It only feels like a year or so ago where you would have been able to mention ‘German Doner Kebab’ to a stranger and they wouldn’t have a clue what you were talking about. In a short space of time, the restaurant chain has swooped across the country, popping up in the same places you’d find the likes of KFC, Subway and McDonald’s.
And, in the middle of the week at the chain’s Oxford Road restaurant at lunchtime, the place is rammed with students and office workers looking to get their kebab fix. The restaurant’s offering is far from wild – In its own words, it’s just ‘kebabs done right’ but with premium meat and ingredients.
While I’ve been aware of the chain for a while now, I’ve got to admit that I hadn’t stepped foot inside a German Doner Kebab takeaway until this week. In fact, it was one newspaper review last week that spurred my interest to give it a try – and it was for a variety of reasons, both good and bad.
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Writing in The Times, restaurant critic Giles Coren slammed the chain following a visit to one of their London stores. In his review, he described the food as ‘hideous, utterly hideous’ and even went as far as to call it ‘the worst restaurant in the world’. Comparing the kebab meat to ‘shards of burnt roadkill’, he described his meal as being full of factory vegetable oils, whilst also laying down some critiques of the store’s staff and customers.
But, surely, sending a restaurant critic from The Times to a kebab chain was destined to fail from the very get go, right? Well, as it turns out, my visit was completely different to what Giles appears to have endured.
Walking into the city centre restaurant, it was full of people and the staff were all keeping themselves busy with orders as they came through to the open-plan kitchen. Having had to queue up for my turn at the touchscreen system, I’ve got to admit I did become a little overwhelmed initially by things.
Having come in expecting ‘just a kebab’, I was offered all types of burgers, paninis and quesadillas, and it took me a little while to figure out what was going on. Then I came across the OG kebab on the menu and I thought that was probably the best bet when it came to a standard kebab. But it’s always good to know where to go if I ever fancy some doner spring rolls instead…
Once I’d made my pick, I was then taken aback again by a number of options. Did I want chicken or beef, did I want it spicy or not? Did I want curry sauce on my chips? Not particularly a fan of doner meat, I had just presumed it was just all doner and didn’t expect to have an option of meat. So, with that in mind, I went for a mix.
As I wanted the full restaurant experience, I decided to dine in and sat upstairs where I waited for my server to bring my meal over. For £10.98, my kebab came with plain chips and a can of 7-UP. Whilst it was more expensive than I’d want to spend on a usual lunch, it’s on par with a meal at the likes of KFC and Subway.
Waiting for my food to arrive, I saw signs dotted around laying claim to the chain’s origins in Berlin, where it has apparently had a presence since 1989. But I’m a little hesitant to be fully convinced of this having been to Berlin myself and failing to recall ever seeing a single GDK there. In fact, looking at the list of restaurants on their website, there’s not one store located in Berlin today. But there are stores instead in Sweden, Saudi Arabia and, of course, Stockport.
Within ten minutes (probably due to the number of people ordering), my food was in front of me. Loaded within a toasted sesame waffle bread were piles upon piles of salad and meat. Tucking into it, the bread had a nice soft crunch to it and I was immediately met with a range of herbs and spices hitting my palette.
Initially, my thoughts were that the kebab was a little too dry for my liking and needed a bit more sauce to go with it – but then I realised that, tucked underneath the layers of salad and meat were a range of sauces – yoghurt, garlic sauce, and a spicy sauce, which does have a heat to it but isn’t too overwhelmingly spicy.
The salad was fresh and tasty, and probably helped make me feel like I was eating something a lot healthier than it actually was. When it came to the meat, the doner was nowhere as bad as I had dreaded – it wasn’t too greasy, it had a nice punch of spices and had a pleasing grilled flavour to it. The chicken was cut into small chunks, and complimented it well. I’d definitely go for a mix again.
When it came to the chips, they were perfectly fine. They came to my table fresh from the fryer and were steaming hot, which is always a good thing. But, really, they played second fiddle to the kebab, which was so filling in itself that I really didn’t need the chips anyway.
The meal itself was quite messy, and was a three-napkin situation for me as the sauce and meat tried its very best to escape from the kebab. It’s not glorified dining, but kebabs have never claimed to be.
I came out of GDK actually quite impressed. The service was great and quick – and an extra special mention goes out to the staff who were pacing up and down the stairs to deliver each meal during the busy rush. I accept that, at the end of the day, it’s a chain restaurant and it’s hardly going to set the culinary world alight – it’s there to serve a quick purpose, after all. But, it was nowhere near as bad as the review in The Times had geared me up to believe it would be.
The food wasn’t greasy, it was filling and the service was great. As far as I am concerned, its purpose was well and truly served. Maybe the restaurant critic had visited on a bad day, or maybe it just was never going to ever meet his high expectations – who knows.
For a quick lunch, it’s good. It’s not groundbreakingly different from other kebab shops, but, I’ve got to say, this is actually the first kebab I’ve had where I’ve actually enjoyed the doner meat.
GDK is not trying to be a high-end restaurant and it never is going to be one, but that’s completely fine. We have other places for that.