Doha: Excellent steaks at Prime (and how to cook them)

/ Advertisement – In collaboration with Intercontinental Doha The City. I was a guest at Prime and I didn’t pay for the food//

Prime is the steak restaurant at Intercontinental Doha The City. It has a reputation of being one of the best steak restaurants in Doha, and when I asked around for dining recommendations prior to my Doha trip, Prime was mentioned several times. I was therefore very happy to find out that the hotel hadn’t just scheduled us for dinner at Prime, but also for a kitchen tour earlier in the afternoon, to show us how the steaks were prepared.

The chef explained to us how you can tell if a steak is rare, medium or well-done by touching it and compare how it feels to how the part of your palm at the base of your thumb feels. A rare steak would feel like an open, relaxed hand, while a medium cooked steak will feel like your palm, when you press your thumb towards your middle finger. You’ll get the well-done feel, when you press your pinkie and your thumb together. When I was in high school I worked at a steak restaurant (I was the one grilling the steaks), so I already knew about the finger test, but I think Hanna learned a lot.

The steak we were preparing was Australian Wagyu, which is a cheaper kind of the Japanese uber-meat. I’ve had some rather bad experiences with Australian Wagyu in the past, because the quality and grading systems aren’t as meticulous as in Japan, but the steak we cooked at Prime was very nice. The last thing we did at our little cooking class was to decorate the plate with mashed potatoes, vegetables and a slow-poached egg yolk. The egg yolk was bright yellow and had this buttery texture and taste, which was amazing together with the steak.

After our kitchen tour, I went to Strata for cocktails, while Hanna went back to the room with her kids to get some rest before dinner. Unfortunately, one of the girls fell sick, so Hanna couldn’t join me for dinner later. Though the one of her girls who wasn’t ill, wanted to go, so we went for a cozy dinner for two.

I could choose whichever steak I wanted, but with so much great meat available, I had a hard time deciding. Tenderloin is always a safe bet, but if it’s a good piece of meat, I sometimes find the ribeye more interesting, and this was also what I went for. Bearnaise sauce? Yes please! French fries? Yes please! It was a wonderful meal, and I was so absorbed in that steak, so I didn’t even notice that Hanna’s kid fell asleep during the meal.