Mainland China Restaurant in Barwa Towers, Al Sadd

UPDATE: This restaurant has closed (mid of 2017) and is now the Shanghai Garden Restaurant in Barwa Towers.

My friend I went out to try a new restaurant located at the 1st Floor of Barwa Towers in Al Sadd (beside Bacolod Chk-n-BBQ House). As we are looking for a quiet place to have a good discussion, I thought of tagging him along in my restaurant visit.

Our Target – Mainland China Restaurant. And after a quick inquiry, we came to know few interesting information about it: It is a joint venture between Mumbai-based fine dining restaurant chain, Specialty Restaurants Limited and Qatar’s Al Mohannadi Group. They opened last May 2016 and it was Specialty Restaurant’s flagship brand serving oriental cuisine to open a branch overseas. More about Mainland China Restaurant’s venture in Doha HERE.

The restaurant gives you that oriental vibe once you enter. The dark woods, soft lighting, Chinese paintings, furniture and accessories are exquisitely displayed in the restaurant. While the business concept is from India, the owner made it a point to capture the authentic Chinese ambiance and taste by getting their chefs from Shanghai.  The dining area is spacious and they even have cubicles for families and bigger groups who want to have dinner meetings or private gatherings.

They usually open for dinner from 6:30pm onward but they are also open for lunch with their occasional brunch sets promotions. They also accept home delivery making them one of the few fine dining restaurants in Qatar which offers this service.

The food is great and the serving is enough. It will be less expensive to order fried rice and any two viands of chicken or vegetables which will be good for 3 persons. But when you are used to eating at a Chinese restaurant, the menu is just the usual except for the ambiance that is more private and hotel-ish (at least for this area in Al Sadd). Maybe it will spell the difference when we come next time with a variety of orders and a larger group of people. The waiting staff is also highly commendable for being very attentive and courteous.

An occasional dinner with family and friends to this kind of restaurants isn’t a bad idea. The location is accessible, ample parking is available especially on ordinary evenings, the restaurant itself is stylish and modern, and the prices are reasonable. We even saw several locals and Indian expats having their dinner that night and we thought it’s quite an impressive number of customers on an ordinary day. Overall, it’s another good find.