Fancy trying the Best Kebab in London?
I thought I didn’t like kebabs. Then I saw the life-changing light.
kebab
kɪˈbab,kəˈbɑːb/
noun
Origin: late 17th century: from Arabic kabāb, partly via Urdu, Persian, and Turkish.
- A dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted or grilled on a skewer or spit.
2. The signal that it is 3am and you should have gone home hours ago.
I am no stranger to a drunken kebab. The salty, chewy full-stop on an evening well-spent in good company. When I am elevated from just simple ‘Lucy Ogilvie’ and become ‘Lucy, Devourer of Suspicious Meats and Smearer of Mayonnaise on Jackets’. The thought of tucking into anything called a Kebab whilst sober has only crossed my mind once before, and immediately resulted in a shudder, a wretch and a dismissal.
However.
This has all changed.
Below are just five of my favourites from an increasingly long list of amazing kebab places in London. Some are fancy restaurants, some are hipster haunts and there are also a couple that appear on the outside to be the same old grease collection but are in fact hiding meats of rich deliciousness. Take a look, and change how you view the kebab — it might just become your new favourite dish:
Lahore Kebab House
Not much to look at from the outside, but take a chance on this large Pakistani restaurant and you will soon discover a haven of quality and taste. They serve grills, curries and — of course — kebabs in a casual cafe setting, known for it’s loud clientele and bustling atmosphere. They also have a BYOB policy, and there are plenty of nearby off-licences to purchase alcohol should you want. However, and I don’t say this lightly, you don’t need to have alcohol to enjoy these kebabs. They are generously sized, packed with flavour and full of the most tender meat in town.
Gökyüzü Restaurant
This place recently won ‘Best Kebab in London’ in the British Kebab Awards. That’s kind of a big deal considering that the UK, London especially, has a salty love affair with the dish; there are over 20,000 kebab restaurants registered around the country! Gökyüzü is a lovely, informal family-run Turkish restaurant, serving classic dishes cooked in a traditional oven in an attractive, recently renovated space. It’s certainly more of an evening meal with loved ones rather than 3am stop-off, but perhaps that makes it the ideal venue to try out your first taste of what a real kebab should be.
Patogh
The word that keeps coming up again and again when people describe this restaurant is ‘authentic’. Authentic decor, authentic cooking, authentic Iranian owner, authentic authenticity… this casual Iranian restaurant serves unfussy and traditional dishes, including a perfected kebab. There is limited seating available, but that just serves to make you feel even better when you snag a seat in peak hours. Again, it’s a BYOB policy, but how is that a problem when it means you can chose exactly the alcohol you’d like for a much lower price? The service is always with a smile, the music always the same, and the décor makes you feel like you’re in an old tea house somewhere in ye olde Persia. The best bit? £7 will get you a HUGE dinner that will fill you up all evening. Can’t say that about many places in London.
19 Numara Bos Cirrik
A massive hooded grill dominates this no-frills cafe, which serves a menu comprised strictly of meat kebabs, vegetable kebabs and sundries to a crowd of hipsters, families and old-school Turkish diners, the latter who give the place an aura of reliability. The beast-like charcoal grill is very much the focal point, and if you don’t want to smell like delicious barbecue for the next few days then make sure to not wear anything you are planning on wearing again soon — honestly, the delicious scent gets everywhere. I didn’t mind though. After all, every time I moved it reminded me and others of the most amazing lamb dishes in London, which certainly raised my streetcred.
BabaBoom
Ah, BabaBoom. This place has achieved the impossible and not only made kebabs vaguely healthy, but were the first to enable me to eat a kebab sober and discover what I’ve been missing. Reassuringly hipster, serving a small but well-thought out menu of pillow-y Persian flatbreads topped with hearty portions of charcoal grilled meats and punchy vegetable side dishes. If you’re nervous of going all out with authenticity, then this place is the gateway to the world of kebab. Take that first step — you won’t regret it.
For all these and many more, to discover which is closest to you on the map and to find out where to go on the go, check out the full Pearlshare guide below:
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