Kotti Berliner Doner Kebab (Chelsea) — Restaurant in New York

If I could give zero stars, I absolutely would.

The nun looking dude at the counter acted like serving customers was a personal offense. He looked annoyed with his job, life, and everyone around him. I simply asked for a side of rice and chicken for my child—he rudely said only fries were available. That’s when I knew this was going downhill.

I ordered a cone doner, fries, and caramelized vegetables. When I came to pick it up, he just shoved the containers on the counter—no bag, no napkins, no greeting, no basic courtesy. I asked for a bag, and he rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. Then, he handed me a filthy container of vegetables, visibly smirking as I got food all over my fingers from the mess.

Who does this guy think he is? That attitude was absolutely unacceptable.

As for the food—equally appalling….. The fries were overcooked. The cone was drowned in sauce with barely any meat or veggies. The portion is SO FREAKING SMALL like it’s a molecular version of fast food. The “caramelized” vegetables? A mushy, foul-smelling paste—nothing caramelized about it.

The server didn’t ask me what sauces or toppings I wanted, didn’t offer any help, didn’t care.

I wasted $28 on bare food and even worse customer service.

Do yourself a favor: stay far away from this place.

Don’t even think that only this guy has attitude in this market. Asked a random staff member about pizza and he just madly told me “it’s closed”. No wonder why this market most of the time empty. Staff should be well trained and...

It was too much to ask for the dude who was serving me, doing his job literally. Rolling his eyes and still looking at his phone when I greeted him. Normally in germany they do the bread and the meat and then they ask you for the following vegetables and stuff. Obviously at this place, this isn't the case so I told the guy that I didn't wanted a specific sauce, 'cause I don't enjoy eating a spicy döner and after that he was super pissed off, because he threw the thing away (which is fine) but after that like I said he was pissed off and told me that I should've told him at the cashier but he didn't asked me at all. How am I supposed to know how you guys do your stuff? So after he was done he smashed the thing on the counter and got back watching instagram reells. Food wise the bread was okay but the sauce and the meat wasn't anything like Döner at all. I'd recommend cutting the meat right at the order and not having it stored in a cambro thing all day.

If you want to be served by a guy whose job is even too much to ask...

I had the beef döner kebab in a pide. The pide is reasonably authentic, but the meat is not slow cooked on the spit (so this is by definition not a kebab), it's cooked on demand from raw, hence not slow cooked. Thus it's flavor has absolutely nothing to do with the flavors and texture of kebab cooked meat. The white sauce didn't taste like garlic (knoblauchsoße), the red sauce didn't offer much heat or be reminiscent of what you get in Berlin. Ingredients weren't well layered.

Overall, it didn't taste bad per se, but it has almost nothing to do with a döner kebab you'd get anywhere in Germany, let alone Berlin, and there's no reason to ever eat this confused...