The Best Shawarma and Döner in London
Feroz Gajia, Ibrahim Salha and Mohammed Ali Salha assess the state of London's shaved meat scene.
Good morning, and welcome to Vittles! Issue 2 of our print magazine is officially out this week – if you’ve received it, please let us know what you’ve been enjoying!
You can buy Issue 2 - titled ‘Bad Food’ - on our website here, along with prints from our favourite illustrators and photographers.
The magazine will also start to hit shops in the next few days too – you can find a full list of stockists around the world here. If you are a shop or restaurant and wish to stock Issue 2, then please get in touch with us, or our distributor Antenne Books at maxine@antennebooks.com or mia@antennebooks.com.
The Best Shawarma in London
The origins of this newsletter started with an observation that the shaved meat scene in London is, perhaps, not as good as it could be. Identikit shawarma. Bought-in döner. Who was putting effort into the construction of a great meat wrap?
This led to two things: a shawarma crawl around West London, which is described later on in this newsletter, and a trip to Hassos Döner on Green Lanes, which is not technically recommended in this edition, but we would suggest going anyway, even if just to calibrate it against its competitor over the road, Antepliler Döner. We had whittled this down to three solid recommendations we can stand by, but since Feroz Gajia recommends at least four (4) places to get shawarma or döner, this is now a Six of One.
But before we get to Feroz, here’s Ibrahim Salha and Mohammed Ali Salha on two of their favourites.
Pasha Shawarma
Over the last few weeks, I’ve woken up regularly in the midst of a dream about going on Subway Takes, telling Kareem my vile food opinions and getting cancelled. But seeing as that’s not realistically in my future, I’m writing in Vittles to get cancelled instead. So, without hesitating too much, here it is: I don’t think that punters should rate restaurants using numbered scales. I think TripAdvisor should be shut down. I think Google Maps ratings should cease to exist. Because, ultimately, what good do any of them do?
This thought was spurred on when contemplating the untrustworthiness of ratings and how they’re cooked. I’ve been catfished too many times by clever marketing and unscrupulous, pushy owners. So it was with a lot of trepidation, and a little bit of hunger, that I hotstepped to Pasha Shawarma after a hot tip from Ibzo, my brother and co-author on this article. I was fascinated by how a relatively new spot (it opened in February) could have amassed more than 290 reviews and a rating of 4.8/5 on Google. And in Willesden, of all places. No shade to Willesden, of course.
But speaking of being catfished, there’s something we need to acknowledge. Pasha Shawarma is not a shawarma restaurant. It serves döner – yaprak döner to be precise. This is a style exemplified by its layered cuts of beef and lamb that create leaf-like slivers of contrasting textures and flavour. The restaurant itself has distinct Ottoman and Turkic styling, spicing and flair that distinguishes it from its neighbours, who have turned the high street into a thriving recreation of Damascus. There’s no tahini nor toum in sight. It’s a garlic sauce and ayran paradise. It feels like calling it shawarma was an attempt at ensuring diners’ associations with flaccid and grey elephant leg döner didn’t stick.
So here’s the rub: is this a spot that’s approaching perfection, or has the hype machine gone into overdrive? The truth is somewhere in the middle. On my first visit, I was willing to believe the hype: I ordered an iskender, the beef-lamb ‘shawarma’ on a Turkish roll, and a metal tankard of impossibly frothy ice-cold ayran. The shawarma was stacked like a New York deli sandwich, and it was also bold in its delivery with no sauce accompaniment. The strips of interwoven fat and flesh were blistered by the charcoal to create a textural mosaic that really didn’t need a sauce to elevate it. The charcoal didn’t really impart its flavour to the proceedings, and the seasoning was a little under, but I put that down to chef’s choice. Overall, the first few bites made it feel like the Google raters had it right. The iskender overcomes the seasoning issue by layering melted salty butter, a thick tomato sauce and refreshingly tart yoghurt on top of the shaved meat with overly large cubes of Turkish bread. While it eats well, some small tweaks to the ratios could render it a must-eat.
On my subsequent visits, there have been issues with inconsistent portioning and some heavy-handedness with the carving of the meat. But on my last visit, accompanied by my wife and kids, we dared to try the shawarma pizzas, which reminded us of trips to Pizza Hut in the ’90s but without the thick oil coating on the base. The pizza is a novelty, but one that you can probably ignore if you’re sober. The iskender was still good, and we also enjoyed some pretty good homemade lemonade.
Overall, this is a restaurant that’s not perfect, but a very welcome addition to the area and to the wider London scene. It offers an elevated döner experience and prides itself on its craft. I hope they find their flow, because when it’s good, it is really very good. Okay, that’s enough from me, I’m off to leave my four-star review on Google. Mohammed Ali Salha
61 Walm Lane, NW2 4QR
Below the paywall: Much more shawarma and döner intel from those who know.