decided to try my luck and we went to Villagio and we had a really nice time
We walked in to the Arab restaurant 'Sarai'... its Syrian/Lebanese
they had a set menu, I suppose most Arab restaurants would... the others that come to mind are Al Saha (near crazy signal) and Layali
Sarai charged 238 QAR for a couple and didn't charge for my son
the ambience was nice, the service was nice, the waiter spoke to me in Arabic and I could still understand him perfectly and I replied to him in Arabic and he kept a straight face even :-D
Although my waiter did not speak English he understood English, there were other waiters who spoke english fluently though
The food was nice, I guess the Syrian twist gave it some novelty as opposed to the usual Lebanese fare at other places
But what I really liked about the place is that its close to the praying facility in villagio which was very convenient
also, they let us halt the meal midway and then return for the main course after tharawiya which was till 9
So basically it was not just an iftaar but an iftaar and suhour
and there was enough food for iftaar and suhour, a bit too much actually, a lot of it was wasted
the managers were a bit aloof, to draw a smile from them was like drawing water from a Saharan well although they showered their affections lavishly on other people who were from closer to Levant, but that I have come to expect in all Arab restaurants
But overall we had a nice evening