Three new eateries have recently opened in the Barwa complex on the C Ring Road just behind our apartment block. Two others are due to open at some unspecified time in the future. It’s impossible to identify what the one next to the coffee shop on the ground floor will be, as the hoardings give nothing away. On the first floor ‘India’s best Chinese Restaurant’ is being built.

Also on the first floor is a Filipino fast food restaurant which we have not tried.

We had a take-out from the Indian restaurant, also on the first floor, yesterday. We won’t be going there again.

The one that wins for us is French Olive.

Although the name says ‘French’, they confusingly specialise in Italian food and have an Italian chef called Francesco. For the first few weeks after opening it appeared to have few customers. I went there to check out the menu and was pounced on by staff as a potential customer. A few weeks later we decided to see what it was like to eat there. Inside, it’s tastefully designed and modern. It was still quite empty, but it was quite early in the evening.

The bread for while you wait for your food is exceptionally good.

I can recommend the pizza, the best I have had in Doha, which I have now eaten on the first two occasions we went there. The third time I ordered steak. One of the managers commented that I’d not gone for the pizza this time… ‘Francesco will be devasted‘ she said. Below is a photo of Francesco prior to devastation.

It also has a bakery with freshly baked bread, croissants which we pick-up on Friday mornings after our walk… it also has a huge range of very fancy patisserie. I am told that weekend breakfasts are very busy and getting popular with the locals.

It’s not inexpensive but good value, good food and friendly staff who are eager to please. It’s also a two-minute walk from our flat. For our next visit it will be pizza to keep Francesco (and me) happy.