Döner Kebab: Love at First Bite?

🎃 We are fully in spooky season. I picked (and already ate) my first pumpkin, and I’m already lining up those cozy carb-heavy dishes we all know and love.

Favorite Food interviews real people about their favorite food.

“…it sort of became a funny thing that I hadn’t tried a Döner."

Döner Kebab is undeniably Berlin’s most beloved fast food, even outranking former favorite Currywurst in recent years.1 Originating from Turkish immigrants in Germany during the 60s/70s, the Turkish Döner was adapted to German tastes and has since taken on a life of its own.2

Every day 400,000 Döner Kebabs are eaten in Berlin alone3. That’s a lot of Kebabs.

It’s so popular that people even wait for 2+ hours to try some of Berlin’s most famous spots like Mustafa’s Gemüse Kebab.

I myself am obsessed with Döner Kebabs, although now I’m too lazy to wait in a line longer than 30 min. I recently ate one on my birthday, because that’s how much I love them.

I assumed everyone loved them.

But then I was SHOCKED to discover that one of my very own friends, Rita, had never eaten one.

We immediately made plans to go to my favorite spot, Rüyam Gemüse Kebab, where I asked her the following questions.

When I moved to Berlin, I was pescatarian. And despite living very close to Mustafa’s, I never managed to wait in that long queue to make an exception.

Then, when I started eating meat again, it sort of became a funny thing that I hadn’t tried a döner and I kept hyping it in my head that it had to be the perfect one.

It’s GOOD!

I like how full and flavorful it is with the sauce and all the veggies. It’s perfectly messy and hearty in all the right ways. The chicken is also well seasoned and juicy, but a bit fatty. The bread is nice and toasty, but doesn’t hold super well.

Well, I might be a little biased, but I love the simplicity of the Lebanese shawarma. The thin pita, the occasional fries inside, the pickles! My favorite is usually a beef shawarma with tarator because I don’t like the garlic sauce they serve with chicken shawarma. So actually, having a chicken döner with a milder yogurt sauce that’s not so heavy on garlic was a nice change.

This is a hard one! I think in terms of local street food, I would choose Döner Kebab over bratwurst.

But Berlin also has a lot of other great sandwiches and street food options from all the different communities who have immigrated here - really good Palestinian falafel, Vietnamese banh mi, Sudanese peanut sauce-filled sandwiches!

❤️ Thank you Rita for letting me be a part of that first-bite feeling.