Picture this.
You're out.
You've had a few to drink.
You're heading home.
What do you do?
Tequila.
Kebab.
Kebab. Kebab.
The three of us will be touring the UK,
but really just London,
to three different kebab restaurants,
at drastically different prince points,
to determine which is the most
Worth it.
Worth it!
UK.
Worth it.
This week I am joined by this profound intellectual.
No, Nick.
Kebab King, the Kebabosaurus Rex.
Kebab Minister.
Kebabinator.
Kebabobama.
Bring on the babs.
President Kebab.
Right, let's put into all of whatever this is.
What makes you an expert?
Quantity.
I have had had more kebabs than people have had hot dinners.
It's late, meaty, and there's a lot of chilli sauce.
First up, we are heading to the Woody Grill in Camden.
Camden is famous for, Joe?
Drugs.
It was.
Today we have the pleasure of greeting you guys
at Woody Grill, in Camden Town.
My name's Kenan.
I'm the manager here and we do great kebabs.
He's the kebab king.
I'm sure you've heard of me.
I have yes, yes, yes.
The meats comes in our standard
choice of two sauces, chilli or garlic.
I have lettuce, onion, tomato, red cabbage,
and the famous pickles.
The meat comes in daily, we use milk as a base ingredient
to marinate the meat in, various spices,
black pepper, white pepper, chilli flakes.
Following that, it's on to a spit,
cooked in front of a grill.
The cutting of meat is a skill.
The art to it is to get it as thin as possible.
That's when you get a better taste.
So it's got fresh, nice and crisp flour-based tortilla
wraps made daily as well.
The sauce is a family secret.
We keep our cards close to our chest on those.
You do get the odd occasional,
people asking for ketchup on their kebab, as well.
No chance.
Needs to remember that you had a kebab the following day.
To do that you need the chilli sauce.
There we go.
Here we go, boss.
Enjoy.
You're gonna be having a Lamb Doner Wrap,
five pounds, fresh food, can't go wrong.
Deciding on where to enjoy our kebab,
Joe actually had a fantastic idea.
Why not have it on a boat?
Thanks Joe. Good idea.
So, the kebab.
I'm absolutely ravenous right now.
The smell of it.
Intoxicating.
Funnily enough, I'm not intoxicated
and we are about to enjoy kebab.
It looks amazing.
We did order everything.
It's a cocktail of kebab.
A kebab cocktail.
Cheers.
Mm.
So good.
Instantly, taste the freshness.
Really soft and tender in the middle.
First bite tends to be the biggest.
The meat is so good.
It's consistent, meat distribution
throughout the kebab.
I'm going in again.
There is a lot more color than I anticipated
in this kebab.
It is a rainbow in there.
And it's a rainbow in my mouth.
Pickle has exploded in my mouth.
I did not see that coming.
I think I heard the pickle.
There's the tickle.
Just an explosion.
The pickle, not the tickle.
The pickle with the tickle.
Collect anything here at the bottom.
When you started with your bread-y aperitif,
you then travel through this journey,
hitting the pickle before you end
with a very saucy bottom.
With a saucy bottom there.
If I wanted a go-to kebab, and I got this,
I would be really, really pleased with myself.
Very mobile.
Kebab fact time.
Kebab fact.
Time.
Kebab time.
Kebab fact.
Say kebab fact time.
Kebab.
Fact.
Time!
The word kebab actually comes from the word kabab,
is a Persian word, meaning fry.
Really? Really?
Yep.
Is that true fact?
Yes.
Got it from up there.
(orchestral music)
Nothing about this place screams
like late night drunk food.
That's where I first learned about kebabs.
I still go and have those kebabs sometimes.
I'm not knocking it.
My name's Ed Brunet, I'm one of the founders of La Bab,
here in Ghillie Court Soho.
Fundamentally, what we wanted to do here
was bring kebabs back into mainstream dining scene.
We use really high grades of meat, and vegetables.
The premier kebab, the only kebab will never change.
It's a vegetarian dish, super popular.
We start with bread, on to the grill,
to get a really nice char.
Next thing is the paneer,
black packet in the tikka to marinate,
and grill it over the coals.
It gets this amazing springy but soft texture.
Beetroot puree.
We bake the beetroot,
blitzed up with extra virgin olive oil,
put some coconut flakes.
Makes the whole kebab zing.
Crispy onion rings.
The finer they are, the crispier we can get them.
Fried slowly into that batter,
gets really thick and crunchy.
Visually, it's bright purple and yellow and red,
and such a variety of flavors.
What would you recommend as a drink to pair with that?
Oh, a smoky sour goes really well with that.
I'll have to try some of that.
So today you're gonna be having a Paneer Kebab,
at a price point of about 11 Pounds.
Looks incredible.
It's open.
Lets you know what's inside it before you bite in.
I never would have associated this with a kebab.
The restaurants really pretty.
It feels almost like a little Parisian cafe or something.
Impressive about this, I think, is all the colors
that he was talking about.
Paneer just looks so good, doesn't it?
If you're on a date, knife and fork.
Knife and fork.
With your friends, free for all.
What would you class this?
I would say it's somewhere in between.
The tricky thing here is they're leaving
the rolling in your responsibility.
If you balls this up, you only have yourself to blame.
Uh, okay.
Don't pretend you haven't completely fudged up.
We can edit that out.
Don't worry about it.
Cheers. Cheers.
That is really good.
Unlike any kebab I've ever tasted before.
It's really full of flavor.
The cheese.
Crispy on the outside, soft in the middle,
perfect texture, and that tikka comes through a little bit.
It's not too spicy.
The crunch on the onion rings is amazing.
I don't feel like I wish I had iceberg or more onions.
It's great.
This is a really full-bodied meal, isn't it?
The beetroot in this, it's--
The colors, again, are incredible.
And, actually, similar color scheme to our cocktail.
Recommended cocktail.
Oh my god.
I can understand why that is their most popular dish.
I think it's the sort of dish I will now crave.
Always order the meat.
Would you order this?
I would 100% order this.
I would never have picked it off the menu
but, having tried it, the flavors are amazing.
This is a winner.
It was awesome.
- [Joe] Cut sound.
No, no.
We're now on our way to our most expensive--
Kebab joke time.
I went to an expensive restaurant the other day.
Got told the chef special.
Didn't think it was that special.
It was alright.
It was okay.
We are now on our way to our most expensive option.
Which is in Canary Wharf.
It is called Hazev.
Money, money, money, money, money, money.
It's expensive.
My name is Ozlem Dajam
and I'm the manager of this restaurant.
We are in Hazev, Canary Wharf.
Especially, we don't recommend when you are drunk,
come and order here, Royal Kebab,
because it is 925 pounds.
Think we'll share.
In our culture we cook and serve kebab
to our special guest on special occasions.
But, in the UK, it's reputation is more midnight snack.
We just want to change this image.
Do you have chilli sauce?
Of course we have.
You will be eating today, Royal Kebab,
created by our head chef.
My name is Bekzod.
I'm a head chef.
On the top, Wagyu beef made only in Japan.
The animal, itself, listens to classical music
a couple of times a day.
Having massage, so soft it melts in your mouth.
We make a mince out of it.
Add some very finely chopped onion, peppers, parsley.
We use herbs, cumin, oregano, salt, and black pepper.
On the bottom, we will be using 21 days-old goat's meat.
Including, moral mushrooms and fresh herbs,
like thyme, tarragon.
Third dish is salad.
Every single thing that goes in it is organic, purely.
This is what makes it unique.
It's not gonna taste like ordinary Kebab.
Products used in it are so fresh, so nice,
it's gonna be melting in your mouth.
Today, you'll be having Royal Kebab
for 925 pounds, per portion.
Welcome. Welcome.
I'm on the King's throne, you're in the Queens throne.
I'll take that.
I feel like we're in a chamber of meat.
Did give us the best chairs in the restaurant.
Look at this chair in comparison.
Oh.
Massive.
It's like four weeks in Spain.
We could fly to Turkey and buy a kebab and come back.
- [Nick] And this is for one person or two?
The Egyptian Prince had four people and he had four.
Well then, we'll do what the Egyptian Prince does.
Cheers.
Whoa, eyebrows. Mmmm.
I can taste the classical music.
I think it was, probably, Mozart.
Perhaps, the 8th.
There's definitely something in there.
It's really lovely meat.
Really tender, really soft.
You do not get Wagyu when you go to a Kebab shop.
It's how they justify the price.
And, my god, have they justified the price.
I think I'm about to try the first posh mushroom.
How are you saying that?
Mor-ra?
- [Joe] Morel, I think.
I've, also, hear it pronounced more-rel.
Well, there's no consistency in how we pronounce
this mushroom so I'm just gonna say, mor-al.
I'm surprised there's any fungi in there at all.
'Cause we were in the kitchen
and they said there was a mushroom.
(top-hat crash)
- [Liz] You stole that off Jordan.
He said that earlier today.
Shush, Liz.
We just had a moment then.
That wine is lovely with this.
Zingy salad.
I've never called anything in my life zingy.
But, this salad is zingy.
Do we need bread?
A big thick petal would be too much.
You know what?
I think they nailed it.
I don't think you need break with this.
The bread here, really, is the goat.
The goat replaces chilli sauce, bread, regret.
It's all replaced by goat.
Honestly, gonna ask for goat in my next kebab.
Got any goat?
What do you mean you don't have any goat?
What sort of establishment is this?
How much are your kebabs?
You're on a throne. Yep.
Got this platter of kebab in front of us.
I think this is, truly, as royal as a kebab could get.
Oh my god.
Yeah.
Worth It Winner Time.
All the restaurant were incredible
but we have to decide which was the most worth it.
Close runner-up, The Woody Grill.
Very authentic, however, for me,
my Worth It Winner was Le Bab.
Very tasty, very reasonably priced,
unique type of kebab there.
I've never had something like that before.
I loved Hazev and yeah, Woody Grill was so good.
But, I have to agree with you.
Le Bab, that gets my Worth It Winner.
I never thought I would have loved
a kebab without meat in it.
I could eat there everyday. Yeah.
I loved it.
There's no real elegant way to eat a kebab is there?
I think I'm eating quite elegant.
Mm, okay.
Who told you that?