Order a bun kebab expecting a burger and you will be surprised. It is thinner, softer, sharper and a great deal more interesting than the thing it superficially resembles. It is also, in Karachi, closer to a national institution than a menu item.
Here is what actually goes into one, why it is built the way it is, and what to look for when you order.
The short definition
A bun kebab is a spiced patty, flattened and cooked hard on a griddle or grill, served in a soft bun with chutney and salad. The name is literal: kebab in a bun. You will see it written bun kabab, bun kebab and bunkabab depending on who is selling it. They are the same thing.
It comes from Karachi, where it is sold from carts and hatches rather than restaurants, and where it has been the default cheap dinner for decades. It predates the arrival of Western fast food chains in Pakistan by a long way, which is worth knowing, because people often assume it is an imitation burger. It is not. It grew up alongside one.
Why the patty is flat
This is the part people get wrong. A bun kebab patty is not a thick puck of mince. It is pressed thin and cooked until the outside is properly browned, almost crusted, with dark edges.
There are two reasons. The first is speed: a cart cannot afford to wait eight minutes for a thick patty to cook through. The second, and the one that matters for flavour, is surface area. A thin patty on hot metal browns across nearly its whole face. That browning is most of the taste. A thick patty gives you a grey interior and a narrow band of crust. A flat one is almost all crust.
If you are handed a bun kebab with a fat, soft, pale patty, whoever made it has borrowed the format without understanding it.
What goes in the patty
In Karachi the traditional version is often lentil based: chana dal cooked down with spices and bound into a patty, sometimes with a little meat and sometimes none at all. It is cheap, and it holds together beautifully.
The meat versions are more common here. Chicken or beef keema, or a kebab mix, seasoned with the usual suspects: green chilli, ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin, often garam masala. The seasoning goes right through the patty rather than sitting on the outside, which is the second big difference from a burger. A burger patty is salted on the surface. A kebab patty is spiced all the way in.
What anda wala means
Anda is egg. An anda wala bun kebab has an omelette folded around the patty before it goes in the bun.
It sounds like an odd addition and it is completely brilliant. The omelette is thin, cooked fast, and it does two jobs. It adds a soft, rich layer against the crusted patty, and it stops the chutney soaking straight into the bread. In Karachi it is often the upgrade you pay a little extra for. If you see it offered, take it.
The chutney is not optional
A bun kebab without sauce is a dry sandwich. The traditional pairing is a green chutney, coriander and mint blitzed with green chilli and something sour, and it is there to cut through the fat and the spice rather than to add heat.
Most places here serve a spicy mayo instead, or as well. That is a reasonable adaptation and a good one is made in house rather than squeezed from a catering bottle. You can usually tell. House mayo is looser, less uniformly pink, and tastes of something other than sweetness.
How to judge one
Four things, in order of how much they matter.
The char. Look at the edges of the patty. You want dark brown, uneven, slightly crisp. Pale grey means it was steamed on a cool griddle or, worse, reheated.
The bun. It should be soft and it should compress. A bun kebab is meant to squash slightly as you eat it. A tough, over-toasted bun fights the filling and pushes it out of the back.
The seasoning depth. Take a bite of just the patty. If it tastes of salt and not much else, the spice was not mixed through properly.
The build. Everything should be in proportion. A tall stack of salad on a thin patty is a burger shop instinct, not a kebab cart one. The patty is the point.
Bun kebab, seekh kebab and shami kebab
These get confused constantly, so, briefly.
Bun kebab is the sandwich described above. A flat patty in a bun.
Seekh kebab is minced meat moulded onto a skewer and grilled, so it comes out long and ridged from the hand that shaped it. It is usually served with roti or naan rather than a bun.
Shami kebab is meat cooked with chana dal, ground to a paste, bound with egg and shallow fried. Softer, denser and more delicate than either. Shami is often what ends up inside a traditional bun kebab, which is where a lot of the confusion comes from.
Where to get one in Manchester
We serve the OG Bun Kebab at Lahori Lane on Redgate Lane in M12, until 2:00am, seven nights a week. Flame grilled chicken kebab patty, cheese, lettuce and spicy mayo made in house, in a toasted brioche bun. Five pounds, and two pounds more for a double patty.
If you want the egg version, the Aanda Wala Burger is the same idea done properly: a chicken keema patty wrapped in an omelette before it goes in the bun. The full menu is here with prices.
Because it is a drive-in you do not queue for it. Park where the attendant points you, put your hazard lights on and a server comes to the car. Longsight, Gorton, Ardwick, Levenshulme, Openshaw and the city centre are all a short drive from Redgate Lane.
The short version
Flat patty, hard char, spice mixed through rather than sprinkled on, soft bun, proper chutney or house mayo. Add the egg if it is offered. It is not a burger and it is not trying to be one, and the places that understand that are the ones worth going back to.