The Patio Gyro Place, 7371 S. Madison Avenue, is in a really small strip mall next door to Pay Less Liquors and across the street from The Party. It's only been open a month or so, and it looks so tiny from the outside you might miss it, overshadowed by the liquor store's giant sign letters. I was surprised to find that they have a decent-sized dining room with about a dozen tables, nothing fancy but neat and clean. I had planned to just get 2 gyro sandwiches, but I was ambushed by an extensive menu that includes hot dogs, Mexican dishes, catfish platters, jalapeno poppers, and ribeye steak sandwiches, to name but a few of their many offerings. But like the kid who goes into Baskin Robbins and has 'em read off all 33 flavors only to order vanilla, I stuck to my original plan and ordered a chicken gyro sandwich and a regular (beef & lamb) gyro sandwich.
I've never seen 'em prepare sandwiches at other gyro restaurants, so I don't know if they do it differently, but this place has a griddle on which they pour batter to make the sandwich bread right then and there, so it tasted really fresh. The tomatoes and onions were really fresh and crisp, too, and they didn't skimp on the tzadziki sauce, either. It seems like all regular gyro meat is provided by one supplier (Kronos), so it has the the same tasty goodness wherever you go. The chicken, on the other hand, was better to me than most other grilled chicken sandwiches because they browned it nicely on the griddle. The REALLY great thing about this place is the price: $4.49 for a good-sized gyro sandwich or a combo that includes fries and a drink for $5.99. We split a baklava for $1.45 that was tasty if not as light and fluffy as what the Acropolis serves up the street.
The service was quicker than I expected, so it would probably be a good workday lunch destination. The menu says there is a sister store, The Patio, in (I think) the 7300 block of E. Washington Street. The Gyro Place made a great first impression, so if The Patio is just as good, we have yet another go-to place. I'll at least have to go back for some of the myriad other dishes. O-pa!
UPDATE, 07/01/2013: The time I ordered a gyro sandwich and a breaded tenderloin sandwich: the gyro was good, the onions on it were crisp and fresh, and it was swimming in tzadziki sauce, which wasn't a bad thing. The tenderloins was HUGE, and it was decent if not radically different from all the other tenderloins I've had. The value for the price continues to amaze me. :-)
I've never seen 'em prepare sandwiches at other gyro restaurants, so I don't know if they do it differently, but this place has a griddle on which they pour batter to make the sandwich bread right then and there, so it tasted really fresh. The tomatoes and onions were really fresh and crisp, too, and they didn't skimp on the tzadziki sauce, either. It seems like all regular gyro meat is provided by one supplier (Kronos), so it has the the same tasty goodness wherever you go. The chicken, on the other hand, was better to me than most other grilled chicken sandwiches because they browned it nicely on the griddle. The REALLY great thing about this place is the price: $4.49 for a good-sized gyro sandwich or a combo that includes fries and a drink for $5.99. We split a baklava for $1.45 that was tasty if not as light and fluffy as what the Acropolis serves up the street.
The service was quicker than I expected, so it would probably be a good workday lunch destination. The menu says there is a sister store, The Patio, in (I think) the 7300 block of E. Washington Street. The Gyro Place made a great first impression, so if The Patio is just as good, we have yet another go-to place. I'll at least have to go back for some of the myriad other dishes. O-pa!
UPDATE, 07/01/2013: The time I ordered a gyro sandwich and a breaded tenderloin sandwich: the gyro was good, the onions on it were crisp and fresh, and it was swimming in tzadziki sauce, which wasn't a bad thing. The tenderloins was HUGE, and it was decent if not radically different from all the other tenderloins I've had. The value for the price continues to amaze me. :-)
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