This Indian restaurant in Qatar lets the poor eat for free

This restaurant in Qatar's Industrial Area became the talk of the town after the owners put up a sign that said "If you have no money and you're hungry, you can eat for free."

The restaurant introduced this policy about 15 days ago and has heaped praise from several customers and residents in the area.

The restaurant, Zaiqa, serves Indian dishes and caters to the working population in the area who are mostly from Nepal, Bangladesh and India. Most of these workers earn less than a thousand Qatari Riyals a month and in some cases, not at all.

Restaurant owners, Nishab Khan and Shadab Khan, came up with this idea because they thought there was a need for "free food" in the area.

However, not a lot of people come asking for free food to the restaurant despite their poor financial situation.

"We just get 2-3 persons per day, we expected more. People have so much of self respect in that poor quarter. If someone has one Riyal, he would buy a packet of bread and eat that. They just don't accept free food," said Nishab Ahmed Khan, manager of Zaiqa.

A post about this on Qatar Living's forum has been getting a lot of attention and has gone viral on social media. Every commenter has praised the owner for taking such a kind initiative. [View post here]

"We did not decide to do this for publicity, we genuinely wanted to help those who are unfortunate and sometimes can't afford to buy a meal," added Khan.

A waiter working in the restauant said that some companies often do not pay salaries to workers and they end up not having any money even for food. This initiative is aimed at helping such people.

The restaurant had initially decided to serve a vegetarian curry platter with bread as part of the 'free' menu, but now they offer everything on the menu and even serve biriyani at times.

The restaurant is located on Al Kassarat Street between Streets 22 and 23 across the mosque near Al Attiyah Souq. The restaurant is run and managed by Nishad Ahmed Khan and his brother, Sahadab Ahmed Khan.

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