DönerG Turkish & Mediterranean Grill - Crossroad — Restaurant in Irvine

I usually don't write too many reviews, but I felt it 100% necessary after the horrible service and mishandling of my friend and I's orders.

A little preface for you, I returned roughly a month ago from a two week European road trip through Eastern Europe. I absolutely fell in love with kebab.

Anyways, having been excited that I found a location within 20 minutes of my house, my friend and I traveled 15 miles to go get kebabs after I had been raving about them. We get to DonerG and wait a few minutes in line. The place looks nice, you can see them make your food, and you can see the delicious sweating meat spinning on their respective spits. I am starving. I ordered the chicken doner kebab and the falafel pita sandwich along with a drink - my total is roughly $16 but food enough for two people. My friend orders a falafel pita sandwich as well, and the $12.50 Iskender Kebab.

We sit down in about 5 minutes each of our falafel sandwiches come out. We are both very hungry and immediately start eating. They are pretty good. Time goes by and we finish out first sandwhiches. We sit there about 10 more minutes, thinking maybe the Iskender plate takes a long time to prepare of something. Finally, it had been long enough and I asked one of the employees where the rest of our food was. She quickly comes out to bring us an ice cold plate of meat with cold sauce. It wasn't edible, so we asked if we could get a fresh plate - we literally did not eat a single bite of food from the ice cold plate.

So the employee takes our plate and walks it back to the counter, explains to the manager that it had been sitting out for 10 minutes and they didn't know who to deliver the food to. The manager then looks to the cook, who takes the plate, which I'm not even sure are oven safe considering they are not ceramic but rather some sort of plastic, and places it into the oven. She does this right in front of us, and gives the manager a begrudgingly look, as if to say "don't even question me". The manager is silenced by her even though he can see we are VERY disappointed. My friend even openly made a comment about how he felt offended, albeit in a somewhat jokingly manner. They put the food back in front of us a few minutes later and the yogurt was melty, the sauce gross, and this was all just by appearance. Quite literally again, we did not even touch the food.

At that time, we realized this place was absolutely not worth the drive and we had gotten robbed of roughly $20 worth of food as they still hadn't prepared my chicken doner kebab that I paid for in addition to the $12.50 Iskender plate we refused. I didn't want to wait around for them to prepare the plate - it was already pretty awkward and we began to feel more and more out of place.

On our way out, the manager could see our disappointment once again, and only offered a "I'm sorry..." and offered no refund whatsoever. It looked like he might have wanted to extend the offer, but he was once again silenced by the begrudging look of the woman who cooked the food and didn't know...

Short version: Good portions, good service, stick to the beef, somewhat underseasoned.

Long version: Items I ordered were the DonerG Bomb, the kefir and a side of Babaganouche. DonerG Bomb: The fladenbrot was a stand-out to me, the texture was pleasantly airy with a gentle crispy exterior and a toothsome mouth-feel, and a nice malty flavor. I got it with mixed beef and chicken doner meat, but I think I would highly recommend sticking to the beef as I think the chicken dried out significantly more. I wish there was an option for lamb but I understand that it's financially difficult. The Bomb comes lathered in a tomato sauce that tastes okay but in my opinion doesn't work well with the formula of a doner kebab. In my opinion the flavor overpowered the brightness of the onions and pickles (which were too sweet as an aside) and overall threw off the flavor profile. I think I would stick to more conventional doner toppings if I were to come again. For $13.50, the Bomb was a very satisfying portion. I've never understood why doner kebabs include french fries, but the fries at this place are quite good--they're the thin, crispy and satisfyingly salty kind you might associate with McDonalds. Kefir: Tasted fresh, salty, acidic and very authentic. It's thick and has no sweetness, so if you're an american coward like I am, you might want to stick to a fountain drink. Babaganoush: Not bad. Not very smokey and the brightness of the lemon juice had long faded, could really benefit from a wedge of fresh lemon and some minced red onion, and maybe some salt? There was a slight off-taste but I'm 90% sure it came from the paprika or cayenne they topped it with. Not sure how that happens but it's what I observed. Sauces: There are a number of sauce options. I chose a serrano chili sauce and the jajik sauce. The serrano chili sauce was listed as their most spicy option, but was not particularly spicy. I would say it was a 4 out of 10 spice-wise, and I am not particularly great with spice. The jajik was light and refreshing, but completely overpowered by the tomato sauce in the Bomb, but that may be on me for making that choice. Service: Great,...

We went there recently to try it out. It was Friday night, first impression, the service was very slow, we were in line for a good 20 min before we could order: even though they had 4 people working but it was not a very fast services. When It was our turn to order but they were still working to prepare the food for someone else who had already paid and was waiting for their food. There was a little chaos in process with people cutting line and ordering ahead etc. Finally it was our turn to order, at that point we decided just to get one wrap and try it. We ordered the wrap with meat doner. The lady that was preparing our food did not change gloves between wraps and was cleaning counters with the same glove. I did not mind it, as it is expected from fast food restaurants, but my wife was grossed out and did not like it. We did not make a fuss about it. We finally got our wrap and tried it. It was a “ok” doner, nothing especial. It did not have a lot of meat, it was a small amount of meat and it felt very greasy. so much so that my wife only had a bite and did not eat any more and I ate the rest. As soon as the food got a little cold I could feel the grease on the roof of my mouth. The price for the wrap was fair, I think this place is a good late night fast food restaurant after a long night of drinking. But not for lunch or diner. I would go back if I am out partying all night and drunk, but won’t go back...