I Can’t Stop Thinking About: A New Sydney Food Truck’s “Completely Magnificent” German-Style Kebab

Two years ago, I spent a week in Berlin and became obsessed with one thing: doner kebabs. Before landing, I’d gone deep into German Youtube, travel blogs and Instagram, mapping out what to eat. Nothing was spoken about with more reverence than doner kebabs. So between plates of bratwurst, currywurst, schnitzel and klopse, I ate a doner kebab every single day. It is a dining experience that’s taunted me from afar – until I found Keb Up in Sydney.

Now, what Turkish immigrants created in Germany is different to what you’ll find in Turkey. Like how Italian immigrants reshaped pizza in New York, doner kebabs wove themselves into the fabric of Berlin – yet most Sydneysiders have no idea this version exists.

Our kebab culture took a different path: shaved meat, salad, plus tabouli and cheese wrapped in Lebanese bread or pita, drenched in our holy trinity of sauces (garlic, barbeque and chilli). But Berlin has its own holy trinity.

There, the classic doner sees thinly stacked beef or veal shaved straight from the spit and crammed into a toasted triangular pocket of fluffy flatbread with fresh salad and scharf (spicy), krauter (herb) and knoblauch (garlic) sauces. It’s like a sandwich on peptides.

But there’s another variation, too: a chicken gemuse (German for veggie) kebab, which sees a round pita so stuffed with fillings it tests the structural limits of bread. Don’t be fooled by the name, there are plenty of veggies but just as much meat. Berlin shop Mustafa’s made the style famous, but locals swear by Rüyam Gemuse Kebab and Dunya Gemuse Kebab. The versions at these Berlin venues completely rewired my expectations of what a kebab could be, and Sydney kebabs haven’t hit the same since – until now.

Raised in Munich, Roni Hanna grew up eating German doner kebabs before moving to Australia with his family four years ago. “I tried most of the famous kebabs in Munich, Berlin, Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt,” he tells me. “I want to change how kebabs are seen here.”

Keb Up is a Hanna family operation – a food truck parked up in Bonnyrigg. Roni and his brother Rami Hanna work the grill, carving and building kebabs. His wife Belinda Hanna handles deliveries, the register and salads with sister-in-law Stefanie Hanna. His mum Sindus Hanna makes their lahmacun, sauces and spice blends from scratch, while his dad Isam Hanna gets the truck ready before every service.

Roni’s chicken veggie kebab blends the best of Munich and Berlin into a single, wildly fantastic, two-hands-needed sandwich. Chicken breast and thigh are marinated for up to two days before spinning on the vertical rotisserie. A fluffy Turkish Iraqi pita is toasted, slit open and slathered with your choice of yoghurt and garlic, spicy or the burger-sauce adjacent “cocktail” sauce – plus tomato and barbeque for any Sydneysiders easing into the German style. “Cocktail sauce isn’t common in Berlin, but it is in Munich,” says Roni. My rec is getting the first three.

Then comes the veggie avalanche: fried eggplant, zucchini and carrots, fresh lettuce, tomato, red cabbage, white and red onions, crumbled feta, chilli flakes and a healthy squeeze of lemon. The result is a glorious, sauce-dripping monster that basically demands you unhinge your jaw to take a proper bite. It’s textural, excessive and completely magnificent – there’s nothing else like it in town.

I’ve already made the trek to Bonnyrigg twice in one week – and I doubt I’m done. The truck has been selling out almost daily, with queues and wait times to match. Stick it out: few meals in Sydney deliver a more convincing ticket to the streets of Germany.

Keb Up
462 Elizabeth Drive, Bonnyrigg

Hours:
Mon to Fri 6pm–midnight
Sat 6pm–1.30am
Sun 6pm–midnight

@kebup.aus