Every month a new café opens in Doha with a beautiful interior, a strong first weekend and a business plan built on a full house every night. Eighteen months later the fit-out is for sale on a classifieds site. The operators who last are not always the best cooks; they are the ones who knew their numbers before signing the lease. This is the version of the numbers that a good hospitality consultant would give you.

The investment, line by line

For a 120 to 180 sqm café or casual restaurant in a good Doha location:

  • Company setup and licences: QAR 40,000 to 90,000 including commercial registration, trade licence, municipality food licence, Civil Defence approval and signage permits.
  • Rent deposit and advance: typically three months' rent up front plus a deposit. Mall and prime street rents for F&B run QAR 250 to 500 per sqm per month; secondary streets and community centres QAR 120 to 250.
  • Fit-out: QAR 2,500 to 4,500 per sqm for a café standard, higher for full restaurants with extract, gas and grease management. Budget QAR 400,000 to 800,000 for the size above.
  • Kitchen equipment: QAR 150,000 to 400,000 depending on concept; a coffee-led café at the low end, a grill kitchen at the high end.
  • Furniture, smallwares, POS, branding: QAR 100,000 to 250,000.
  • Staff recruitment and visas: QAR 8,000 to 15,000 per employee for visa, medical, ID and flights, before salaries.
  • Opening stock and marketing: QAR 60,000 to 150,000.
  • Working capital: at least four months of full operating costs. This is the line that first-time operators leave out and the reason they close.

All in, a realistic range is QAR 1.2 to 2.5 million for a well-executed café or casual restaurant, and QAR 3 million and above for a full-service concept with a serious kitchen. Franchises add the franchise fee and usually higher fit-out specifications.

Licences, in order

  1. Commercial registration and trade licence for the restaurant activity (MOCI), with a registered lease.
  2. Municipal food establishment licence, which requires the kitchen layout, materials and drainage to meet the food safety code; the municipality inspects before opening and periodically after.
  3. Civil Defence approval of the fire and life-safety design, then a final inspection.
  4. Signage permit, and mall or landlord approvals where applicable.
  5. Staff health cards and food-handler training for all kitchen and service staff.

Plan 3 to 5 months from lease signing to opening, with the fit-out and the food licence running in parallel. A licensed fit-out contractor and a consultant who have delivered F&B units before will save you weeks at each inspection.

The ratios that decide survival

  • Rent at or below 12 to 15 per cent of revenue. If the rent needs 20 per cent, the location is too expensive for the concept, however good it looks.
  • Food and beverage cost at 28 to 35 per cent for a restaurant, 22 to 30 per cent for a coffee-led café.
  • Labour including accommodation and visas at 25 to 32 per cent.
  • Delivery platforms: commissions of 20 to 30 per cent mean delivery orders are volume, not profit, unless the menu is priced for them.

Break-even, honestly

A café that opens well and is run tightly reaches monthly operating break-even in 6 to 12 months and recovers its investment in 24 to 36 months. Faster is possible with a proven concept and a strong location; slower is common when the summer months and Ramadan hours are not in the forecast. Model the year with three quiet months, not twelve average ones.

What a good consultant adds

A hospitality consultant in Doha will test the concept against the location's actual footfall, design the menu around the kitchen you can afford, set up the licence sequence, source equipment at trade prices, and build a cash-flow model with the quiet months in it. Fees range from QAR 30,000 for a feasibility study to QAR 150,000 and above for full concept-to-opening support. Against a QAR 2 million investment, the feasibility study alone is the best money in the budget.

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