Jingthing Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 (edited) OK, apparently schwarma and donner kebab and gyros are quite similar, but ... I have great food memories of schwarma in the US at places usually run by Palestinians or Lebanese. Also in Turkey, I still remember a wonderful plate of Iskander Kebab. However, I have found the versions of donner kebab sandwiches in Thailand entirely different. Like not nearly as good. Greasy, dodgy toppings, often stale cold bread, and a threat of Bangkok Belly. Yeah perhaps going to the wrong places. But I am wondering why my schwarma experiences were so much better in the US. Yes there is the lamb issue as in they don't usually use lamb here, but it's more than that. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070115212838AAut9aG Edited April 8, 2011 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRS1 Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 (edited) The pita bread they use on street schwarmas suck, as well as the dry under seasoned meat that street vendors try to pass off as a schwarma. All the ingredients are here, but vendors choose profit over quality, not realizing that quality will bring profit. Edited April 9, 2011 by KRS1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonobo Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 I love Greek gyros in the US, and I had some absolutely amazing kebobs in Gaziantep, Turkey, last month, but I have never found anything in Thailand more than barely adequate. I would love to find a decent source to satisfy that craving as this is one of the types of food I really can't make myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauljones Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 You need to find a Turkish place that make sits own bread. I recall a place in Pattaya. IIstanbul Restaurant. Good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokie36 Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 The only place I've found worthwhile is the small restaurant just off Suk Soi 3, on the left of the sub Soi coming from Nana, run by Lebanese I believe. Sorry can't remember the name but will post here when I next drop by. Good shwarma not the best but more than acceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxyzptlk Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 (edited) The only schwarma I've ever had was in Amsterdam in 1979 and it must have been good for me to remember it....It came with a very hot sauce called sambal I think.... Edited April 10, 2011 by mxyzptlk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sateev Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Pretty nice shwarma at Beirut (Ploenchit Center and Saladaeng, in the little mall where Subway Sandwhich is). Served with the best garlic sauce I have found, as well said tahini and a green chili sauce that's excellent. Unfortunately, the management and service seem to have changed for the worse over the last couple years. I still eat there when I can, but they appear to be scrimping a bit on the sauces and the relish tray that comes with the food. You just have to ask for more, though... Streetwise, I still like the one on Suk Soi 3, at the corner of the first subsoi N. of Suk. Again, though, it has changed hands, and takes two sandwiches to satisfy me, where the one (larger) did before. Quality is still good. Lots to choose from on that Soi, so hopefully others will post their favorites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilgore Trout Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 best kabob I have had here is at moody's (not sure what the actual name of the restaurant is...Mahmoud's or something like that) a little ways down soi 5 past foodland in a little enclave to the right(if heading away from sukumvit). Good Lebanese fare, the kabob sandwich is about 60 baht I think with proper tahini etc. Nothing more disgusting than those kabobs with sub par meat slathered in sweet mayonnaise and ketchup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderpuff Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 (edited) Chicken Shuwarma for me thanks. Right near Grace Hotel. Also Bamboo Beer bar has a grill too now. Edited April 12, 2011 by powderpuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 (edited) The only schwarma I've ever had was in Amsterdam in 1979 and it must have been good for me to remember it....It came with a very hot sauce called sambal I think.... middle eastern shwarma served in Amsterdam with indonesian hot sauce...love it... I had kebap at, where else? the 'Iskender Family' restaurant in Bursa, Turkey...great stuff but it was a meat O.D. with huge portions...different spices, though than a street shwarma in the middle east which I prefer, eat wid yer hands, etc, also as a tahini sauce addict... be curious to know if anyone had shwarma in north africa which was also part of ottoman territory and presumably influenced by the invader's cuisine... Edited April 12, 2011 by tutsiwarrior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelaway Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 Schwarma- Where's good in Pattaya? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfish Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 best places ive had good reasonably priced Schwarma is the place next to Bamboo, on the other side of the road just down from the Grace hotel in the Arab quarter and the little place on soi 5 next the Foodland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bina Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 cheap shwarma here is made from a slab of dark turkey meat (we call it shwarma cut), then sheep grease is rubbed on the slab... huge greasy portions, rolled ina an iraqui pita or lafa, then anon does the thai style version: ten times as much hot peppers an schug (hot pepper sauce yemenite style) smeared all around. will attempt some pics today at our shuuk (market) and post, just to make u all slather.... cant imagine eating shwarma in thailand.... sounds like eating thai fast food here. awful isnt near to what it actually is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblegum Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Shoarma herbs they use in Holland: 2 table spoons yellow curry 2 table spoons spicy paprika powder 1 table spoon chinnamon 1 thee spoon black pepper 1/2 thee spoon nutmeg 1/2 thee spoon cloves little salt Hot sauce is basically peppers and salt Garlic sauce: majo garlic parsley nutmeg bit of yogurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotheruser Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Jingthing I have read enough of your posts about every other kind of food not being that great in Thailand. Why would showarmas be any different? I know what you are saying but maybe you should set your expectations a bit lower so you aren't always disappointed? I have never heard you rave about how good the Tex Mex, pizzas, Chinese etc. is. I am as confounded as you are about this but we all know that the international food in Thailand is the bottom of the barrel. Even if you could find a decent Doner, in a decent setting it would be 450 Baht or something absurd. Even then it still wouldn't be great. Why do us foreigners get sucked in by signs in English saying great food and get sucked into it every time? I am guessing from what \i know of the restaurant business in SE Asia that if you buy quality ingredients they are so expensive that you can hardly make money on them. Even if you manage to make a somewhat marketable product you will have to sell them at a very high price. It is a bit sad but it is what it is. Other countries in Asia such as Japan you can get top quality western food but if you go to a Lebanese place in Tokyo and have a few drinks then expect a $200 bill at the end. Even then it won't match what it's western equivalent was. Oddly enough a small city like Phnom Penh has much better western food although it is expensive. I prefer let's say Fatboy Subs over Subs n suds any day. Same price but better quality. It is somewhat of a mystery why there are so many ex pats in Thailand but the restaurants are unwilling or unable to cater to their tastes at any price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses G. Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Oddly enough a small city like Phnom Penh has much better western food although it is expensive. Blame the French! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Jingthing I have read enough of your posts about every other kind of food not being that great in Thailand. Why would showarmas be any different? I know what you are saying but maybe you should set your expectations a bit lower so you aren't always disappointed? I have never heard you rave about how good the Tex Mex, pizzas, Chinese etc. is. I am as confounded as you are about this but we all know that the international food in Thailand is the bottom of the barrel. Well, you're wrong. Completely wrong. I have found MANY examples of non-Thai restaurants in Thailand offering very good food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 (edited) I don't buy that argument for a second related to Pattaya. Go to the better French places here, you will find French people, tourists/expats, etc. The same Iranian. Italian Indian Chinese Korean Arabic Russian Swiss German Dutch American etc. Edited April 28, 2011 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maswov Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Schwarma- Where's good in Pattaya? Best one I found in Pattaya is an Egyptian guy on the corner of Pattaya Tai and 2nd rd. Nothing beats the shwarmas i have had in Bahrain and Dubai. For the kebabs here i get them without ketchup and mayonnaise, the garlic sause is not quite the yogurt sauce but its ok. I don't do pickles either. I don't eat beef so only chicken for me, in the middle east there is always an option for chicken or lamb so meat wise it is comparable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 What's in the garlic sauce street kebab places here? I think perhaps mayo is in it, not sure, but mayo sitting all day in the tropics, oh boy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maswov Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Not sure whats in it and I'm afraid to ask, 555. I guess its mayo based that's why I find it odd they put mayo on the kebabs also, way too much too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 Not sure whats in it and I'm afraid to ask, 555. I guess its mayo based that's why I find it odd they put mayo on the kebabs also, way too much too. I think so too. That's one reason I described the non-meat contents as possibly "dodgy" in the OP. I love garlic of course but don't want mayo on my schwarma! And sometimes they put on that disgusting sugary ketchup on it before you can stop them. OK, some people may like a sugar sandwich but when that happens for me they have ruined it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duran Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Pretty nice shwarma at Beirut (Ploenchit Center and Saladaeng, in the little mall where Subway Sandwhich is). Served with the best garlic sauce I have found, as well said tahini and a green chili sauce that's excellent. Unfortunately, the management and service seem to have changed for the worse over the last couple years. I still eat there when I can, but they appear to be scrimping a bit on the sauces and the relish tray that comes with the food. You just have to ask for more, though... Streetwise, I still like the one on Suk Soi 3, at the corner of the first subsoi N. of Suk. Again, though, it has changed hands, and takes two sandwiches to satisfy me, where the one (larger) did before. Quality is still good. Lots to choose from on that Soi, so hopefully others will post their favorites. Agreed. If its the same one I'm think about, love the fact that they throw fries into the shawarma too. Believe its a friendly Lebanese guy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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