NVM Review

By Warren Rojas

To hear Hamburg Döner general manager Nils Schnibbe tell it, they pretty much HAD to introduce their oversize rotisserie sandwiches to the Northern Virginia market.

“It’s the most popular sandwich in Germany,” Schnibbe said. “Besides, [owner] Timo [Winkel] missed it dearly.”

Winkel’s loss is truly our gain.

Schnibbe said their döner bread is custom made by an artisan baker in Baltimore and pointed out that schnitzel is served on a grilled bröthchen (traditional German hard roll). Meanwhile, the rotating meats—they feature roast chicken the first of the week, then switch to beef on weekends—are handled in-house.

“If we would have more space in that tiny kitchen, we would have beef and chicken all the time,” Schnibbe said of the menu limitations imposed by their cramped cooking quarters.

No apologies needed.

The traditional döner is loaded with moist, shaved beef, scads of crunchy carrots, onions and cabbage, streams of modified tzatziki—augmented by a shower of crushed red pepper flakes (brilliant)—and hearty grilled bread. A chicken version bathed in low-fat yogurt sauce conserves calories without losing a whit of flavor. Tempting extras include double meat (way too much food) and crumbled feta (tres tangy).