Selim Kebab

Before the covid lockdowns I used to eat here on occasion, (usually at someone else’s expense, but that’s another story). The dining area was closed off for years and I don’t know if it is now back in use although it appears to be. It also appears to be under new management as I didn’t recognise any of the staff. The shop stays open very late at weekends. This morning I arrived a shade before 2am when they were closing and was told there was only lamb kebab left. I ordered one and took it home. It may not look very nourishing, but it was. £9.80 for a small lamb kebab is double the price of what it used to be, but you can blame that on the Government rather than the management.

I have been using this kebab house since 2010 and although based more on convenience it was quite a good kebab house. Up until the last 3 months when i started ordering online through a 3rd party food delivery service My regular order is always Large Chicken Shish with extra pitta. Chicken kebab comes with choice of salad and sauce. The total is £23.15 broken down as follows: Kebab = £17.40, extra Pitta Bread = £2, service fee = £2.13, bag fee 10p, rider tip £1.50 (delivery is included in my subscription to the app and the rider is contracted to delivery service. I just mention that so its clear what i have paid for and what is relevant to this review). My review is based on the food received, the quality and the overall cost in relation to what I received. I have been ordering all salad without cucumber or tomato. But have more or less been happy except I felt the salad was very small compared to the size of the kebab and the price. Consequently I did a review through the 3rd party delivery app and marked 4 stars out of 5 for this point but making allowances for the fact my omissions may play a part. I thought this was generous noting that it was always a good kebab and was worth the expense for good food but felt the size of the salad should match the size of the kebab. Then I made my order today. And now im angry. My takeaways are a once or twice a month treat on a budget and this month my only treat so didnt think I was taking a risk. I ordered the full salad thinking I would just remove the bits I didnt like. So it arrives. Not only is my extra pitta bread a rock hard crisp but the other one too. I couldnt even cut through it with a steak knife, let alone my teeth. Along with that I open the salad box and can already tell its the smallest salad I have ever received along with 1 chilli pepper barely bigger than my thumb nail. The pictures cannot portray the hardness of the pitta bread and bare in mind that the salad is sitting on top of the chicken of a supposedly large kebab. It is basically the layer you can see. The small salad is one thing, but no pitta bread equals no kebab. And I removed 1 half of a slice of a tomato and 2 half's of a cucumber slice. The bread may have been included but becomes irrelevant when its inedible and changes the substance of my order. An order that should have some kind of quality control before being handed to the delivery rider. Now this could well be my paranoia but seeing others reviews and the perceived treatment they received because they complained, and the total lack of acceptance of the business in relation to those reviews make it appear it is a common treatment of customers, whether directly or indirectly, It appears to me that following my review it would be a very big coincidence that my following orders are even worse because i offered constructive criticism within what i deemed to be a good review albeit a marked down one. The last order was less salad than the one i included in my original review and then this. It is rare for me to complete a fully negative review of any business. I accept mistakes are made sometimes and I try to reflect that genuinely in my reviews for any business. But this seems sheer rudeness, disrespect and utter contempt. And 15 years of loyalty has been ruined in 1 order. I usually order in shop so they wont have a record of my service as im sure that will be the next point if they bother to reply at all. Its a cash business except online so my ordering method has changed for that convenience. But again I can state that what you order online is what you receive in shop. So its a general decline in their business and a blatant rip off of customers in my opinion. Again some reviews suggest the complete opposite experiences and good experiences. Great. I dont take away from that. But the complaints seem to centre around the same issues and the same foods. And is a sad thing to see. People are free to make up their own minds but I feel really let down by this business in such a short amount of time and felt a need share my experience