Wrap battle featuring El Turkito and Oh My Rolls!

While shawarma was typically the most popular wrap in Bangladesh, new ventures like El Turkito and Oh My Rolls are trying to bring the flavours from every part of the world to Bangladesh. El Turkito is a fusion restaurant situated on Bailey road which was much hyped for its interesting influence.

As the co-owner El Turkito Erfan Uddin claimed, they wanted to introduce dishes that can best be characterised as a fusion of Mexican and Turkish dishes with a hint of local flavours, thus the name represents both countries. 

Oh My Rolls is a cloud kitchen situated in Banani and provides delivery throughout Dhaka. They are also available through multiple food delivery apps such as Foodpanda, Pathao, Munchies, Buy Here Now, and HungryNaki.

Their rolls come in 8 inches and 12 inches. Both places are takeaway shops, so they are pursuing the concept of serving quick and fulfilling foods. 

But which one of them serves the best wraps? The two feature writers of The Business Standard, Eshadi and Nusrat tried both the wraps separately from Oh My Rolls and El Turkito to judge who wins this battle of the wraps!

Oh My Rolls!

Shrimp Roll

Nusrat

Rolls always take me back to Kolkata, where I had the best egg rolls of my life until I had the shrimp roll from Oh my rolls. Being a shrimp fan I was overwhelmingly happy to find a roll that consists of big chunks of shrimp but what surprised me the most was their attempt to fuse Japanese flavour in it. It had a few chunks of crab sticks, a beautiful flavour of wasabi, a hint of horseradish, and slices of fresh carrots and lettuce mixed with a cream cheese sauce. The amalgamation of these diverse flavours emulsified with creamy shrimp goodness was so on point that it will make anyone say "Oh My Rolls!". 

Photo: Courtesy

Eshadi

The shrimp roll is filled with prawn tempura, crab stick, wasabi mayonnaise, siracha, carrots, lettuce, and cream cheese. This might be a bit of a hot take, but I am not a huge fan of seafood. However, introducing the seafood to the wrap in the form of tempura was a good decision, in my opinion. It adds texture, and following the theme of their indulgent menu, makes it more of a guilty pleasure. Even though I don't side with seafood, I think it is admirable that they were able to eliminate any 'fishy' smell that you normally associate with seafood.

Overall, the experience sort of felt like biting into a maki roll without the rice, because of the wasabi kick that accompanies it. The flavour of the sriracha gets lost a bit in the sauce concoction. Out of the three, this roll veered a bit too much on the creamy territory.

Price: Tk280

Butter Chicken Roll

Nusrat

Neither am I an Indian food fanatic nor do I usually indulge in butter chicken. But the boring chicken rolls around me pushed me to try out this interesting interaction between butter chicken and light thin wrap. Oh, my Rolls tried to make it as Indian as possible by putting along some 'Cholas' or chickpeas, enriched with butter that I could smell from far and all spices a South Asian home uses in its curries. However, compared to the shrimp roll it felt dry. In my opinion, it should have been spicier and moister. Given the price of the rolls, they should have increased the width of the rolls too, because the rolls seemed like they were pursuing zero figure, unfortunately. However, they were long.

Eshadi

The butter chicken is one of the best-selling items on their menu, and for good reason. The wrap is filled with tandoori chicken, butter chicken sauce, fresh onions, paneer, and coriander.

Photo: Courtesy

If you get the flavours of butter chicken right, it is hard to go wrong with it, no matter where you add it. And Oh My Rolls did not disappoint. The butter chicken in the wrap had a delicious buttery flavour that blooms; it gets stronger the longer it's in your mouth. This is also good for those with a low spice tolerance as it does not have much heat to it. However, I did feel like the paneer got lost in the flavours a bit.

With that said, out of all the wraps, this is the one that lingered with me the longest. This is the dish that makes me want to return to the food joint for seconds. Although the peers I had shared the wrap with had considered it average, I think this is my favourite out of all the wraps I tried.

Price: Tk300

Bolognese Rolls

Nusrat

I am not a big fan of bolognese and honestly was not overly excited about having them in the rolls. After a bite, I felt that the combination of meat, fries, cheddar cheese and basils were not working together as the overall flavours felt lighter. I think they tried to use the French fries to lighten the strong flavours of other ingredients to make it feel more of a local dish. However, I did not like this daring attempt of Oh My Rolls to fuse fries with a classic flavour. 

Photo: Courtesy

Eshadi 

The bolognese roll takes the heartiness of bolognese pasta and puts it in a roll. The filling consists of bolognese meat, chunks of cheddar cheese, basil, and french fries.

The concept of french fries in a wrap has always felt like a scam to me, as it is a dry carb filling, wrapped in a dry carb. Most dishes go as I expect them to, either extremely dry, or the french fries get lost in the flavours. 

However, the bolognese roll, redeemed the honour of fries in wraps because they had a role to play. Bolognese meat tends to be wet, which could compromise the structural integrity of the wrap, however, the fries somewhat act as a barrier. The meat itself leaned on being tomato-heavy with chunks of cheddar cheese, adding a bite to the overall flavour. Alone, these flavours could have been extremely heavy, but the fries balanced things out. 

Price: Tk300

Overall Rating: 

Nusrat: 7/10

Eshadi: 8/10

El Turkito

Classic Doner - Chicken

Nusrat

The beautiful and Mexican art-inspired packaging of El Turkito does raise expectations a lot about what's inside it. The moment I opened it I saw a fat Shawarma-styled Turkish doner which was failing to hold its fillings sadly. I ordered it with extra fries inside it which cost me an extra Tk20. The chicken filling was generous, and creamy with mayonnaise and the fries did make it taste better. The freshly chopped cucumber and tomatoes complemented the dish as well. However, they used a hefty amount of onions which was unavoidable. Moreover, the pita bread was soft but it was having a hard time holding on to its rich stuffing. My suggestion would be to eat the doner as soon as they make it, otherwise, you have to open the paper wrap and the roll will fall apart. The seasonings need to be increased as well.

Photo: Courtesy

Eshadi

El Turkito set out to fuse Mexican and Turkish cuisine, but their efforts fell short along the way. It is sort of surprising how both these cuisines are associated with deep flavours, yet El Turkito cannot manage even a fraction of it in their rolls. I have tried the Classic Chicken Doner on multiple occasions, which is why I could tell there is a bit of inconsistency in their food. The first time I tried the wrap, I could identify the Mexican spices, reminiscent of taco spices. I think the mayonnaise, or at least the portion of it, plays against the flavours as it mutes the spices. 

However, I must applaud the wrap for its textures and affordability. The wrap includes cabbage, which adds a much-needed crunch. Furthermore, this item is one of their cheapest items on the menu, going for Tk160 only. The wrap might lack spices and flavour, but it certainly is not bad. 

Price: Tk180

Classic Doner - Beef

Nusrat

The beef doner and chicken doner have the same sauce but the seasoning was better here. The fillings were also similar in both except for meat and the amount of meat was decent as well. The complaint with the onion is dismissed here, just a bit more juicy edge would have made this a great doner. Also, the seal of the wrap was falling apart as well. It seemed like the stuffings were crying out loud to be free from the wraps. 

Eshadi

I think the flavour palate El Turkito is aiming for shines a bit more with this dish. The meat holds onto the marinade a lot better, preventing it from being a mush of mayonnaise. 

However, it reminds me why I avoid red meat, it overcooks easily. The beef came with quite a workout for the jaw. However, it should be noted that it is quite budget-friendly.

Price: Tk200

Honey Mustard Chicken Doner

Nusrat

The most disappointing doner they served must be the honey mustard chicken doner because even after waiting till the last bite, I found zero flavours of honey mustard sauce. They need to increase the amount of sauce, otherwise, people will confuse it as just another chicken roll. This doner even costs higher than the chicken doner, but it certainly did not meet my expectations at all. However, a positive point about El Turkito is that their wraps are reasonably priced and satisfy hunger.

Photo: Courtesy

Eshadi

The other reason I revoked my opinion of french fries in wraps being a scam, was because I had my eyes set on a newfound scam: the Honey Mustard Doner.

After biting into the wrap, my peers and I questioned whether the order was wrong due to its uncanny similarity to the Classic Doner, besides the fact that it had green chilli in it.

Overall, I would give El Turkito a 5 out of 10. The concept and flavours fell short, but I have to reiterate that the wraps are not bad. And for the price, it can keep you filled within a budget.

Price: Tk180

Overall Rating: (El Turkito)

Nusrat: 6/10

Eshadi: 5/10