Mehdi's is one of those vans that is less than appealing to the eye. However the van is well located and if you can get up the courage to actually buy and eat something it's not bad at all.

Though the food was overcooked I actually quite liked the Doner done this way. The texture was much enhanced, slightly darker and crisper on the outside than usual. The taste didn't quite match up to this, but while it was not at all exemplary it wasn't bad either and the superb texture more than made up for it anyway. The salad was also excellent. The quantity was just right and though its flavour was slightly dominated by the sauce it did provide just the right amount of crunch to offset the meat, and in this case the sauce smothering the salad was not entirely a bad thing. It was surprisingly good ketchup, and rather than adding too much grease the mayonnaise had the effect of lending a pleasant creamy quality to the tomato. It was certainly a good kebab despite the van being aesthetically unappealing.

The menu has a large variety of items on it, but in this case it is probably best to stick with the basics, I'm told that the hot dog here is particularly bad but I have never been to a kebab van where the sausage hasn't tasted like leather, so this rumour is I think unjustified. The location on the High Street is excellent for those walks home from the centre of town. The staff are a little slow, but considering the lack of customers this wasn't really a problem. I did have some difficulty extracting a receipt from them and I felt rather sorry for the poor man whose job it was to slowly write it out on the back of a greasy brown paper bag. On the whole I would say that despite its looks this place is worth a stop and the Doner kebab is certainly recommended.

Chips: £1
Chips and Cheese: £1.50
Jacket potatoes from: £1.50
Burgers from: £1.50
Doner Kebab: £2.50
Chicken Kebab: £3

James Tuohy, 12/04/06

 

 

This is the nearest van to Carfax chippy, and so probably suffers from fierce competition until the small hours, as both cater for a similar clientele.

While it is difficult to fault their kebabs, we wouldn’t rank this van above the likes of Houssain’s on St Giles. A little more expensive (perhaps due to location), and without the same je ne sais quoi, but the service is friendly and the portions are pretty reasonable. The chicken meat was moist and there were no fatty gristly bits. The marinade was tasty (though I suspect that it was bought that way from the C&C)/ The aioli sauce with this, however, was quite possible the best so far: for one thing, it actually tasted of garlic; and for another thing, it actually tasted of mayonnaise. What more praise could we give?

The kebab was a polite affair wrapped in a delicate pitta and coated in a warm, mild capsicum sauce. OK, so it was more of less your standard kebab: an envelope of unleavened bread containing longish, but quite thin strips of rather dry ex-lamb, loads of lettuce, uncooked onion, one slice of cucumber and two bits of tomato. The chilli sauce was warm, but fairly tasteless.

It is worth asking for egg as an extra; it adds the necessary bulk to any of the kebabs or burgers, and they manage to keep the yolk runny (mmmmm!) while killing all the resident salmonella. The cheese is less worthwhile, though at least it isn’t processed.

• Kebabs - £2.00, £2.40
• Chicken Kebab - £2.70, £3.50
• Mixed Kebab - £3.20
• Burger - £1.50
• Veggie - £1.60
• Egg - ~30p (depends on what else you are having/what mood Mehdi is in)
• Cheese - ~30p (see egg)
• Chips - from 85p

Also available - spuds, houmous, tea, coffee, etc

Jasper Smith and Tom Fryer