Houssain's

One of the best kebab vans in Oxford. The food is to die for. The service is excellent the kebabs are wowow! You have to try it to believe it.

rayray (Unverified), 26/11/10

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Whenever we go there’s always a bit of a queue, but I wouldn’t let that deter you: this is probably the best place to go in Oxford, and I’d even say the food is good in its own right, not just as kebab vans go.

The Chips are the best thing about the place – they’re excellent in a very traditional, classic way. Thickly cut, but a little bit crunchy, well seasoned and full of flavour. They are the kind of thing you’d expect from a decent rural pub with a Sunday lunch, not a van at 1 o’clock on a Saturday morning. Well worth a pound.

Burgers are good for £1.50, especially considering the size of the thing and the unusual freshness of the bap they come in. If you’re a vegetarian, the jacket potatoes are highly recommended – not only is it nicely buttery and soft, but the thing is so massive that by the time we’d finished eating one half the other was already cold. An unusual thing we found on the menu was a wide selection of pizzas, which as you would expect are virtually dripping with grease but aren’t bad at all, and for £2.50 a 9 inch pizza is very generous.

To top it all off, everyone there is really friendly, and they even gave us some free chips for no good reason at all. The menu is probably the most extensive I’ve seen so whatever you want it will likely be there. Genuinely excellent in almost every way.

9/10

David Wilson (Unverified), 31/10/08

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Sited next to The Roving Gourmet, this van always seems to have a queue twice as long; and with good reason. Let’s just say that Houssain’s seems to be the acme of Kebab van achievement, and the pinnacle of the Oxford Kebab Experience. (Thanks for the fiver, mate.)

The doner meat was good, but was massively enhanced by the egg, which is quite possibly the very best in Oxford. The cheese is generous. Ask for chicken kebab and you actually get what appears to be genuine breast in large bite-size chunks, rather than the dubious-looking blims commonly found in lesser establishments. Apparently the owner is the son of the gent who runs the van opposite the Royal Oak. More about that van in a forthcoming installment.

The menu here is extensive, but not expensive. In addition, most vans don’t have any atmosphere (just people leaning over the gutter). At Houssain’s there is one, as a direct result of it being so popular. Incidentally, if you are recognised as a regular the proprietor will serve you round the back (no quicker than anybody else, but it’s a sort of status symbol). We reckon you should go out out of your way to try it.

Doner kebab - £2.00-£2.30
Chicken kebab - £2.50
Mixed kebab - £3.00
Egg - 30p
Cheese - 30p
Chips - 80p
Also available: beans, spuds, Duck à l’Orange, etc.

Jasper Smith and Tom Fryer (Unverified), 24/03/06

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