Omar's Kitchen, Bishopston: 'Entire nations have been known to go to court over the kebab'
One of Bristol's best kebabs under a hot tin roof
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There is a food so tasty, so ubiquitous, with an origin so debated, that entire nations have been known to go to court* over its identity and how exactly it should be consumed.
Kebab: kebap, kebob, kabab, gyros, doner, shawarma. Vertically-grilled spiced meat, moist yet also crisping at the edges, sliced off the skewer and slapped on chips, bread, or served on its own. Have it with tzatziki, garlic mayo, raw onions, chilli, hummus, or tomatoes. A genius concept and a staple in countries across the world.
It was one of our better decisions as a nation to gleefully welcome the humble kebab into our cuisine, usurping the English version of sold-everywhere meat-in-bread, the ham sandwich — oft-limp and saturated in butter-substitute spread.
Supposedly, it was the Ottomans who invented kebabs, and then shared them with the Greeks, after which they appeared in France, and then Germany at some point. No one’s really sure how kebabs arrived in Britain, but I would love to meet the person and ask if they had any smidgen of an idea how popular they would become with the sweaty post-clubbing crowd.
They say** in Bristol city centre you’re never more than 100 metres from a kebab shop. One of these is Omar’s Kitchen in Bishopston, and sure, it sells shawarma. But also chutney loaded fries. Fried chicken. Indian delicacies. Smash burgers. And sometimes the patties are dipped in spicy sauce. Occasionally you can even round off your meal with a Terry’s chocolate orange brownie, courtesy of a collaboration with Bromley Bakehouse.
Overwhelmed? I was slightly, yes.
And good luck finding the entrance - you’ll likely do a few loops of the mini industrial estate off Gloucester Road that the restaurant calls home, before eventually coming across the iconic yellow branding next to, bemusingly, a hole cut out of a corrugated iron shutter on the front of one of the units. Now that’s what I call an entrance.
You will probably be served by Omar himself, or possibly his dad, who often pops in to don an apron and flip patties of an afternoon. Order the Korean BBQ loaded fries (£8) and Omar will tell you cheerily that he’s not known for his fried chicken and he’d sooner recommend one of the shawarmas. And a bit of honesty is always nice, for though it is well-flavoured, the chicken is a bit over-sauced and not crispy enough – not a patch on his lamb.
Lamb shawarma on naan, (£11) is drizzled with raita and comes with a pickly salad. The meat is delectable and marinated in a home spice mix – cinnamon, clove, mint, and other mystery notes.
The smash burger with slices of peppery Turkish sausage (£8.50) is a fun novelty but it wouldn’t become my regular order – the simple smash cheeseburger is an unbeatable classic and this is the kind of smoky cured pork that needs its own spotlight. I’ll be asking Omar if he can load it onto chips for me next time.
So far, so great. But the menu really hits its height with the katlama (£8) – a buttery, flat Pakistani pastry filled with lamb mince that feels a bit like a Cornish pasty. At Omar’s Kitchen, it comes with a zingy parsley salad and an intense chilli sauce that I ended up taking home and using to upgrade everything from eggs to noodles for the rest of the week.
If your weekend kebab hankering has you wanting something more boujiee than what’s cooking at Jason Donervan, then Omar’s your guy. Take a chance on the wildcard options or stick with what he does better than most.
Next stop for me is Bristol Fruit Market in Avonmeads next Sunday afternoon to check out his dad’s Indian street food. Oh please let there be katlama.
*If Turkey wins and gets doner registered as its own ‘guaranteed traditional speciality’ — a status shared by serrano ham in Spain — only beef and lamb “horizontally sliced into cutlets with a thickness of 3-5 mm” could be sold as doner on the streets of Berlin.
**I say.
All words and photos by Caitlin Johnson-Bowring
Omar’s Kitchen, Unit 14, 14 Merton Rd, Bishopston, BS7 8TL
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In the old days, the most wonderful of kebab perveyor was the marvellous Ken in Easton, so-called as he from Palestine, innit so Ken not his real name but this Bristol in the '90s. In his shop (now #12 caff) he make from scratch divine king kebab which was shawerma. He and his missus a Scottish lass would sell out all they could make, switching to grilled chicken breast, if you were too late. He also do popular Lebanese minced lamb flat bread. There was a poster of Jerusalem on the wall, a view of the Al Aqsa mosque, with its striking golden dome. He was a gent, and his place was rightly very popular, with queues often out the door.
The trick back then, was to go in and ask for your shawerma, then pop over the road for a swift sherbet in the 'Loaf to have a larf with sundry cards such as Q (nobody know his real name) Claire, Campbell & Queenie... all gorn now, as has Ken. Happy Days
Anybody who can stack and cut a kebab as good as Ken's will get my custom & no mistake.
Nice! You never guess what.. I live here in Bristol for hundreds of years and go like crikey I never knew there was that industrial estate off of Gloucester Road, innit...