Qatar buzzes with entrepreneurial ideas as it prepares to welcome the World Cup

Qatar has one of the fastest-growing economies in the Gulf and many of its most innovative enterprises are based in the Business District.

And with an estimated 1.5 million football fans descending on Qatar in November for the World Cup, there are plenty of savvy businesses keen to show foreign visitors what the country has to offer.

How many times have we all found ourselves in a shopping mall food court, trying to pick a place to eat? Well, now there’s an app for that.

West Bay's Tornado Tower is home to a Virtual Food Hall where you can browse from multiple restaurant menus and pay in one transaction.

It's called AND Experience and it isn’t your ordinary lunch spot - it's more like ten restaurants in one.

Ali Nasser Al-Saadi is its creator.

"A virtual hybrid food hall is basically where we’re operating different brands under one roof, where a customer can come in and order from different cuisines under the same transaction," he explains.

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Think of a food court. Mom wants pizza, dad wants a salad and the kids want pasta. The difference is, all of the brands here at AND Experience, are owned by Ali Nasser Al-Saadi.

The adventure started back in 2015 with mini pancakes in The Pearl zone, a family-friendly residential district that's built on artificial islands, to the north of Doha.

Al-Saadi said it took about a month for word to spread, but when it did, it wasn’t long before he was making 2,000 mini pancakes every 10 minutes.

"It was something very new in Doha," he remembers. "To have a Qatari concept, especially running the business and being there on the ground. So, I was flipping pancakes and being the cashier and everything. And it evolved."

That success led him to open AND café.