Huddersfield – German Doner Kebab
It seems that every city that I’ve been to recently has a German Doner Kebab outlet and I’ve been slightly intrigued by the whole arrangement. It transpires that it’s operated by Hero Brands and they’re on a big franchise push, opening 50 outlets this year and they’re keeping that rate up for seven more years. After checking, it appears that this franchise opened only a few weeks ago, replacing an outlet of Pizza Hut that had closed down last year. That reminds me that I haven’t been to Pizza Hut for years and I remember when there were queues of customers outside many branches waiting to get in for lunch buffet. Anyway, I digress.
I very rarely have doner kebabs, namely as I tried one about 15 years ago that I was given free from a kebab shop and I thought it tasted bloody awful. However, I had a kebab in Poznan in Poland a couple of years and I’ve been reminded how popular this whole thing is in Germany, with its Turkish roots.
The menu is above (clicking on the image makes it more readable), all clearly laid out. The shop has some self-service touch screens, but they’re broken, which isn’t ideal given how new the shop is.
Given that the brand is clearly doing something right, I thought that I’d try the food here, although I was rather sceptical. Anyway, the service at the counter was friendly and helpful, so everything felt welcoming and well managed. The shop was generally pretty clean as well, I didn’t have any concerns there. I’m not sure if it’s standard practice or just because it was quite quiet, but the staff brought the food to the table for me as well.
I went for the mixed chicken and beef doner box with fries. Goodness knows how unhealthy that was with the fries and salt, but there we go. It comes with three dips, which are garlic, yoghurt and spicy. I can’t say any were exceptional, but they added positively to the proceedings.
As for the taste of the kebab, it was much better than I had expected. The beef was actually full of flavour, although much of that was probably salt and additives, but it was very moreish. The chicken was also tender and had a depth of taste to it, with the sauces livening up the fries. The portion size was also more than I had expected, perhaps not really shown by the photo.
I’d certainly come to one of these outlets again and I can see why this franchise is doing well, it’s something that isn’t that well catered for by chains at the moment. I suspect that there will be some considerable trade lost by the traditional late night kebab shops up and down the country unless they’re able to tap into a loyal following.
