Recently my wife and I flew QR first from CDG to PER with a short stop in DOH, and having experienced fabulous first class lounges with CX, LH and QF we were keen to experience the much vaunted Al Safwa. Unfortunately it is a lengthy walk from the gate. On arrival we were greeted by very eager and pleasant staff at reception, the restaurant and even in the toilets, but it was a thoroughly bizarre experience. The 2 of us were the only passengers in the cavernous marble lined hall of a lounge which had at least 15 staff wandering around looking for something to do. At one stage we attempted to connect our tablets to WiFi, it just wouldn't connect. During the attempts no less than 3 staff were simultaneously assisting us, which was a nice change from many other lounge staff in Europe, but showed how desperate they are to actually have some interaction with customers. The restaurant had a seemingly reasonable menu, but the food was very pedestrian quality, particularly the bread was dry and tasteless, verging on stale. The lamb overcooked and the vegetables grey and uninspiring , reminiscent of how my mum cooked them in the 60's. I think I would only use this lounge in future if we had a substantially longer transit and needed a quiet day-bed area. We had tried the Al Mourjain lounge previously and found it also uninspiring particularly in the multiple food outlets, all of which had stale pastries and sweets. And minimal western choices available. Compared to CX, LH and even LX these Doha lounges were disappointing, despite the money QR spent on constructing and manning them. Whereas the QR business/first lounge in CDG was fresh, inviting and with tasty well handled food in the restaurant.