Cafés in Old Airport & Al Hilal

Getting to Old Airport

Two Red Line stations serve the district, Al Matar Al Qadeem and Oqba Ibn Nafie.¹ Old Airport Park, the Oryx Rotana hotel and the old airport itself are within walking distance of Al Matar Al Qadeem station, and D Ring Road, E Ring Road, Airport Street and Najma Street are the other main roads.¹

Samovar tea and karak

Samovar tea is a newer arrival than karak. A barrel-shaped copper samovar keeps 40 liters of water boiling over gas, tea leaves steep in a cloth pouch to make a strong, unsweetened black decoction, and milk simmers in a chamber on top.³ The tea-maker adds a ladle of milk and a spoon of sugar, then pours the tea back and forth between mug and cup to froth it, a style known as "metre tea".³

Nobody AP spoke to in 2022 remembered a samovar shop in Qatar before 2014, and the samovar shops still numbered fewer than 100.³ Karak goes back further, possibly to the 1950s, and Mohammed Ali's eatery on Old Airport Road had been running for 65 years when AP visited.³

Cafeteria prices and late hours

In mid-2026 a cup of cafeteria karak cost QR1–2 and a chapati about QR2, and rice, curry or grill plates QR15–30; Old Airport is among the districts with the widest choice of full meals.⁴⁵ Carry small cash for the smaller cafeterias.⁴ Grill houses here usually serve until 02:00 or 03:00, and several never close; karak stops often stay open into the early hours too.⁵

Simon's Restaurant Café and Grill is on Al Mansour Street, and Stanza Coffee Shop, Cranio Cafe and Blended Cafe are also in the district. Baba Chapatea and Brooks Cafe, on Matar Qadeem Street, have branches here as well.

Ordering from the car

Karak is often bought without leaving the driver's seat. At one Doha eatery AP visited, a honk of the horn brought someone to the car within seconds to take the order, and one tea-maker it met turned out 700 cups in a shift.³