Moroccan restaurant opens in Doha's Souq Waqif

Posted by: FT
19 Jan 2014
This is by far the most awful treatment we have been dished out in any restaurant. We went to Argan on the 17th of February 2013 to celebrate our friend?s birthday. And this is what transpired ? We ordered salad and soup as starters. After about 15 minutes we were served the salads but it took them a whole 20 minutes after that and multiple reminders to bring us bread to go with the salad. The server?s pretext was that the bread was still baking?..but when he finally brought it for us, it was cold stale bread! Oh and not to forget - the soup arrived in wrong portions and was anything but hot. He insisted we order food quickly because it takes 20 minutes to prepare it. Which we did! However even one hour after we had ordered we hadn?t seen the face of any food. When prodded the server went in a brought back stone cold uncovered food. FYI we had ordered the Tajine which is a Moroccan specialty ? a dish of slow-cooked savory stews - served piping HOT in a traditional tajine pot (which consists of two parts: a base unit that is flat and circular and a large cone- or dome-shaped cover that sits on the base during cooking). There went the entire Moroccan dining experience out of the window! We were brought cold curry in a small flat plate 1 hour late ? AFTER we reminded them ? by a very non-apologetic brazen waiter! When we asked him where the cover of our dish was he actually had the audacity to tell us that ? we removed it for you in the kicthen for your convenience?! While all this drama unfolded, guests at neighboring tables rolled in after us, got excellent service, ate their Tajines (served the way they should be!) and left before us! This is not the sort of experience you expect from a boutique hotel! The only saving grace was an extremely nice chef who himself was quiet appalled at the quality of service we were dished out! He seemed upset at the waiter because his dishes sat untouched at our table! We ofcorse walked out of the hotel at half past 9?only to saunter across to the first visible restaurant to gratify our famished bellies and sooth our gloomy morale! Argan in the Al Jasra Boutique Hotel gave our friend a birthday to remember! NOT!