(photo by Ansel Mullins)

The sign out front read “Mehmet Usta” and the hand-written menu board with no more than four or five items looked promising. Then nearing the humble eatery, we saw the most homely and delicious-looking doner we’ve encountered in quite some time. Most small restaurants and bufe order their doner log from a factory and advertise its brand with pride – “We serve Bereket doner.” For some businesses, this is a sign of quality and consistency (remember that stories of doner made from seagulls or donkeys are well-known in this city of a million spits) but not to Mehmet usta. He buys his meat from a butcher, cuts it into flat filets and skewers it according to his own methods. Mehmet has been preparing his doner like this for 40 years as all donerci of his generation did. The result looks like a vertical cag kebab, loosely packed cuts with much greater variation than the uniform doner of his competitors. Mehmet usta’s doner isn’t shaved, it is carefully carved and the result are not ribbons so much as morsels of doner.

We hold a deep respect usta like Mehmet who cling to the old ways, not for the sake of nostalgia but because it results in better food. In this case, it certainly did. We took a seat across from an older fellow in a postal worker jacket and followed his lead with a pilav ustu doner. Unlike a sandwich, which can hide the quality of the meat, doner over rice bears all. The French fries on the side of our plate were cold and stiff – something so consistently true of donerci French fries that we can only assume it to be an act of protest against the French, or the potato – but the heap of doner over buttery rice was an excellent break from the norm.

We finished up and thanked Mehmet for his delicious doner, while he sat in the sun drinking a tea and getting a shoeshine before the lunch rush. “I make good soup too,” he said.

Note taken, Mehmet. We’ll be back.

Address: Buyuk Karaman Caddesi #3, Fatih
Telephone: +90212 533 8665
(Across from the gas station on the corner)

(photo by Ansel Mullins)

(Editor’s Note: This guest post was written by Atilla Kapar, author of the blog Turkiye ve Dunyadan Lezzetler (“Good Tastes from Turkey and the World”) and a Turkish food enthusiast who, as he describes it, “reviews lesser known restaurants in İstanbul that offer great tasting food.” Atilla is a graduate of Bosphorus University in İstanbul and holds an MBA degree from INSEAD in France and Singapore.)

Döner is probably one of Turkish cuisine’s best-known specialties. Thanks to the millions of Turks running döner restaurants and stands outside Turkey (as well as the Greeks and Middle Easterners selling the related “gyros” and “shawarma”), today it’s difficult to find a city in the world that doesn’t have at least one stand selling meat roasting on a rotating vertical spit. According to some estimates, the combined profits of döner restaurants in Germany are four times higher than that of the country’s McDonald’s restaurants.

“Rotating roast” is the exact translation of döner kebap. It is commonly agreed that döner was first invented by restaurateur Iskender Usta at the late 19th century in Bursa, one of historical capitols of Ottoman Empire. Before that, döner used to be a horizontal stack of meat rather than vertical, probably sharing common ancestry with Erzurum’s cağ kebap. Iskender Usta ran a tradesmen’s restaurant in Bursa whose main dish contained slices of döner served on top of sliced pita-like bread and garnished with a yoghurt sauce and melted butter. Iskender Usta’s dish became very popular and was called for some time “Iskender’in dönen kebabı” (Iskender’s rotating roast), and eventually gave names to döner kebap and iskender kebap.

Traditionally the meat used for döner is lamb, although nowadays chicken and a mixture of beef and mutton are also quite popular. When preparing döner, marinated slices of lean meat are stacked onto a vertical skewer and then topped with tail fat that drips along the meat when the stack is heated. The best method to cook döner is with charcoal, although wood, electric and gas burners are also acceptable. Frequently tomatoes and onions are placed at the top of the stack to also drip their juices over the meat, keeping the döner moist. As the outer part of the döner roasts, it is thinly sliced by the “usta” with a long knife. Ideally the döner stack should be prepared by the restaurant early in the morning and the last portion be served by the end of the afternoon. Today most restaurants and stands buy their döner stack from a 3rd party who prepares the dish using industrial methods and a mixture of different meats. Fortunately for the döner addict, there are still some places left in Istanbul that prepare it using authentic methods and offering exceptionally tasty döner.

One such place is Karadeniz Pide Döner ve Lahmacun in the Beşiktaş neighborhood’s shopping district. The place is so well-known in the neighborhood that at lunchtime there are long lines of people queuing up to get their döner, here served as a sandwich. The döner stack is sold out everyday by the evening. In Turkey, the döner served as a sandwich is typically fattier than döner served on plate, and Karadeniz Döner is no exception.
Address: Mumcu Bakkal Sok. No.6 Beşiktaş
Telephone: 212-261-7693

For those who would prefer their döner on a plate (which makes the dish both classier and a bit more substantial), Cevahiroğlu Restaurant in the Çağlayan is one of the best choices in town. The restaurant is situated in the middle of a commercial area packed with hardware shops. The hungry and demanding people working at these shops are Cevahiroğlu main customers, which ensures that the restaurant prepares tasty döner every day. The döner at Cevahiroğlu is served together with buttery rice, finely chopped spring onions, fresh tomato and pepper slices and a thin tortilla like bread called lavaş. Cool ayran (salted natural yoghurt diluted with water) prepared by the restaurant and served in glass pitcher will help to wash down the döner. Cevahiroğlu is open for the lunch on working days.
Address: Dr. Cemal Bengü Cad. No.53 Hürriyet Mah. Kağıthane
Telephone: 212-296-0259

Döner was born in Bursa, but thanks to 4th generation grandsons of Iskender Usta, the original iskender kebap can also be found on the Asian side of Istanbul. Kebapçı İskender makes döner using Iskender Usta’s original recipe and ships its main ingredients – the meat, butter, yoghurt, even the bread – from its flagship restaurant in Bursa. When preparing iskender kebap, pide (a soft, pita-like bread) is cut into small squares, heated with charcoal fire over a grill and laid on a platter. Thin and tender pieces of döner cut from the stack are laid over the bread and a savory tomato sauce is poured over the meat. The plate is served immediately and the waiter asks whether you would like to have it with yoghurt and browned butter, for which the answer should always be yes. The ritual of pouring yoghurt and butter over döner and the smell going through your nostrils stimulates all senses and, voilà, iskender kebap is ready. Kebapçı İskender has two branches in Kadıköy, one of which is very close to ferry terminal there.
Address: Rıhtım Cad. Next to Post Office Kadıköy
Telephone: 216-336-0777
Address: Bağdat Cad. 375/1 Erenköy
Telephone: 216-302-0334
Website: www.iskenderkebabi.com

(Editor’s Note: Due to a number of reliable reports that things are slipping over at this formerly recommendable spot, we are now urging diners to approach the restaurant with lowered expectations. We will update this alert if we hear or taste otherwise.)

Though Iskender kebab is a registered trademark of the famous Kebapci Iskender restaurant in Bursa, imitations are ubiquitous. In Istanbul, Iskender kebab – a dish based on döner, strips of roasted lamb shaved off from a vertical spit – is almost as common as designer knock-offs in the Grand Bazaar. But unlike a $20 Dolce & Gabbana track suit with dubious stitchwork, the “pirated” Iskender kebab over at Kasap Osman’s in the Sirkeci neighborhood is most certainly the real thing, if not better.

The restaurant is located around the corner from the Sirkeci train station, on a side street that’s best described as an open-air food court for serious eaters. Restaurants offering Kurufasuliye (Turkish style baked beans), pide (or Turkish pizza) and other local specialties stand cheek by jowl on this crowded little street filled with outdoor tables. But something extra special radiates from Kasap Osman (“Osman the Butcher” in Turkish), where, turning slowly on an upright spit, stands a blue ribbon döner carefully watched by the usta.

Döner, slices of lamb stacked like pancakes on a tall skewer and slowly turned before a vertical grill, is the most important factor in any Iskender kebab. Though gas and electric grills are more common these days, we far prefer the smoky flavor imparted by the traditional cooking method employed by Kasap Osman, where charcoal is used to roast the döner. Naturally the quality of the meat plays an important role as well, and who better to trust at the spit than Osman, who actually is a former butcher. Osman and his team also have experience working in their favor, having turned döner spit for a loyal, hungry audience of local shopkeepers and office workers everyday for the last 25 years from the same corner on Hocapasa.

Timed to coincide with the lunch hour rush, at around noon the usta starts shaving off the first long ribbons of succulent döner and collecting them in the pan in his other hand. The döner is then sent to the kitchen where it becomes Iskender kebab and other döner-based dishes. For Iskender, our favorite, the cooked meat is laid over a bed of chopped flatbread in a clay dish and garnished with peppers and tomatoes and dressed with a thin tomato sauce. The dish is then quickly fired in the oven crisping the saucy bread on the bottom and softening the garnish. Finally the whole dish is doused with butter browned in a skillet and a quick dollop of thick yogurt is added to one side. We can often hear our Iskender sizzling on its way to the table.

So noble a kebab, it’s quite logical that someone trademarked it and no surprise at all that the trademark is infringed upon everyday from Melbourne to Miami. But if you don’t have time for the official Iskender kebab pilgrimage to Bursa, head over to Kasap Osman for the best genuine fake Iskender in the city.

Address: Hocapasa Sokak 22, Sirkeci
Telephone: 212-519-3216

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