Kebab King

Suva finally has a kebab shop. How on earth a city with cosmopolitan pretensions could have survived this long without 'Turkish' food defies explanation. All this glorious city lacks now is a Subway franchise and some Mexican food. But back to the kebabs...

Kebab King attempts to be the full-service kebab shop in the style of migrant family-run shops found elsewhere on the Pacific Rim: döner kebabs, iskender kebab plates, kebab sandwiches on pide bread, falafel, tabouli, a variety of stuffed pide, and dolma all make it to the menu along with something passed off as 'Turkish pizza'.

Lamb and chicken are the meat choices on offer.


The cheapest option on the menu, the plain döner kebab, starts at $6.50 and is rather bland (lettuce, tomato, onion, meat, 1 sauce). The best way to enjoy your kebab is to take a $2 hit to the pocket and add hummus and extra tabouli. Top it off with garlic sauce (good with the chicken) or sweet chilli sauce (good with lamb) and the kebab is now a much tastier, albeit more expensive. The chicken tends toward being a little dry, so unless I see the cook slicing the chicken off the stack while I'm at the counter, I order the lamb.

Pizza is best left alone. An unseemly fascination with cheese drowns out the few other toppings.

The kebab on pide is worth a mention: it is a good, solid sandwich, but will need some extras to keep it from being too dry.

Some unevenness in staff training and kebab construction: the hummus should be applied to the flat-bread (yufka) before the salad fillings are added, not drizzled over the lettuce. There also seems to be a large variance in how much time different servers think is necessary to toast the döner kebab.

The layout of the serving area was obviously done with no reference to the sales process. The drinks fridge is located at the opposite end of the counter to the cash register. Having shuffled you along the counter toward the cashier while filling your kebab, your server is then forced to fight their way back down the counter past all the other attendants to fill any drinks orders. This process can slow down service considerably during the lunch rush.


Whilst there's nothing wrong with a kebab shop in a food court, as Suva's only kebab offering they could have done better than than the second floor in MHCC. I humbly offer that the best location for this business would be in the old Air Nauru office opposite Bad Dog's on the corner of Victoria Parade and MacArthur Street. There, nestled in the bosom of Suva's nightlife zone, they would make a royal killing if they stayed open late and competed a little with the BBQ sellers for the attention of tipsy people looking for greasy food.

Despite piling on the good karma for bringing kebabs to the city, the relatively high price point, uneven service, and a boring signature kebab conspire against the awarding of a thumbs-up to Kebab King; but they're certainly no where near thumbs-down territory. So, go forth, mix and match, and tell us what you think is the best way to remix their kebabs.

NB. They're in Nadi too. Port Denarau Marina Complex. Same offerings.

In Summary

Kebab King

MHCC Food Court, Thomson Street, Suva

Port Denarau Marina, Nadi

Phone:

3100 167, 6750 375

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sun: 9:00am - 9:00pm

Spend:

$6.80 - $12 per person