Several US restaurants sell döner under German, Berlin, or Turkish names. Their public menus disagree about bread, sauce, and bowls. That disagreement is the story. This page is a food directory of operator sites already cited in the guide — not an FDD table, not a ranking, and not a count of every kebab shop in America.
Mustafa’s belongs here only as a Berlin shop with a first-party website that US readers keep searching for. It is not a US operator.
Public directories compared
Figures are what the sites showed in August 2026. Re-check before traveling.
| Operator | Self-description | Public geography | Bread / format notes | Sauces (as named) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Döner Haus | German döner; pide sandwich | Five New York shops: Astoria, Bayside, East Village, Hell’s Kitchen, Sunnyside | Crispy Turkish pide; wrap; boxes on fries, salad, or rice | Creamy garlic; spicy |
| Kotti | Berliner döner in New York | Food halls and a Brooklyn restaurant, per its story page | Sandwiches, bowls, wraps | Red and white; feta |
| GDK USA | Turkish food with a German twist | NY, NJ (American Dream), TX (Frisco) | Toasted sesame / waffle bread; wrap; boxes; rice bowl | Garlic, yogurt, spicy (three-signature set) |
| DonerG | Turkish & Mediterranean grill; halal döner | Six California shops (OC and Long Beach) | Pita, fladenbrot (including fries in bread), bowls, wraps | House and red spicy sauces on named items |
No column is “the real one.” What is a German döner? is a family. DonerG is the control: Turkish positioning without a Berlin story.
How the menus diverge
Bread. Quartered pide (Döner Haus), sesame waffle bread (GDK), unspecified pocket plus wrap (Kotti), pita and fladenbrot (DonerG). See bread and dürüm.
Vegetables. Red cabbage recurs on German-positioned US boards. DonerG’s fladenbrot also lists pickles, parsley-onion, and fries in the bread — a different salad logic. Kotti emphasizes a “rainbow” of vegetables and feta.
Meat claims. GDK states that beef doner contains poultry. Döner Haus’s public site has described its meats as filler-free and gluten-free — an operator claim to verify at the shop. DonerG states halal-certified döner. These are not interchangeable certificates. Meat and halal and allergens keep them apart.
Vegetarian. GDK USA lists a jalapeño black-bean Veggie Kebab in sesame bread. DonerG lists falafel. Kotti’s proteins should be read from the current menu rather than assumed. Berlin’s Vöner, on the city guide, is seitan — wheat — and is not a US chain.
Mustafa’s: public, and in Berlin
Mustafa’s Gemüse Kebap publishes Mehringdamm 33, Kreuzberg, as the original to-go stand, with hours and a note about the queue. US media treat it as a pilgrimage shop. It has no public US restaurant directory in the sources this guide uses. Putting it on a US operator table would be a category error; putting it on a US reader’s shortlist of names they will search is honest.
Roasted vegetables and the word Gemüse still need a vegetarian check at any similarly named stand. See Berlin neighborhoods and vegetarian.
What this roundup refuses to do
It does not add shop counts, sales, or “white space” in the US category. The commissioned chart on the homepage is one company’s thesis; German döner in the US already treats it as a point of view.
It does not convert menus into franchise investment copy. If you are reading filings, you are in a different library.
It does not merge gyro and shawarma businesses into the table. They are neighbors, described in the comparison chapter.
Independent operators — a single Turkish shop in Chicago, a Berlin-style window in a food hall this page has not seen — are omitted because they were not in the public set this encyclopedia already cites. Omission is not a claim that they do not exist.
How to use the table
- Open the operator’s current location page.
- Open that location’s menu, not a national photograph.
- Note bread, sauce, and whether the item is a sandwich, wrap, or bowl.
- Ask halal and allergen questions as themselves.
- Judge the spit and the vegetables when you are there.
Kotti’s menu is the document for its sauces and formats; its story page is the document for its New York addresses. DonerG’s locations page is the document for California. GDK USA and Döner Haus likewise. Dated, first-party, replaceable when the operator updates them.
Press logos elsewhere on this site record that outlets have covered Döner Haus. Coverage is an event, not a census, and it does not rank Kotti or DonerG.
City-level pages: New York, Los Angeles, United Kingdom for GDK’s other public menu. The Explainer’s locator is where can I get German döner?.
Related chapters
Common questions
- Which US chains sell German döner?
- Public directories in August 2026 included Döner Haus and GDK USA as German- or Berlin-positioned, and Kotti as Berliner döner in New York. DonerG sells Turkish döner in California.
- Is this a complete list?
- No. It is the operators whose public pages this encyclopedia already uses. Independent shops are omitted on purpose rather than guessed.