Finally, there is a simple formula that explains doner kebab: dk + q² = s (doner kebab + quality squared equals satisfaction). In Berlin, where there is an oversupply, individuals who remember this formula will end up at the right places. Any doner kebab stand or restaurant they choose should pass the formula test first.
Berliners and most of the millions of tourists who come to the German capital every year know what doner kebab looks, smells and tastes like. The meat is being grilled on giant vertical rotisseries and then served in pita bread and with salad and sauce. Of course there are doner platters too, the luxury version.
Many kebab stands in Berlin use lower quality ingredients. There, the ‘meat’ they put in the pita bread consists of chicken stretched with flour and unidentifiable additives. This kind mainly gets its taste from the sauces and the salad they add.
High quality doner kebab is different. It contains actual meat, usually lamb or veal, and a range of excellent sauces and salads. There are big differences indeed. Good doner kebab tastes like a fine restaurant dish, while the cheaper versions mainly fill up the consumer’s stomach without arousing the senses.
Doner kebab is related to tacos al pastor, a popular Mexican dish. The difference is that the Mexican Catholics use pork, while the Turkish Muslims do not. Greek gyros is similar too. So is shawarma.
Success Story
Mehmet Aygün and his five brothers own quite a few restaurants and hotels in Berlin. Adalbertstraße in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district is a historic spot because this is where the first doner kebab place was opened half a century ago. It still exists.
Just two buildings further north, at number 12, there is another ‘Hasir’ restaurant. This one is special: Its interior is very elegant. Secondly this is the first restaurant the Aygün brothers ever opened, in 1978. It is also the place where Mehmet Aygün co-invented doner kebab a long time ago, meaning it all started right here, in Kreuzberg.
Anyone who looks across the street from any of those two ‘Hasir’ restaurants will see a place called ‘Hasir Burger’. It is not a coincidence. It looks like the Aygüns are pretty much controlling the entire block. Some say this applies to the entire city of Berlin.
Envy and Admiration
The Aygün brothers created a big endeavor in Berlin, and an unmatched success story. When Mehmet Aygün arrived, back then in the 70s, he worked at a Turkish restaurant owned by someone else until he had collected enough money to establish his own. The proceeds from that place were invested into another one. When Aygün could not handle the business on his own anymore, he talked his brothers Hüseyin, Muzaffer, Naim, Saim and Temel into coming to West Berlin from their home at the far more quiet Turkish Black Sea coast.
Back then, Berlin was very different from today. American soldiers and many other West Berliners loved doner kebab, the new Turkish fast food creation. Today, the entire city consumes tons of it. Because more than one million tourists per month need to be fed too, there are far more than 1,000 doner kebab stands in Berlin.
The six Aygün brothers are the pioneers in this field. Within the large Turkish community in Berlin, there is envy but also admiration. They made it. Not everyone in the city has eighteen restaurants and two major hotels at the best locations.
Şiş Kebab
A few years back, at Adalbertstrasse 10, Saim Aygün, a likeable man whose German was still a little shaky, explained how his ‘Hasir’ restaurant chain exclusively uses doner kebab meat it makes itself. At their own kitchen at Berlin’s central market, employees start piling up the best lamb and beef available at 6:00 a.m. every day. A few hours later, this high quality meat will be rotating on those spits in their establishments. They refuse to touch the wide-spread stretched chicken meat or anything of the kind.
Some ‘Hasir’ restaurants, such as the one at Adalbertstrasse 10, do offer takeaway doner kebab too which they sell through a window. The salad they add here looks very fresh, just like the meat. For regular doner kebab in bread, prices have doubled within the past seven years. It is 9 Euro without extras while a kebab plate at the restaurant is 19.50 Euro.
The price for lower or average quality doner kebab in pita bread is around 7 Euro. Those two extra Euro for the quality stuff they offer at Hasir are money well-spent. Anyone who bites into one of their special kebabs will know why. Their restaurant menus look very tempting. Saç Kebab, Şiş Kebab and Karışık Izgara are just three out of a million good choices. Who could resist soft veal or lamb of the kind they are offering, or their yogurt sauce with garlic? Yes, this is a rhetorical question. They offer the kind of meat that melts in your mouth.
An earlier version of this article was published on The Berlin Spectator in 2019.
