To open a restaurant in Qatar, you register a company with a food activity on the Single Window, get the Ministry of Municipality’s approval to license a food establishment, meet Civil Defence rules and take a commercial licence for the premises. The CR and the licence cost QAR 500 each. Every food worker also needs a health certificate.
Restaurant, café or cloud kitchen: choose the activity
The activity code decides which approval the premises need.
Each food business sits under its own code on the Single Window, and the code is written on the commercial registration (السجل التجاري) and the commercial licence (الرخصة التجارية). The codes we checked are open to Qatari, GCC and foreign owners. What changes from one code to the next is the approval needed before the licence is issued.
| Business | Single Window code | Approval before the licence | Premises types listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant with table service | 561010 | Ministry of Municipality, Municipal Audit Department: approval to license food establishments | Restaurant, coffee shop, commercial location |
| Coffee shop | 563011 | The same Municipality approval | Coffee shop, commercial location |
| Shisha café | 563013 | Ministry of Public Health: licence to sell tobacco or run a café, again before each renewal | Café (shisha) |
| Catering or food preparation | 562901 | None listed | Commercial location, commercial office, restaurant |
Cafés get extra rules. Take a coffee shop in Al Sadd with no shisha. MOCI Decision No. 161 of 2017 wants a glass shopfront and a corner marked for smokers, with seating kept apart from the preparation and storage areas and enough sinks and toilets. Add shisha and you are under another code, 563013, which needs a Ministry of Public Health licence first.
How to open a restaurant in Qatar in six steps
Anyone working out how to start a restaurant business in Qatar soon finds two tracks: the company, and the premises. You can register the company while the lease is still being argued over. In that case the Single Window issues only the CR, and you serve nobody until the commercial licence comes through.
- Activity code and ownership
Find your activity in the table. Law No. 1 of 2019 allows foreign ownership up to 100%, with an application to the Ministry above 49%.
- Check the premises first
Get MOCI’s initial approval before the lease is signed. If the building has no completion certificate, or you hold no valid title deed or lease, there will be no licence later.
- Company and CR
On the Single Window: reserve the trade name, attest the memorandum, then apply for the CR.
- Fit out and pass the approvals
The Municipality’s food establishment approval and, for sites of 250 m² or more, a Civil Defence certificate (الدفاع المدني).
- Take the commercial licence
Issued for the approved premises, as the shop licence that Law No. 5 of 2015 requires before any restaurant opens.
- Register in Wathiq and staff up
Sign the restaurant up in Wathiq (واثق), the Ministry of Public Health system, then book a health certificate for each food worker.
Wathiq costs nothing to register in, but the file is not short. A restaurant uploads its trade licence, a pest control contract and its menu, plus a food safety certificate such as HACCP, a risk analysis and a process flow diagram.
Is this your first company in Qatar, and a small one? Our guide to starting a small business in Qatar covers the company side in more depth.
Restaurant licence cost in Qatar: the official fees by authority
- Commercial registration, one activity
- QAR 500
- Commercial licence, per premises type
- QAR 500
- Health certificate, per food worker
- QAR 20
Government fees only, from the Single Window and the Ministry of Public Health, checked 22 Oct 2026.
| Item | Authority | Official fee |
|---|---|---|
| Trade name | Ministry of Commerce and Industry | Free inside the establishment service; QAR 1,000 on its own |
| Commercial registration | Ministry of Commerce and Industry | QAR 500 for one activity, QAR 300 for each extra activity |
| Memorandum attestation and notarisation (LLC) | Single Window | QAR 500 attestation; QAR 500 notarisation of the first three copies |
| Qatar Chamber membership | Qatar Chamber, collected on the Single Window | From QAR 500 (capital under QAR 500,000); QAR 5,000 more when non-Qatari ownership exceeds 49% |
| Commercial licence | Ministry of Commerce and Industry | QAR 500 per premises type |
| Establishment card | Ministry of Interior | QAR 200 |
| Food establishment approval | Ministry of Municipality | No fee shown on the activity pages |
| Wathiq registration | Ministry of Public Health | Free |
| Health certificate | Ministry of Public Health, Medical Commission | QAR 20 per worker |
| Shop sign with the trade name | Municipality | Exempt from the advertising fee and deposit |
| Civil Defence certificate | Ministry of Interior, Civil Defence | Not stated on an official page we could open |
These are the government fees, and they are small next to the real cost of opening a restaurant in Qatar: rent, fit-out, kitchen equipment, staff and visas. No authority publishes figures for those, so we do not quote ranges. Nor did we find an official minimum cost to start a restaurant. What you can count on is the fixed part: for an LLC with one activity, QAR 500 each for the CR, the attestation and notarisation of the memorandum and the commercial licence, and QAR 200 for the establishment card. Price the rest for your site before you commit.
Premises, fit-out and inspections
MOCI’s shop rules apply to every restaurant and café: a site suited to the type of shop, a legal right to occupy it, a building completion certificate, an area that fits the activity, safety and Civil Defence conditions, no direct link to a residence, a sign with the trade name and electronic payment for customers. A unit in a mall can use the mall’s Civil Defence certificate at first issue, but needs its own at renewal.
The health side has two sources. Law No. 8 of 1990 on food control requires the places where food is handled, the equipment and the people who handle it to meet the set specifications. The Ministry of Municipality’s Decision No. 38 of 2025 adds the public health requirements for food establishments in its first annex. Before the kitchen is drawn up, have someone who knows that annex check the layout for your type of outlet.
Staff: health certificates and food handler permits
Health certificate
Issued by the MOPH Medical Commission for QAR 20, with the residence permit, the establishment card, a vaccination card and two photos.
Yearly health checks
Hukoomi says staff in restaurants and other public places are checked every year.
Food handler permit
The establishment registers each food handler for MOPH’s licensing exam, one step towards the Food Handler Occupational Permit.
Companies register their employees for the health certificate on the MOPH website. The food handler exam is booked through Qatar Chamber inside Qatar and, since 2026, can also be taken abroad at Prometric centres before the worker is recruited. Plan visas around these steps: MOPH’s programme requires food handlers and their supervisors to hold its permit to do the work.
Signage and renewals
Under Law No. 1 of 2012, no advertisement may go up without a municipal licence, and the text must be in Arabic, with other languages allowed beside it. The sign on the restaurant itself is exempt from the advertising fee and deposit. Banners, vehicle wraps and street boards are not, and advertising licences are applied for on the Single Window.
| What renews | Rule |
|---|---|
| CR and commercial licence | One to five years; the licence cannot run past the CR. QAR 500 each, plus QAR 300 per extra activity on the CR |
| Timing | Ask at least 30 days before expiry; late renewal costs QAR 500 a month, and after three months the licence is treated as cancelled |
| Approvals | Shown again at renewal; a shisha café needs the health approval again before each renewal |
| Health certificates | Renewed with the previous certificate; workers have yearly checks |
How we help
We help you choose the activity code, check a site before you sign the lease, prepare the Single Window file and plan the order of the Municipality, Civil Defence and health steps. We also guide you through Wathiq and staff certificates. The ministries decide every application.
