Lamb Shish #1

Apologies for the absence, dear reader. I shall be adding new reviews soon - for now here are a couple to catch up with my Facebook group.


I was sober, hungry and in the mood for experimentation. I promised myself I wouldn't crack and go for a Doner. I steadied myself, took a deep breath and walked determinedly around the corner to the Grecian. The warm, summery scent of charcoal grill drifted gently across the road, mixing with the cool winter air and exhaust fumes into a heady aroma of reminiscence. I strode in and ordered a Lamb Shish kebab, unswayed by the gargantuan Friday night Elephant leg, taunting me from its vertical skewer.
The uncooked skewers were all laid out ready, looking fresh and enticing - marinaded and juicy. This was then expertly roasted over their charcoal grill until golden and oozing with flavour and a hint of subtle barbequeud crispy edge. The standard regime then ensued of packing a poorly opened pitta with the said meat and the salad/sauce selection process.

The best thing about the Grecian that really sets them apart is in fact the quality of their salad. Rather than the standard large chunks of cucumber, browning lettuce and thick-cut onions; they go for beautifully sliced cabbage, onions, carrot and tomato which are all seasoned with cumin seeds, pepper and herbs which is a wonderful touch. I went for, contrary to tradition, all the salad (apart from onion) with garlic sauce and some mint sauce on top. It was for my dinner rather than a post-pub snack, but I didn't opt for chips - more on this in an upcoming blog.

The Shish was delicious, a fantastic celebration of lamb and a charcoal grill. The only criticism with the chunks is that they were slightly bouncy. Bouncy rather than chewy I'd say; and the size of them meant that many bites were pure salad and pitta, which wasn't too concerning here due to the quality of said salad. The obvious remedy for this would be a mix shish and doner, then each bite would be full of soft lamby juicyness with the added thrill of the occasional nugget of barbequeud shish. I still think this is an option for dinner time only, the late night complexity, drunken rabble and wait time would prevent this being a pleasurable experience - and definitely an option for a good kebab house only, charcoal grill is a must. Without this method of grilling you would just have a flavourless, chunky version of a doner. It also struck me that the shish would be a perfect option for a quiet weeknight, I have been tempted by a midweek doner recently but on further investigation the skewer looked thin, pale, dry and unshaved for several hours so I opted for a different snack. All in all this is a very worthwhile experiment, which shall be repeated.