How many calories in a kebab? Doner, shish, gyro and the sauce

"A kebab" means two different things depending on where you order it.

In Britain, a kebab with no other word attached is a doner: shaved meat from a rotating vertical spit, in a pitta or naan, with salad and sauce. In the US, a kebab is usually meat on a skewer, and the doner-style sandwich is called a gyro. An American looking up kebab calories finds a skewer at around 300 kcal. A British reader means something closer to 800.

Inside the British menu, the gap is just as large. A chicken shish and a small doner can come in the same pitta with the same salad and be over 200 kcal apart, with twice the protein in the lighter one. Almost all of that is the meat and the sauce.

The quick answer

Per 100g, cooked.

The kebab, built up

Most kebabs are four parts: meat, bread, salad and sauce. Here is what each one costs in a typical British order.

The salad is 20 kcal. The chilli sauce is 12. Both are close to free, which matters for the strategy section at the end. The bread, the meat and the garlic sauce are the three numbers that decide the meal.

The common orders

The no-bread shish uses a bigger salad (160g) for the same plate size, which is why its salad line is 40 rather than 20.

Doner meat and chips is the heaviest common order on this table, heavier than a large doner in naan. The chips do it: 300g of takeaway chips is 720 kcal, which is more than the meat. The numbers match the fish and chips breakdown, because kebab shop chips are cut and fried the same way as chip shop ones.

For context, a 2018 BMJ study of UK chain restaurants found main meals averaged 977 kcal. Independent kebab shops were not in that study, but a small doner sits just under that average and a large one sits well above it.

Protein, which is where the shish wins outright

A chicken shish in pitta delivers more than twice the protein of a small doner for 216 fewer calories. That makes it one of the best takeaway orders available to anyone who is tracking, better than most burger, pizza and curry orders on the same high street. The chicken breast breakdown has more on why grilled chicken is so hard to beat for protein per calorie.

Calories by weight of meat

Kebab shops do not weigh portions consistently, so this is the table to use when the portion looks larger or smaller than usual.

A rough visual guide: a small doner in pitta has a fist-sized pile of meat, around 150g. A large in naan is closer to two fists. A chicken shish is usually five to seven large cubes, around 200g cooked.

The sauce, and why "garlic sauce" means three things

The sauce is the second-largest variable after the meat, and it depends heavily on which tradition the shop is cooking in.

British kebab shop garlic sauce is usually a mayonnaise base, which is why it is so dense. Tzatziki, the yogurt sauce on a Greek gyro, is a quarter of the calories. Toum, the Lebanese garlic sauce on a shawarma, is mostly oil and is the heaviest of the three.

A heavy pour of mayo-based garlic sauce is 235 kcal, which is more than the pitta it sits in. If you change one thing about a doner, this is the cheapest change to make. The mayonnaise breakdown covers the same pattern across burger sauce, salad cream and dressings.

Doner, gyro and shawarma: the same idea, three versions

All three are meat cooked on a vertical rotating spit and shaved into bread. The meat, the bread and the sauce differ, and those three differences decide the calories.

The gyro is the lightest typical order mainly because of the tzatziki, not because the meat is very different. Gyro meat is about 260 kcal per 100g against 270 for doner. A 120g gyro portion in a 100g Greek pita (275) with 60g of tzatziki (66) and some tomato and onion (20) is 673 kcal.

Chicken shawarma uses sliced thigh meat rather than a minced cone, so the meat is lighter than doner. A 150g portion (315) in a large wrap (300) with 30g of toum (195) and pickles and salad (20) is 830. The toum makes up the difference.

If you want this flavour at home with the macros under control, our sheet pan chicken shawarma bowl is 540 kcal with 48g of protein per serving.

UK and US words that trip up logging

• Kebab. In the UK it means a doner unless you say otherwise. In the US it usually means meat on a skewer (shish kebab). A database entry called "kebab" may be either. Check which.
• Doner and gyro. Close cousins, different sauce. Log a British doner as a gyro and you will undercount the sauce by around 100 kcal.
• Pitta and pita. Same bread, different spelling. A kebab shop pitta is larger than a supermarket one, around 85g against 60g.
• Chips. In a kebab shop, chips are the thick fried potato that Americans call fries. They are not crisps.
• Salad. In a British kebab, "salad" means shredded lettuce, red and white cabbage, sliced onion and tomato, sometimes pickled chillies. It is about 20 kcal and is not the place to look for savings.
• Garlic sauce. See the table above. It can mean a mayo blend, a yogurt sauce or an oil emulsion depending on the shop.

Kebab mistakes to avoid

Blaming the bread

The pitta is 225 kcal and people often drop it first. That is a fair saving, but in a doner the meat and the garlic sauce together are around 546, so the bread is not the biggest number. In a shish order the bread is a bigger share, so dropping it matters more there.

Logging doner meat as lamb

Plain roast or grilled lamb is around 200 to 230 kcal per 100g. Doner meat is about 270 because it is a processed, pressed product rather than a cut of meat. Logging it as lamb undercounts a large doner by 100 kcal or more.

Treating the salad as a counterweight

Chilli sauce and salad are effectively free at 32 kcal combined, so pile them on. But they do not offset anything. A heavy salad on a large doner is still a 1,348 kcal meal with some cabbage in it.

Ordering the large because it is better value

The jump from small to large doner in naan with heavier sauce is roughly 545 kcal. The price difference is usually small, which is why the large is the default for a lot of late-night orders.

Ignoring the salt

Doner meat is seasoned and processed. A large doner in naan with sauces can come close to the NHS daily maximum of 6g of salt in one meal, before anything else you eat that day.

Three orders that keep the kebab

The tracker's kebab (382 kcal)

• Chicken shish, 200g (330 kcal)
• Large salad, 160g (40 kcal)
• Chilli sauce (12 kcal)
• No bread, no garlic sauce

Adds up to: 382 kcal, with about 63g of protein. Most shops will serve this in a box without fuss. It is one of the leanest high-protein meals on any British high street.

The normal kebab, adjusted (587 kcal)

• Chicken shish, 200g (330 kcal)
• Pitta (225 kcal)
• Salad and chilli (32 kcal)

Adds up to: 587 kcal, about 70g of protein. It is still a proper kebab in a pitta. Switching from a small doner with garlic sauce to this saves 216 kcal and more than doubles the protein.

The doner, if it has to be doner (616 kcal)

• Small doner meat, 150g (405 kcal)
• Half a pitta, or a pitta with some meat left over (about 112 kcal)
• Salad and chilli, heavy on both (52 kcal)
• Garlic sauce on the side, a third used (about 47 kcal)

Adds up to: about 616 kcal. The doner stays, the mayo-based sauce goes on the side, and the free items do the filling. It is still 187 kcal lighter than the standard small doner.

The verdict

A small doner kebab is about 803 kcal. A chicken shish in pitta is about 587. A large doner in naan is about 1,348, and doner meat and chips is about 1,507.

The meat is the biggest decision. Doner is a pressed, processed meat at 270 kcal per 100g with modest protein, and chicken shish is whole grilled chicken at 165 with nearly twice the protein. The second decision is the garlic sauce, which at 141 to 235 kcal often outweighs the bread.

If you change one thing, order the shish. If you change two, put the garlic sauce on the side.

Pairs well with: how many calories in fish and chips, the takeaway curry breakdown, and the chicken breast calorie breakdown.

For the lightest order at every kind of takeaway on one page, see 14 lowest-calorie takeaway orders.