Döner

The sight of stacked pyramids of meat rotating on vertical spits is a sight hard to miss and hard to pass up. So when I spotted this very thing through the window of the new Turkish takeout restaurant, Döner, I was instantly drawn in to try it.
The restaurant is named for the Turkish dish, döner kebab, which literally translated means rotating roast, and is basically an equivalent of Turkish fast food. It is moat frequently made by stacking slices of marinated lamb meat on a large vertical skewer. Often, fat or sometimes vegetables like tomatoes or onions are placed at the top of the pile to baste the roast with their juices during the cooking process. Döner has close relatives in the Arabic shawarma and the Greek gyro.
Upon entering this seven-day-old restaurant, I was immediately greeted by the owner who cheerfully thanked me for coming and chatted me up about bicycling while I made my order. There were the expected eastern Mediterranean dishes like tabouli, hummus, and falafel, and there are a number of vegetarian options for those turned off by the skewers of lamb and chicken. However, that is exactly what I was after, so I ordered one each of the chicken and lamb sandwich.
The sandwich is a stuffed pita with the meat, lettuce, tomato, yogurt and hot sauce. Both sandwiches were fairly good. I’m usually a hard sell on lamb, and it was a touch on the salty side, though not overwhelmingly so. The chicken, on the other hand, was moist and flavorful. Though, the sandwiches in general left something to be desired. I see what they were aiming for, and the elements of salty, spicy and sour were all there, but the flavors didn’t come together and the pita was a little dry—it fell apart in my hands.
I also sampled two vegetable dishes, the baby okra and the zucchini pancakes. Not everyone is a fan of the sliminess of okra (I’m a sucker for it), but this dish was just right, not too slimy or overcooked.
The zucchini pancakes, which are something like the summer squash version of latkes, were a nice appetizer and would be good on their own as a light snack. These were my favorite dish, and as they were on the way to being sold out, they are popular with the other customers, too.
Döner has potential. On the plus side, it’s cheap and the food is filling and in your hands lickety-split. Flavor wise, it’s not quite there yet. I guess it serves one well, in a certain sense, to remember that this is really fast food, and as such is a pretty good representative of the genre. That said there is no reason that fast food must fall into the trap of its stereotype when it could easily elevate itself by using quality ingredients. All in all, I am excited to see how Döner evolves and gets better with time. I’ll be back.
Döner- 189 Bedford Avenue at Bedford and North 7th