Could chain restaurant shawarma be as good as proper kebabs from a real family-run takeaway? I had to find out

The best burgers in the world are not from McDonald’s and the best coffee in the world is not Starbucks. Following that logic, surely Preston’s best chicken shawarma kebab won’t come from a chain, even if the chain is GDK, which can trace its heritage back to Berlin in 1989.

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Welcome to the latest LP Eats review. As fans of our food reviews will know, everyone with a carnivorous dent loves a kebab. Whether that's a fragrant and impeccably spiced chicken shawarma with crisp fresh veg and a delicate honey BBQ sauce, or a hulking great dirty rugby ball of donner meat dripping in grease and garlic mayo with the odd chip scattered in there like shrapnel, kebabs are king.

Heading down to Preston’s GDK branch, the restaurant was clean and a little quiet, with friendly and prompt staff. The vibe was a little sanitised, a far cry from the proper authentic atmospheres you get in independent kebab houses, but that’s to be expected I guess. Still, that’s a score of 2.5/5 for the vibe.

On to the food - the most distinctive thing about GDK’s grub is the famous waffle-pattern naan, which is like some expanded taco shell-like contraption which looks crispier than it is and tastes nicer than it looks. I’ll give it a 3/5 on that front, if only because it’s not the classic pillowy fluffy naan of my kebab-based dreams.

The meat was good - there was plenty of it, the chicken was tender and flavoursome, and it was shredded up into smaller bites, so it nestled into the waffle naan nicely and made each mouthful pleasantly chickeny. I can’t quite put my finger on what could be improved by it, but going on my guy feeling, it was good without blowing my socks off. 4/5 for the meaty goodness.

Extras now, and the naan itself came with salad, but I had to order a meal deal to get chips, so it gets marked down for not offering fries as standard. But the salad was good - like the chicken, there was plenty of it, it was doused in a nice amount of sauce, and it accompanied each bite nicely so that I wasn’t left with a bunch of lettuce-only chomps come the end of my lunch. 4/5 for that, too.

Finally, on to the price. It was hefty at £6.99 for the kebab on its own, and even more wallet-busting at £10.49 for the meal deal. It was a good amount of food and I was left feeling nicely full, but still, to get so little change from a tenner is pushing it a little, especially, given this is supposed to be cheap and quick fast food. 2/5 for me, Clive.

Naan: 3/5

Meat: 4/5

Extras: 4/5

Vibe: 2.5/5

Value: 2/5

TOTAL: 15.5