The Berliner Döner Kebab — Restaurant in Seattle

Despite the fact that it's named as a doner kebab place, this place doesn't really offer any real doner kebabs similar to what I had in Berlin. Instead, it seems to be more closed sandwich-based, rather than the open, more circular doners typical of Berlin. I got the classic lamb & beef sandwich

The two parts of the sandwich I liked more were the bread, and the garlic sauce. The bread is grilled really well, and it manages to have depth on the outside while not being chewy to get through at all. It's rare that you get a sandwich bread that retains its crispiness while being not being an inconvenience to bite through. The grill marks are also very visible on the outside. They recommend that you get this house bread, and I can see why

The other part I liked was this sandwich was doused in a lot of garlic sauce, such that I was getting it each bite. This sauce was quite good - it has a good amount of fat to it, but at the same time it isn't very thick, so it spreads through the sandwich easily. The generous portion also helps

Where this sandwich lost me was the meat. When I first opened it up, I was a little disappointed that there really wasn't that much meat on here. In fact, the portions were relatively small in general, but I'll get to that later. However, later on, I was pretty happy with this lack of meat because of how bad it tasted. Both the lamb and the beef managed to be super dry, and really chewy. It was a slog to get through the meat pieces, and I found some of them inedible. It shouldn't be this hard to not overcook the meat this badly, but that's unfortunately what happened here - and did away with the good work by the rest of the sandwich

As mentioned, the portion size is not very large here, and even though the price of about $12 isn't too expensive for a lunch, there are gyro spots nearby that will give you way more food for a similar price

Overall, this place is neither Berlin-like, nor a...

Absolutely the most delicious "Doner Kebab" in Seattle's downtown area. It is the original name for "gyro" or "shawarma." If you want a "gyro," then you need to try the original version of the product from any Turkish buffet/restaurant, first.

When I arrived Seattle two weeks ago, I checked out the available quick take-out places and marked some of them on my Google map. When I located two of the Berliner Doner Kebab eateries, the store on 1st ave near Pioneer Square was the first one to visit. Was I disapponted? Of course, not! How could I? So I decided to visit this buffet, Berliner Doner Kebab on Westlake Avenue on a different day. My visit coincided with Happy Hour (3-6pm) and I paid half of its already affordable menu price. The house style Doner Kebab was really very delicious here. I even had to ask myself if doner kebabs served in both locations were equally good in taste. I can assure you saving played no role in my opinion.

Anyhow, I decided to take a couple more trips to this location even though it is not closer to where I stay or hang out in Seattle. Unfortunately, I was not successful to eat there in my following visits. Once they were out of meat, and the other time, it was on a weekend and the store was closed.

I decided to walk back to the one on 1st ave and try their house-style Doner Kebab once again as my craving increased. I think they were almost the same in deliciousness. I think the gyro was slightly better in the BDK on Westlake Avenue because the employee was probably more generous with meat. If necessary, I'd definitely jack up the price slightly and increase the meat portion per serving. I will definitely visit this location again before I leave for...

The food is great and the employees are friendly, but I had a rather bad experience recently that hasn't been resolved. I placed on order through Square on 1/14/2022 and received a confirmation email. When I arrived to pick up the order at the designated time, the restaurant was closed, but I was still charged for the order.

It's rather difficult to reach the restaurant by phone and hours are frequently unpredictable, so I walked down on 1/17/2022 to see if I could talk with them. They were open and the employee at the counter was super nice. The employee explained that they had to close unexpectedly because someone was out sick (it happens and the restaurant was 100% right to put employee health & safety first). I was told that the owner was aware of the issue and that the order would be refunded and would take a couple of days to go through. I gave them my name and the amount that I had paid.

I waited about a week for the refund to go through from the previous order, and as of this review I still have not been refunded. It's understandable if a restaurant has to close unexpectedly, but not refunding orders made during that time isn't!

I tried calling twice last week to follow up but have not been able to get through or leave a message, and I still have not received a refund.

Update: The Berliner responded to my original review and issued a refund within 48 hours of the review date. I updated the stars to reflect this. Their...