Kokoreç in the UK: what it is, how to order it, where to find it

What kokoreç is

Lamb small intestines are cleaned, then wound around a core of sweetbreads, heart and fat on a long skewer, seasoned with salt, oregano and pepper flakes, and turned slowly over charcoal until the outside is crisp and the inside cooked through. To serve, a length is cut off, chopped fine on a hot griddle with tomato and green pepper, seasoned again with oregano and pepper flakes, and stuffed into a half loaf of crusty bread, a yarım ekmek. It is eaten with the hands, late, often after drinking, and it is oily, salty, crisp and rich. It came to Turkey from the Balkans and Greece, where it is called kokoretsi and roasted at Easter.

Why it divides people

It is offal, visibly, and the smell of it roasting is either the best or the worst thing you have encountered. The texture is crisp on the outside and soft inside, and the flavour is deeply lamby. Turkish attempts to ban it during EU accession talks provoked a national outcry. Those who like it consider it the pinnacle of street food; those who do not will not be persuaded. If you eat offal at all, try it once from a place with a queue.

How to judge it

The outside should be crisp and dark, the inside soft and cooked through with no trace of rawness, and the smell should be of roast lamb, not of anything else. It should be chopped to order on a griddle, not pre-chopped and held. The bread should be crusty and the oregano and pepper flakes generous. A restaurant that makes it fresh every day is a rarity in the UK and worth knowing about.

Where in the UK it is done well

A small number of grill houses and street food stalls in Harringay, Dalston and Enfield make kokoreç, often only at weekends or late at night. It is almost unknown outside London. The ranking below counts restaurants in our directory whose name signals kokoreç.