Clearing out household junk I came across some souvenir menus, printed for special dinners, that Tessie had been saving as memorabilia from our time in Doha, from Christmases and wine parings.

We used to go out for evening restaurant meals, mostly buffet style, almost weekly and to the best fine dining restaurants probably once a month or so.

Our favourite restaurant by far was the ‘Le Mer’ at the Ritz Carlton hotel. We were friends with the Ritz’s Maître D who used to take special care of us. We also enjoyed the fine dining restaurant on the top floor of the Sheraton hotel and convention centre, also Max’s fine dining at the old Ramada hotel, all now sadly gone or refurbished and completely changed.

When in the UK we also like the occasional fine dining experience. The One-O-One restaurant in London, often voted the UK’s number one fish restaurant has been a favourite of ours for many years. Simon Radley’s at the Chester Grosvenor hotel being another, where I once had the best Chateaubriand I have ever tasted. Their tasting and wine pairing menu is also exceptional.

There used to be fine dining in Manila many years ago. An excellent French restaurant called Le Souffle, operated by a young French chef, was probably the best. I remember one of the dishes being veal liver poached in champagne that was simply delicious. Unfortunately, it had to move location due to the area’s redevelopment, the chef went back to France and the quality slowly deteriorated over the next few years until its closure. Another excellent restaurant was the Red Restaurant at the Shangri-La hotel under the management of an Australian chef, and a restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental that had a German chef.

Thirty years ago, you could pre-order the classic French Pressed Duck in the rooftop restaurant at the old Holiday Inn. All of these are also long gone.

There are still some very good restaurants in Manila, just not of the same quality as in earlier years. The reason probably being that the Philippine economy today is well below the level that it was only a decade ago, and much further below the levels of the 1990’s.

The trend now is towards Oriental Cuisine. The Old Manila restaurant at the Peninsula hotel varies year by year. They keep changing the chefs, sometimes European chefs, consequently the quality of food varies from very good to mediocre.

The last time we visited however an up-and-coming Filipino chef produced an eclectic menu with excellent mouth-watering results.

Back to Doha, below are some of the menus that Tessie has saved.

La Mer Restaurant. Ritz Carlton - Doha.

See also An Evening with Heinz Winkler