I love steak, really love it. I am a bit picky though – it has to be fillet, it has to be well seasoned, it has to be medium rare and it has to be served without a sauce. I can list the best three steaks I’ve had in my life 1. Keens in New York 2. Asador Steakhouse in Berlin 3. Jazz Club at the Oryx Rotana in Doha. I know I’ve had a good steak because I have to pause before my final bite and I get a bit tearful. So, Friday lunchtime I was craving broccoli and a steak. I wanted to sit outside and I wanted to use an Entertainer voucher so a quick flick through the book and we opted for TGI Fridays on The Pearl. Perhaps not the first place that comes to mind when you think of a great steak but bare with me…!

I’ve had tenderloin steak a few times at TGI Fridays and Chilis in Doha and they’ve been pretty good. TGI Fridays on The Pearl has a lovely outside seating area and now it’s pedestrianized it’s quiet place to sit and enjoy the warmer weather. 

Our server brought us menus quickly and we opted to share an appetizer and have a main course each. For our appetizer we had a half portion of Cajun chicken and shrimp fettuccini. It was deliciously creamy with succulent chicken and prawn. However, it was so good we’d eaten it before I took a photograph! For our our main course we both ordered steak, medium rare with mushroom, onion and garlic sauce. Mine with sides of cheesy mash and broccoli and Greg chose cheesy mash and onion rings.

 We were asked to cut into the steak to check it had been cooked to our preference; they both had. I wish I’d asked for my sauce on the side as it was already on my steak breaking my ‘ no sauce rule’ but luckily it was not overpowering and so it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. The mash was lovely and rich, the broccoli still had crunch to it and the steak was a good size and tasted fantastic, it was really tender and tasty. Unfortunately at this point we started to get bombarded by dozens of flies – so much so we couldn’t eat our meal so we quickly picked up our food and moved inside. The staff seemed a bit worried we were upset but we weren’t, we just didn’t want our food to get cold!

We really enjoyed our food, I agree there more refined restaurants in Doha serving steak to an excellent standard but for informal dining in a chain restaurant you can’t go wrong here. Our bill came to 150QR for 3 main courses, 2 soft drinks with refills and a tip. We got one meal free as we used an Entertainer voucher. On a side note there is also an Entertainer voucher for the Jazz Club at the Oryx Rotana, you should definitely have the tenderloin ( pictured below) there as its scrumptious!