Iskender in the UK: what it is, how to order it, where to find it
Quick answer
Iskender kebab is shaved doner laid over cubes of pide bread, covered with tomato sauce and browned butter, and served with a spoonful of thick yoghurt. It was invented in Bursa in the 1860s by a man called Iskender, whose descendants still trade under the name, and it is the most indulgent thing on a Turkish menu: rich, hot and heavy. In the UK it is the dish that turns a doner from a takeaway into a sit-down meal.
Calories and nutrition
- Calories
- 900
- Protein
- 45 g
- Carbs
- 60 g
- Fat
- 52 g
- Salt
- 3.0 g
750–1100 kcal
Portion: One restaurant portion, about 400 g with bread, sauce, butter and yoghurt.
The heaviest dish on a Turkish menu; the browned butter alone adds 200 to 250 kcal.
Estimates for a typical portion, based on standard UK and USDA food composition data. Actual values depend on the recipe and the restaurant.
What iskender is
The base is doner, ideally lamb, shaved thin. It is laid over pieces of day-old pide bread that soak up the juices, then covered with a plain tomato sauce, and the whole plate is finished at the table with butter heated until it foams and browns. Thick strained yoghurt goes on the side or over the top. There is no salad, no rice, no chips; the bread is the carbohydrate and the butter is the point. The original Bursa recipe uses lamb from the Uludağ mountain, butter from the same region and bread baked that day; a good UK restaurant follows the structure if not the sourcing.
How it differs from a doner plate
A doner plate gives you shaved meat, rice, salad and a pitta. Iskender gives you the meat on bread under sauce and butter, and the bread is not on the side but underneath, so it goes soft and rich. The tomato sauce should be plain, cooked tomato with a little butter, not a spiced or sweet sauce. The yoghurt should be thick enough to hold a spoon. Restaurants that serve iskender with rice, chips or salad on the plate have misunderstood it. Chicken iskender exists and is popular in the UK, but lamb is the dish.
How to judge it
The butter should arrive foaming, poured over the plate in front of you; if the plate comes out already dressed, it was made ahead. The bread underneath should be soft but not disintegrated. The doner should be house-made, with the layered look of real meat rather than the smooth face of a frozen cone, because iskender exposes a bad doner more than any other dish. A good portion is large; this is not a starter and it is not a light meal.
Where in the UK it is done well
Restaurants that make their own doner are the ones to trust with iskender, which means the ocakbaşı houses of North London and the older Turkish restaurants of Birmingham and Manchester. The ranking below counts Turkish restaurants in our directory whose name signals iskender or doner.
How to order it
Order lamb, not chicken. Ask for the butter to be poured at the table. Do not order rice or chips with it. Share a portion with a starter if you are not very hungry; it is the heaviest dish on the menu. Ayran or plain water, not beer, cuts the richness.
Where it's done well
UK councils with the most iskender specialists, by restaurant name, in our directory.
Restaurants near you
Search by postcode or use your location to find restaurants likely to serve iskender near you.
Make it at home
Serves 2 · 30 min
Ingredients
- 300 g cooked doner or thinly sliced roast lamb, warmed
- 2 pide or pitta breads, a day old, cut into cubes
- 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes, blended smooth
- 60 g butter
- half a tsp salt, black pepper
- 150 g thick strained yoghurt
- a grilled tomato and long green pepper each, optional
Method
- Simmer the blended tomato with a knob of the butter, salt and pepper for ten minutes until it thickens slightly.
- Warm the bread cubes on a dry pan or in the oven so they are crisp at the edges.
- Divide the bread between two plates and lay the warm doner on top. Spoon the tomato sauce over.
- Heat the remaining butter in a small pan until it foams and smells nutty, then pour it over each plate at the table.
- Serve with the yoghurt on the side and the grilled tomato and pepper.
The dish is only as good as the doner; use the shaved lamb from our doner recipe, or leftover roast lamb sliced very thin. Brown the butter properly; pale melted butter tastes of nothing.