Google
I today had the disappointment to travel to One Star Doner Kebab. Long story short, sadly this experience was everything wrong with food pretension and thinking "I can do it better."
Having heard some recommendations for Michelin-starred chef Brad Carter and his cooking and being an Arab myself, I was intrigued to make the journey to the drinking den and food hall, Escape to Freight Island, attached to the Warehouse Project in Manchester, dance music being another deep love of mine away from food.
This review has nothing to do with the staff there, the drinks, or ambience, which I very much enjoyed, and I'd return of the strength of that all but let us return to the task in hand.
Ordering is done, via the obligatory website these days and, one hopes, that things are transmitted to where we need on completion. But this is exactly where my problems began. No sooner had I made my order, than it had arrived - do see the attached photo, good looking at least. But the food, quicker to deliver than the drink I ordered with it was cold. Colder than just prepared and waiting to be served. No this wasn't one star doner, this was one degree doner. The meat, the grilled chilli, the bread, everything said that, at the very beginning of the evenings service, I'd been served preprepared food, possibly even out of the fridge.
Traditional Syrian kebabs enjoy rich crisp lamb, crispy, deep with garlic and sumac, and wrapped in a flatbread. Turkish kebabs come with pide slightly burnt and fat with the juices of the meat, even the new wave German style kebabs with their fresh toasted breads and pungent chilli sauce are worth checking out.
This experience was nothing like that. The tasteless meat, dry and cold, an abuse of the tamworth lamb that provided it, a desperate desire and attempt to put pink Sunday roast into your hand, why? This meat then paired with a chilli sauce with no bite, kick, or sign of life. A garlic sauce that would lose a fight with a wet paper bag let alone the pungent toum of the streets of Beirut.
Everything about the experience was wrong and the first, fridge based attempt was sent back. The second attempt was muddled through. Want a real experience of the Istanbul or Damascus scene, short of going there, head to Edgware Road or Golders Green or Camberwell, all in London. Head to Birmingham or Edinburgh or actually any half decent city centre kebab joint and enjoy food from a "local" a world away from this pretentious, flaccid abomination.
One star doner, a serious joke you want to avoid.
