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Traditional food of Qatar: 12 dishes to know

Qatari food is built on meat, fish, rice and dates, seasoned with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, saffron and home-made spice blends such as bizar. Rice is cooked in meat broth, wheat is beaten into porridge, and meals are shared from one platter. The most emblematic dishes are machboos, harees, madrouba and luqaimat.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

What Qatari food is built on

Qatari cuisine is traditional Arab Gulf cooking, and many of its dishes are shared with neighbouring countries under other names. Meat, fish and rice are the staples, seasoned with cumin, coriander, cinnamon and saffron. Families blend their own spices: bizar mixes black pepper, coriander seed, cinnamon, clove, dried ginger, cardamom, dried red chilli and turmeric, washed, sun-dried and then ground; daqoos is a red chilli blend with roasted wheat, cumin and sesame; hisso combines ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, turmeric and cumin. Souq Waqif in Doha has a spice market where they are sold.

Dates are Qatar's national fruit, and two date palms appear on the national emblem. Production exceeded 30,000 tonnes in 2022, and date syrup, pressed in a traditional madbasa, has been made since at least the 17th century; it was a cheap source of energy for pearl divers.

Rice dishes

In our machboos recipe the chicken is coated in a fried paste of onion, garlic, ginger, chillies, tomato and bizar, simmered for 40 minutes with pierced dried limes, then browned in the oven while the rice cooks in the measured broth, never in fresh water.

Plain white rice, called shilani, is served with broths and saloona. Mashkhool mixes white and yellow rice with vegetables and nuts, and is cooked with meat or chicken.

Machboos — The national dish: rice, meat, onions and tomatoes cooked with bizar, often with garlic, ginger, parsley and hot peppers. It is usually made with lamb or chicken, the rice taking its colour from turmeric, and for feasts with fish, shrimp or desert truffles.
Ghuzi — A whole roast lamb served over rice with nuts, It is also called shuwaa.
Muhammar — Rice cooked with sugar until it turns reddish and sweet, usually served with fish.

Porridges, stews and bread

Madrouba has seasonal versions made with wild Qatari plants, such as the fruit of the yarawa shrub. Marqooqa mixes dough with a stew, and kabab nakhi are small patties of chickpea flour. Milk-based drinks include milk with ginger or fenugreek, and alba, a sweet of goat's milk with sugar and saffron.

Harees — Ground wheat cooked with water, salt and chicken or meat, then beaten smooth and mixed with ghee. It is a dish of Ramadan and of sharing.
Madrouba — A porridge of chicken and overcooked rice beaten together with turmeric, cumin, cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, garlic and black pepper, served piping hot.
Jareesh — Cracked wheat cooked with chicken or meat, ghee and onions, topped with onions and green peppers.
Saloona — An everyday stew of broth, meat and vegetables of the cook's choice, spiced and soured with dried limes in our version, and ladled over white rice.
Regag and thareed — Khobes rgag is a thin flatbread of flour, water and salt. Torn into a broth with vegetables and chicken or meat, it becomes thareed, a dish of Ramadan nights.

Sweets and coffee

Arabic coffee is a serious affair in Qatari homes: green beans are roasted and brewed with cardamom, saffron and cloves, sometimes ground by hand, and served in the majlis, the sitting room where guests are received. Qatari dates are also celebrated at the annual Local Dates Festival in Souq Waqif; khalas and shaishi are the most popular varieties.

Other sweets include asida, sago pudding with saffron and cardamom, and Umm Ali. Karak, tea simmered with spices, sugar and evaporated milk, is popular, but less widespread among Qataris than gahwa.

Balaleet — Vermicelli cooked with sugar, cinnamon, saffron and cardamom, often topped with an omelette. It is a breakfast dish, and the egg is used to scoop up the noodles.
Luqaimat — Leavened dough balls of flour, milk, butter, sugar, saffron and cardamom, deep-fried and covered with honey or syrup.
Khabees — Seedless dates soaked in water, mixed with roasted flour, sugar, oil, butter, saffron, cardamom and rose water.
Gahwa — Arabic coffee brewed in brass pots with cardamom and served in small cups with dates. Guests usually drink three to five cups and gently shake the cup when they have had enough.

Ramadan in Qatar

Qatar's food calendar peaks around Ramadan. In Sha'ban, the month before, families hold Al-Nafla gatherings and share harees and thareed with neighbours and the less fortunate. During Ramadan, Al Ghabqa is a late-night family feast after iftar and tarawih prayers, with grilled and fried fish, rice cooked with date extract, thareed, luqaimat, asida, dates, tea and coffee. Street kebabs have been especially popular during Ramadan since the 20th century.

Hospitality frames every meal: hosts cook far more than guests can eat, and traditional meals are eaten seated on the floor, from shared platters, with the hands. Restaurants serving Qatari food are called matbakh, kitchen. Before the meal, Arabic coffee or sweet mint tea in small glass mugs is served, in social and business meetings alike.

Date syrup consumption declined with modern lifestyles, but recent health trends have revived interest in it as a traditional sweetener.

Cook Qatari food at home

Machboos is the national dish of Qatar. Copper has full recipes for machboos, harees and saloona, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Qatar, alongside other Middle Eastern recipes.

Machboos, harees and luqaimat are cooked all around the Gulf. Compare with the traditional food of Bahrain and the traditional food of Saudi Arabia.

The recipes

Questions people ask

What is the most popular food in Qatar?

Machboos, the national dish of spiced rice and lamb or chicken. Harees, madrouba, thareed and luqaimat are also cooked in most Qatari homes.

What do Qataris eat for breakfast?

Balaleet, sweet saffron vermicelli topped with an omelette, is the classic breakfast, with regag bread, dates and tea or coffee.

Is Qatari food spicy?

It is well spiced but rarely hot. Blends such as bizar use pepper and a little dried chilli, and hot peppers are sometimes added to machboos.

What is bizar?

The Qatari spice blend of black pepper, coriander seed, cinnamon, clove, dried ginger, cardamom, dried red chilli and turmeric, washed, sun-dried and ground.

What is eaten during Ramadan in Qatar?

Harees and thareed are shared at Al-Nafla before Ramadan, and the Al Ghabqa night feast brings fish, date rice, thareed, luqaimat and asida.

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