CHIC Eats

It’s Tuesday night, which means there’s somewhere we have to be. Every week, New York Steakhouse at Marriott Marquis City Center Doha Hotel hosts Tomahawk Tuesdays, which is reason enough to go; but not only this, it is accompanied by a night of live jazz. We’re welcomed by our lovely host Ignacio, who ensures we are settled in plush leather chairs and water glasses are filled before he talks us through the menu options, as live jazz wafts towards us across the restaurant.

He duly recommends a selection of starters (more on this later), and then we discuss meat. At New York Steakhouse, there’s beef for everyone, but as it’s Tomahawk night, it would be churlish not to, wouldn’t it?! As we chat, fresh out of the oven comes an onion and cheese (Emmental, parmesan and Cheddar) brioche, presented in a homely little bread pan and served with a thyme and black pepper butter, flavoured with the merest hint of chilli. It’s doughy, fragrant and just the right balance between sweet and savoury. Our purple seafood salad amuse bouche (stewed calamari and shrimps, red cabbage, mango, tomato and mint leaves in an orange and lemon vinaigrette) on a shrimp cracker – with a touch of truffle mayo and some micro herbs – is swiftly consumed before our starters arrive.

First up is Foie Gras – pan-seared, lightly salted and sitting plumply atop toasted brioche. It melts in the mouth and is complemented by wonderfully tart green apples, which have been diced and cooked in just a little sugar, and then sweetened by pearls of cassis and beetroot reduction dotted around the plate. Warming and decadent, it’s the perfect thing to start us off.