Mixed shawarma naan @ Aleppo
103 Lodge Ln, Toxteth, Liverpool, L8 0QL
Wherever you go on Lodge Lane for your shawarma, it’s difficult to go wrong. Really it’s just different degrees of right.
Formerly my pick would have Lodge Lane Bakery AKA Tasty Shawarma, in the old Dart pub up towards the Smithdown Road end of the lane. But around 18 months ago the premises passed to new owners – Al Agha Shawarma – and while the kebabs are still excellent, I feel they’ve been surpassed elsewhere on this stretch of road.
Aleppo is a very small Syrian restaurant which serves a menu mostly of barbecued meats and their accompaniments (they offer a whole or half cooked lamb, to be ordered a few days in advance). Almost the entire street-facing side of the shopfront is taken up with spits of chicken and lamb, and a huge flat-top grill all dedicated to turning out shawarma for what is usually a pretty big queue of people.
The move here is to get the mixed shawarma wrapped in a homemade naan bread. You’ll get a not-ungenerous portion of both meats, salads, sauces etc. of your choice.
If they don’t do it automatically then ask that they add some of the grilled tomatoes sitting next to meat. They’ll then sop the outside of the naan in the chicken grease that’s pooled beneath the spit, put it on the flat top grill and stick a weight on top so the flavour gets seared into the bread. Fantastic.
