Berlin’s Halal Doner & Kebab — Restaurant in Town of Henrietta

I usually avoid leaving bad reviews for privately-owned restaurants, but my experience here was so disappointing that I felt compelled to share it.

This was my first visit, and I ordered four Berlin doners—two chicken and two beef. Unfortunately, the doners were quite dry, so I politely requested two sides of sauce. Instead of a simple transaction, I was met with an attitude. The person prepping the food rudely informed me that the sauce would cost extra. Fine, I said, no problem.

However, when he filled the 4-ounce containers, he barely filled them halfway. I politely pointed out that if I’m paying extra for sides, I would at least expect the containers to be filled properly. His response? He claimed there was already "enough sauce in the doner itself," which struck me as odd because I specifically asked for the sides due to how dry the doners were and refused to fill them up.

To make matters worse, the cashier seemed annoyed by my request for properly filled containers. Instead of completing the transaction promptly, he delayed the sale to interrogate me, aggressively asking if I owned a business and raising his voice in-front of other customers as if he had some kind of power. Trying to imply that I didn’t understand the costs involved in running one. As insulting and out of line as it was, I calmly explained that, as a paying customer, I expect to receive what I’m charged for—just like one would expect a whole pizza if they’re paying for one, not half of it! As this isn’t an act of charity but it’s an act of the business he’s involved in.

Despite my attempts to remain respectful, At that point, I’d had enough. I told them to charge me for the sides and let me leave because I wasn’t going to stand there and listen to more nonsense. I paid, made it clear they had lost my business,...

BE AWARE!!!! They named their store as "halal" and they say they serve halal, but it doesn't look like it. We called by phone and requested about their halal menu and we were told the following: "The pizza section serves non-halal food, while the doner section serves halal menu." We stopped by the place and asked the same questions (we didn't tell them that we called) and this is what they told us "the Doner section is halal and the pizza section is halal, even our pepperoni is halal (not sure how lol). I think they only used the title Halal without knowing what does it even mean. I wouldn't recommend buying food from them if you eat halal. Or at least request them to provide you with recent recepts of halal meat and poultry orders. I'm reporting this to the department of agriculture for further investigations. The place also sells alcoholic beverages, which is another clue that their food is not halal.

Food itself: The menu has options for crispy, thin and regular pizza. I ordered a thin crest and was given a thick deep dish pizza dough (basically it's a lie and they use one dough for all). They have options for chicken, lamb and beef, we were informed that beef and lamb meat are combined as one (weird! ). The hot sauce they used is basically a pizza sauce/tomato paste (maybe they added paprika to it). Overall, food is not the best but edible. But the greater issue is labeling their food as halal and it might not be (at least that's what it seems like it), which is a potential...

Just visited Berlin's after hearing about it on Reddit. I got a traditional beef/lamb Doner and it was delicious! The bread was very fresh and perfect for the sandwich, the meat was plentiful (not at all skimpy like most local gyros) with plenty of freshly-prepared veggies to choose from.

Compared to most of the high-priced, shrinkflation-influenced fast-food options available nowadays, the large, fully stuffed Doner at $12 stands out as a great option for the hungry diner looking for value.

I highly recommend Berlin's Halal Doner and I, for one, will be back again and again.

UPDATE 9/19/24: VERY DISAPPOINTED! I have had their delicious doners four times since my review and they have all been delicious. But, today I got one (no, I'm not addicted, shut up), it was so skimpy! There was HALF the meat in the sandwich compared to the last four. I really hope Berlin Doner isn't doing the typical "shrinkflation" (charging the same price but decreasing portion size) thing. I'll try them one more time, but if that's the route they're going, I won't be going back. I hate that behavior.

I am fully aware, from experience, that profit margins are slim in the restaurant business. But, I've also seen over and over again that when a restaurant starts cutting corners, charging for inexpensive extras and skimping on portions, it never ends well for the restaurant. So, I'm hoping today was...