Offering: Doner Kebab
Establishment: Bobby's Café, Edinburgh
Date and time: 9th of January 2017, 17:32
Price: £5.50
Seating: Over 20 chairs
During the heat of the Fringe last year, a mysterious man would sit on a tall seat outside Greyfriars Bobby's Bar and just a stones throw away from Pizza Paradise. He was holding a sign, directing people towards the small downhill street called Candlemaker Row. It was there, almost adjacent to yet strangely below the greenery of Pizza Paradise a new establishment had graced our historic streets: Bobby's Cafe had just been realised. Named after a story about a dog that enjoyed taking a routine dump at the same poor bastards grave; there are many nearby establishments cashing in on this complete shit-show of a yarn but the newer these establishments are, the less forgiving I feel towards them. Nevertheless, after trying a pretty average pizza there around September, I returned early this year to sample what would prove to be a surprisingly decent affair - their doner kebab!
A swift but close inspection of their display revealed a peculiar familiarity; I asked the small, thin Arabic fellow if this establishment was run by the chaps responsible for Yum Yums - to which the teenager from the back of the seating area replied that the supplier for Yum Yums was the same as Bobby's. I was disappointed. You see, Yum Yums is great - the ingredients are fresh, the displays are pretty, the soup is great, the kofte kebabs, the chicken and so on are excellent! Even the prices are really, really good - the problem though is that their doner is really quite bland. I turned to the teenager once more, his concern visible as I looked into his eyes, distraught - 'what about the doner?' I asked, to which he replied, that the doner was different as the type Bobby's had was stored in a container and not rotated on a spit with the gas turned up - i.e, the traditional way. My relief was probably visible but I was still unconvinced - you see, the great Lazeez also appear to not have a doner on rotational display but their doner is dynamite - what would I make of Bobbys?
I witnessed the kebab in creation; a pitta bread was placed inside the oven and what looked like a 10-inch pizza tray full of cold doner meat accompanying it. After a few minutes, the chef asked what sort of salad I would like - this was really the kind of variety any babbery should at least offer their patrons - shredded lettuce, red cabbage, sparse thinly cut bell peppers, jalapeños and tomatoes. There was a glaring absence of onions though, this is a vital mistake as no babbery should violate such a basic law of kebab salad but it was just about made up for with the variety in the salad.
When the small box was handed to me, I was also a little bit concerned that the size was going to be insufficient - they don't serve a range of sizes, just the standard size. At £5.50, this was averagely priced and comparable with many of the babberies in the area. As I sat down on the understated and slightly grubby eating area, I noticed what a clean looking kebab experience I was about to have - all the contents of the kebab and the way it was stuffed reminded me of Topkapi - the structural integrity of the doner was sound. Additionally, it would appear that there was a greater meaty content in this kebab than the Topkapi one and 150p was saved in the process.
...a pitta bread was placed inside the oven and what looked like a 10-inch pizza tray full of cold doner meat accompanying it.
All looked well as I wired in, I sampled the chilli - its meagre lashings felt lacking. The garlic sauce, it's thickness unquestionable and it's strength understated like the many before it. There was nothing overwhelming about this doner but I was feeling its presence was comforting indeed. I sampled the meat and it was far superior to Yum Yums doner, even better than Cappadocia. An interesting feature of it was it's slights chars at the end - this added a pleasant crispiness to it's texture. In some places, whenever I have experienced this it has been overdone - dry after being reheated on a charcoal grill, often a complete and utter disappointment but here it is a masterclass - think of it as adding small nachos dispersed within the kebab, a very rare experience and all the more richer for it. I was also assured that the meat of the matter was indeed lamb. It probably was quite processed considering their methodology, however it tasted relatively pure.
As I polished off those final morsels, I was pleasantly surprised how my trip to this establishment ended up. Yes, Bobby was not top of the league, heck Bobby was barely contending for a spot in Europe but think Leicester City 2017 rather than 2016 - they know their place and they're happy enough to occupy it and so are their clientele, probably.
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