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“The bread is phenom. The meat packs a punch and the sauce is crazy good.”
When the influencer Can F Kennedy gives his ratings for kebab shops on TikTok, it is short and sweet.
For more than a year, the 42-year-old has been eating his way through Berlin’s kebab shops, known there as doner stands.
“I test all the kebabs in or right next to U-Bahn [underground train] stations all over Berlin,” he tells the camera.


TikTok, YouTube and other platforms are home to countless German food critics – some of whom have large followings. Those on the lookout for the best kebabs travel across Germany and further afield.
“Many of them actually always go to the same shops that are being hyped at the moment,” says Kennedy, which is not his real name.
He takes a different tack, showing viewers places that are easily accessible to the people of his home city.
“What use is it to me as a Berliner to know that the best kebab is in Gelsenkirchen?” he asks, referring to a city in the west of the country.
The food critic, who does not want to disclose his real name, has taken on a sizeable task. Berlin’s underground network has 175 stations. He has already explored the U6, U7, U8 and U9 lines.
Now he is planning to check out the U5, which runs between Berlin’s central station and Hönow, a village to the east, just over the Berlin city border, in the state of Brandenburg.
“I’ve never been to Hönow before in my life. It was like a little trip around the world,” he says.

His trips are always a little educational and involve a bit of sightseeing, he says. But he concludes that the eastern end of U5 has little to offer in the way of culinary delights.
No kebab stand has yet to earn the maximum score of 10. But he did give a score of 8.8 to the Elbis snack bar at the Berliner Strasse underground station in the Wilmersdorf area.
“Authentic and traditional, just like the classic kebabs of the old days,” he says.
Kennedy awards a certificate to the best kebab on each underground line. This year, that includes Elbis’ kebab.
Owner Süleyman Sahin already received a certificate for second place in 2023. Since his shop is right on the U7 and U9 – popular lines in West Berlin – he had the chance to be rated twice.
The videos, which are also available on platforms such as YouTube, have given his business a real boost, he says.
“I now have to order more meat so that I can still sell kebabs in the evenings,” Sahin says.
Doner kebab is a dish of Ottoman (Turkish) origin using meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. The operator slices thin shavings from the outer layer of the meat as it cooks.
The modern sandwich variant of the doner kebab originated and was popularised in 1970s West Berlin by Turkish immigrants.
If it’s a family business and the mother is maybe baking the bread at the back and the son is helping out, then there’s a lot more love and passion in it and you can taste it
Can F Kennedy
The sliced meat is usually served in a sandwich with salad or vegetables and various types of sauces.
Doner kebabs that are made mainly from minced meat have no chance of getting more than eight points from Kennedy – unless they have something individual about them, such as home-made bread or a special sauce.
“Then there is a chance of breaking through the eight-point mark,” he says.
So-called yaprak doner kebabs, which use pure meat not mixed with any fillers, have a better chance, he says. But here, too, the meat must be well-seasoned and taste good. A lot can also go wrong with that.
In addition to the food, the ambience and the friendliness of the staff are also included in Kennedy’s assessments. Often, the owner-managed shops perform significantly better.
“If it’s a family business and the mother is maybe baking the bread at the back and the son is helping out, then there’s a lot more love and passion in it and you can taste it,” he says.
The influence of posts and videos from kebab testers can be enormous, says Michael Kuriat, restaurateur and expert in marketing and social media.
“The pure follower numbers are not really meaningful. If a kebab shop is tagged and the posts are shared, something like that can achieve incredible reach,” says Kuriat.

For Generation Z, TikTok is often the most important source of information when it comes to restaurants and snack bars.
“They no longer search on Google. They search for the shops on TikTok and see what others have said about them. Based on that, they decide whether to go there,” says Kuriat.
Kennedy says he has tried other foods for social media, such as the culinary offerings at Hertha Berlin’s football games at the Olympic Stadium, or at a trade fair for plant-based nutrition. But none of these have generated the same reaction as his kebab tests.
“Kebab is a simple food for everyone. And everyone has an opinion about it,” he says. “People eat a lot of kebabs, and it feels like there are more of them around.”
Kennedy says he will test kebab shops in other German cities in the future. But for now, his adventure in Berlin continues until he has completed all nine underground lines.


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PRODUCTION - 08 October 2024, Berlin: A kebab from the Elbis-Döner restaurant at Berliner Straße 2 in Wilmersdorf. Only veal is used here, seasoned according to their own recipe. It is a Yaprak doner kebab, which is made using lean meat. The bread is also a secret. Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa (Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via PHOTO: Getty Images

A kebab from the Elbis snack bar at Berliner Strasse 2 in Wilmersdorf, Germany, which earned an impressive score of 8.8/10 from TikTok reviewer Can F Kennedy. Photo: Getty Images

An employee cuts meat from a kebab skewer at a kebab shop on Kottbusser Damm in Berlin. Photo: DPA/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

Visitors stand in line to order at Mustafa’s Gemüse Kebap in Berlin, another popular kebab stand. Photo: Getty Images

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Food & Drink

For more than a year, German TikTok influencer Can F Kennedy has been eating his way through kebab shops in or near Berlin’s subway stops


For more than a year, German TikTok influencer Can F Kennedy has been eating his way through kebab shops in or near Berlin’s subway stops.


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