**Dated 8/12/17** When I arrived back to Qatar, my friends and I all planned to go to Zengo to celebrate my birthday and to celebrate us all being back together. Most of them had not been to Zengo before but I bragged about it so much that they agreed to try it out. You ever brag about something so much to other people and then when they give it a try, it flops. Yeah, well that is exactly what happened.
It was a group of 10 of us, colleagues, teachers and spouses. We went for Friday brunch on 8/11/17. Our server bought some menus, regular and vegetarian for some of us. We ordered our first round of drinks and caught up on each others summer break. The brunch menu consists of five courses, cold, hot, main, sides and dessert. The food is served a la cart so you don’t have to constantly go to a buffet, which is what I prefer. After devouring our first round of cold appetizers, approximately 40 minutes had passed before they bought over our next course. And this is pretty much how the brunch continued.
My group of friends like to drink, so we paid the price for brunch that included alcohol. Each time someone ordered drinks, there was a long wait time. In between each food course, there was a long wait time. It almost seemed like the restaurant workers were purposefully taking their time with our drinks, so we could only consume a certain amount. This did not sit well with the group. And taking a long time to bring the food did not sit well with me. I even spoke to our server several times to speed up the service but nothing changed. It was the worse service I have experienced at brunch and never did I expect this from Zengo.
The brunch menu had also changed and they used to substitute seafood for this pescatarian but that wasn’t offered either. Needless to say, my friends were not blown away by Zengo like I always am, but unfortunately I was disappointed as well.
Regardless of how our meal went, the view from the 61st floor of the Kempinski Residences & Suites in West Bay is undeniably beautiful. I just wish our experience matched. It was not the expected delicious welcome back to Zengo, I had expected after a summer away.
Teaching Abroad- American Teacher Overseas 