A kebab shop on Cardiff Street since 2008 with a real lumpwood grill, a doner spit built in the shop every morning, and the same prices at 2am as at 4pm.
The grill
01
The doner is built by hand every morning: minced and sliced lamb layered on the spit with onion, our spice mix and a little yoghurt, cooked slowly in front of the burners and carved thin to order. In a pitta, a wrap, a box or on chips.
Doner in pitta £7.50, in a wrap £8, on chips £8.50, a doner box with rice and salad £10.
02
Lamb shish from the leg, chicken shish from the thigh, adana kofte minced with red pepper and chilli, wings and lamb chops, all on skewers over a long charcoal grill. In a wrap, as a plate with rice and salad, or as the mixed grill.
Chicken shish wrap £8.50, lamb shish £9.50, adana kofte £8.50; plates with rice and salad from £11.50; the mixed grill £15.50.
03
Pick the bread (pitta, a soft wrap, a lahmacun or a box with rice and salad), the meat (doner, chicken or lamb shish, kofte, mixed or falafel), up to two sauces and chips. The meal builder on this website gives the price before you ring.
Doner pitta £7.50; wraps 50p more; lahmacun £1.50 more; a box with rice and salad £2.50 more.
04
Double smash burgers from Welsh beef minced by a butcher in Aberdare, a buttermilk chicken fillet burger, and the grill burger (a kofte patty off the charcoal in a toasted bun). With chips in a box.
Double smash £7.50, with chips £9.50; chicken fillet burger £7; the grill burger £8.50.
05
Pizzas from the stone oven that bakes the bread, on dough made in the morning: margherita, pepperoni, the doner pizza with chillies and garlic sauce, the Anatolia with sucuk and peppers, and a vegetable. Ten or twelve inch.
Ten-inch margherita £8, twelve-inch £10.50; the doner pizza £10 and £12.50; extra toppings £1.
06
Our own two drivers around Aberdare, Trecynon, Cwmbach, Aberaman, Abernant, Llwydcoed, Godreaman and out to Hirwaun and Mountain Ash, until half past twelve most nights and half past two on Friday and Saturday. About 35 minutes; 50 after eleven at the weekend.
£2 within two miles, £3.50 to Hirwaun, Mountain Ash and Abercwmboi.
The doner
Lamb leg and shoulder, some minced and some sliced, layered on the spit by Mehmet with grated onion, his Adana spice mix and a little yoghurt, pressed and set in the cold room, then cooked from four in front of the burners and carved thin to order. Eighteen kilos on a Saturday, gone by two.
How we work
The shish, the kofte, the chicken wings and the lamb chops go over lumpwood charcoal on skewers. It takes longer and costs more than a griddle, and it is why the shop smells the way it does from the station.
No late-night surcharge. The menu price at four in the afternoon is the menu price at two in the morning, and the website builder shows it.
Every menu line has its allergen codes. Tell us when you order and it goes on the ticket; the kitchen handles all 14 major allergens, so we never promise a dish is free of traces.
Two staff on until close, CCTV, a door that locks if it needs to, and a free bottle of water with every order after midnight. We know half of Aberdare comes in after the Boot.
Customers
Lamb shish wrap off actual charcoal at one in the morning, and the same price as at teatime. The site said fifty minutes on a Saturday after eleven and it was forty-five. Water in the bag, too.
You can tell the doner is made there: it is not that rubbery stuff. Doner on chips with garlic sauce is my Friday and I am not sorry.
The mixed grill fed both of us with some left over. Kofte with real heat, chicken that was not dry, bread from their own oven. Best kebab shop in the valley by a distance.
On Friday and Saturday nights, yes: the counter until 3am and delivery until 2:30am. Sunday to Thursday we close at 1am. The top of the home page says what it is right now.
Yes, every morning, from lamb leg and shoulder with our own spices. It is the main reason people come back.
Aberdare, Trecynon, Llwydcoed, Cwmbach, Abernant, Aberaman and Godreaman for £2; Hirwaun, Mountain Ash and Abercwmboi for £3.50. Minimum £12.
About thirty-five minutes; after 11pm on Friday and Saturday, about fifty. The delivery page works it out from the clock.
Every menu line carries its codes. Tell us when you order. Our kitchen handles all 14 major allergens, so we cannot promise anything is free of traces.
The lamb and chicken are halal, from a butcher in Cardiff; the certificates are on the wall.
Pitta, wrap, lahmacun or a box; doner, shish, kofte or falafel; two sauces and chips. The builder gives the price before you pick up the phone, and it is the same at 2am as at 4pm.
