and flavourful sides/starters. Unless the reduce the price of the starters/sides or better still...

Beautiful white palace exteriors with a musical fountain, aptly called Orient Pearl restaurant. It overlooks the Corniche & is right next door to the National Museum. It has four restaurants under the same roof. There is SMAT on first floor with indoor seating and balcony, which serves traditional Qatari & Arabic cuisine. On the ground floor are Karaki, Joury & Nayrabeen. Karaki serves karak & other tea choices, luqimat ( a bite-size sweet dessert) & chapati along with Arabic coffee (Qahwa). Joury & Nayrabeen restaurants specialise in Syrian cuisine. Had dinner at Joury. Beautiful arabesque interiors. Option of three types of seating. Outside seating, covered verandah & indoors. Tried out the mezze, fattoush salad, spicy potatoes, kebab & for drinks jellab. Everything was very tasty. Kebabs were super moist. All accompanied with freshly made pita bread basket (which was automatically replaced with another warm bread basket by the staff). The portion size is very good. After dinner were surprised when the staff served complimentary freshly cut watermelon slices which were very sweet & juicy. The service is impeccable with the staff going out of there way to make it a memorable dining experience. Really enjoyed it & would surely be back...