BRUSSELS. Greetings, Döner Fans! It has been some time since the Internet tingled to the ripples of this blog. Dr Döner, alas, has not been dining out as often as he used to. I’m sure the same is true for many of you in these [difficult/uncertain/unprecedented] [times/days/circumstances].
Today though, on an uncharacteristically hot day in September, Dr Döner broke his long abstinence. Together with two kebab companions, I dined at a charming place called Lale Pide on Chaussée de Haecht.
Lale Pide on the busy Chaussée de Haecht
At lunchtime, Lale Pide bustles out onto the street. It has outdoor seating and a large menu. It has a lively ambience, and at nearby tables I was delighted to hear a soft murmur of Turkish from the other diners: a sure sign that this was a place of quality. I ordered the İskender.
İskender is a hearty meal of döner meat on a bed of cubed bread in a tomatoey sauce, served with lashings of yoghurt. It is a traditional dish with its origins in the 19th century. I attacked it with gusto. And it was very satisfying indeed. All the more so as, when paying, the man at the till kindly shaved two euros off the bill. A true gent!
A flirty-looking İskender kebab with lashings of yoghurt. The food came with a complementary salad.
All of which leaves me with no qualms in recommending Lale Pide. Dr Döner would gladly eat there again!
Results
Service: 5/5 (excellent)
Atmosphere: 4/5 (lively)
Price: 4/5 (reasonable)
Taste: 4/5 (very tasty!)
You can read more about the origins of the İskender kebab in a previous blog post here. For those of you who have a linguistic bent, ‘lale’ means tulip in Turkish and ‘pide’ means flatbread. Je vous en prie, Döner Fans!
Photographs taken by Dr Döner
The Dr Döner Guide To Kebabs 