Date: Saturday 17th September 2022
Eaterie: Bodrum Kebab & grill,
2 Undercliff Road W, Felixstowe IP11 2AW.
Kebabs are great. Lots of meat, roasted on a spit over an open fire, served in a handy pitta bread pouch, with plenty of salad to make a relatively healthy & balanced takeaway meal. We drove around Felixstowe, slowing down as we passed the kebab shops, looking for the most appetising looking doner. From Walton Kebab & Pizza, past Perfect Kebab on Orwell Road, Felixstowe Grill on Bent Hill, BBQ House on the seafront to the Bodrum grill, which is positioned in a prominent spot close to the roundabout by the Aldi supermarket, so it is hard to miss. The upright doner kebab spits are easily visible from outside, so you can see what you will get, before you go inside. This is useful as the best doner is a fresh one. It should visually resemble an elephants leg, relatively light in colour, glistening as it rotates in front of a hot gas flame. To a kebab connoisseur, this would be a lovely sight to behold. It’s obviously impossible to see if you are ordering online, that’s why I always like to personally go get my kebab from the restaurant. You’d be advised to steer clear when the doner kebab on the spit looks really skinny, cold & has congealed fat streaks from the top going down the sides. At the time of our visit to the Bodrum Grill, the meat doner and the chicken doner looked a healthy size & thickness, looking better than those of the other kebab shops in the area. Neither of them were spinning and the burners were not burning. Instead they both sat cooling while the cut meat waited in the Bain Marie pots, beside the grill. This is to be expected as it’s only the really busy kebab restaurants that have them constantly rotating & cooking and that is usually during the busier times. I asked the young man behind the counter if they did my favourite Iskender Kebab and was pleased to hear that they did. The Iskender (the Turkish word for Alexander) kebab is apparently not named after the famous conqueror Alexander the Great, as some would have you believe. Mentioned first around 1867, it is trademarked by a family from Bursa, in Turkey, who have run the “Kebabci Iskender” restaurant for over a century. One of their ancestors, named Iskender, apparently invented the dish and it is therefore named after him. I’m not sure how true that is, but it’s a good story. The dish should consist of freshly cut doner meat, on a bed of warm pitta bread pieces, covered in a hot herby tomato based sauce, then doused in sizzling browned butter and topped with yoghurt. A garnish of a grilled pepper and tomato quarter should finish it off. The best I’ve ever had was from the A&A charcoal grill, on Lewes Road in Brighton, Sussex, way back in 1991. Unfortunately that incarnation of that shop has since closed down and the Iskender kebab from the Bodrum grill is good, but not quite as tasty. The warm pitta pieces were there. The doner meat was cut too thinly but tasted okay, the sauce was not tomatoey enough or flavoursome enough and there was not enough of it. The yoghurt was okay. There was no grilled pepper & tomato quarters and I didn’t get a hint of herbs from the butter. So all in all, even though I ate every last morsel, the dish was nice, but due to my high expectations, it could have been better. We also ordered a mixed doner (meat doner & chicken doner) and this was served in a pitta, placed into a lidded polystyrene box. To say the portion size was large, is an understatement. It was a huge portion. We asked for separate salad, which was abundant, crisp & fresh. The side order of large chips had a generous amount of hot, crispy golden chips which we really enjoyed. The doner meat tasted fine. No better or worse than most other kebab shops but again I’d say that the meat doner slices were a little bit too thin. The chicken doner was fine. As far as value for money is concerned I think the Bodrum did very well. The taste was good, even if it wasn’t the best we’ve had, but we were absolutely stuffed. Iskender £8.50, large mixed doner £10.00, large chips £3.50. All in all I’d say that our kebab urge was satisfied, although the Bodrum grill is not quite up there with the legendary competitors, such as London’s “Archway Kebabs” 26 Junction Road, Archway, “Best Kebab” 131 Tottenham Lane, Crouch End, or historically the best one of the lot, which was the previous version of A&A Charcoal Grill, on Lewes Road in Brighton, which google now says exists,
so we will have to make a pilgrimage down to Brighton, just to see if they can re-create that wonderful Iskender kebab of 1991. Watch this space to find out…
Would we eat at the Bodrum kebab & grill again? Yes. Would we recommend it to a friend? Yes.
Love iskender kebab 🙂