You may have noticed (or maybe you’re as infrequent as us) a lack of posts of late. There have been a few major changes over the past few months… house moves, career changes and a good holiday to recharge the body and mind for real life (well as real as Qatar’s little bubble can feel). Mostly though we’ve been uninspired and underwhelmed by our meals out, even our firm faves have let us down (more on that another time). And although we’ve attended events, you don’t want to hear about some canapés, tasters and special service put on because we’re bloggers do you?
Thank goodness an invite to Zengo came along, or we might not have blogged until at least summer 2017. Coming back down to earth with a thud after Thailand and its seriously cheap eats, we felt might as well go big. And that we did. Zengo, you sure deserve to stand tall. You’ll find this beauty on the 61st floor of the Kempinski where the views alone will get you swooning. They’ve made good use of their big window space, with a modern, minimalist interior that makes you feel like the cool grown up you always wanted to be (or maybe that’s just us).
Our visit was for Friday Brunch (I know, we hate them usually) and came away with a change of heart about 1. Brunches and 2. Doha’s dining scene. And as much as we hate to add hype to a newly opened restaurant, we do urge you non-brunchers to give Zengo a go. From the offset its impressive. The views. The décor. The friendly yet assertive staff. The impressive pan Asian menu, which arrives and tells you a delicious story about everything that will be brought to your table. That’s right, with this brunch you don’t have to move. They bring everything to you when you’re ready, even if you want more. You want more of the tempura shrimp? No problem. You want 15 mins before they bring out the mains? Consider it done.
The menu is varied. There is a good range of cold appetizers: sushi (2 types) papaya salad, seared tuna, crunchy rice cakes. The hot appetizers included shrimp tempura, nasi goreng and dumplings. Then the mains come out all guns firing. There’s the Thai green curry that uses corn-fed chicken (yes, you can taste the difference), there’s the lamb ribs (geez I’m drooling again) the miso salmon (oh so melt in your mouth tasty) and the Szcheaun beef (not so much a hit with us, a little too sweet for our palette).
For all of Zengo’s highlights (their sushi is superb) it was the dessert tray that had me do a smily high-five with the Mr: their platter offers up a black sesame crème brûlée that actually had that crisp sugar topping that needed to be broken. Oh happy days. Doha’s dessert chefs please go and try it, so you can recreate it. This is how it’s done. And it was delish. It rounded off what was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The type that makes you want to take your friends and family and show them not to give up on Doha after all. Well done Richard Sandoval, your menu, presentation, and team deserve a round of applause.
The damage: We had the good fortune of being invited to try it this time. Yet as the Mr said “I wouldn’t mind if they turned around and charged us. I think the food is worth the price.”
That’s not a phrase you’ll hear very often from our Hani. The soft drinks package, which we enjoyed is 250QR pp and we think you’ll feel that you’ve spent your money well.
L&M rating: 5/5
Lemon & Mint
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