Pita Gyros

Pita Gyros is a pair of Greek street food stands located in San Francisco, with one location inside the Oracle park, and one near my house at The Crossing.

"Craving gyros wraps, falafels, and hummus? Grab a quick bite at Pita Gyros!"

Since Greek food isn't what I naturally gravitate towards, I've walked by daily since it opened without giving it much of a look.  However, I finally read some positive reviews and decided to give it a chance, as people really do like it.

As expected, it wasn't quite for me, but, I think this is on me, not them.  The food was clearly prepared with care, and was homemade, no Sysco shortcuts taken.  The staff were friendly and welcoming.  It made me *want* to like it, but alas, just not my style of food.

Setting

I visited the location in The Crossing, where there are a collection of food stands made from shipping containers.

Storefront.

When open, the container front lifts up to form an awning, and reveals an open area with the kitchen and small ordering counter.  The baklava and soft drink options are lined up on top to draw you in (in the case of the baklava, it worked!).

I arrived around 4pm mid-week, so there was no line ahead of me.  I ordered in person, although I could have done so on my phone instead by scanning the QR code.  My order was ready quickly.

Menu.

The menu is not large, for main dishes you have the choice of chicken, lamb & beef gyros meat, or falafel, served as a pita wrap, Greek salad, or a plate (with rice, pita bread, tomato/cucumber salad).  You can add on dolmas, pita & hummus, or Greek fries as a starter/side.  And that's it (besides ordering just a single piece of pita a la carte, some extra sauce, and stuff like that).  A single dessert.  No house made drinks.

Food

The menu at Pita Gyros mostly did not appeal to me, as expected, since Mediterranean just isn't really my flavors.  I despise both chicken and lamb.  I don't care for (non-dessert) rice, hummus, tahini, olives, (non-pickled) cucumbers, or falafel really.  So, yeah.  Obviously I was there for the baklava, but I felt like I should get something else at least to try.

While waiting for my order, I got a real sense of how quality their products were - falafel and fries are fried to order - no chance of getting a piece of falafel that had been sitting in a warmer all day.  I asked about where they get the baklava from (as it visually wasn't like any of the versions I know from the bigger distributors in the area ...), and was given the details of ingredient sourcing from Turkey, and they make it here in SF!  This is truly homemade food, which wouldn't necessarily be obvious at first just from reading the menu.

Hummus. $7.95 (with pita).

I am not usually one for hummus.  Let me just say that.  Chickpeas, meh.  Not a flavor I enjoy.  But, many reviews talked about how good this hummus was, noting that it was clearly homemade, so I thought I'd give it a chance.  After all, I did really enjoy hummus from Petit Pita (a ghost kitchen pandemic find for me!), and there was the time I declared Sababa the first hummus I'd ever actually liked.

It was a unique hummus.  It didn't taste like standard store bought.  Fresher, somehow.  It was remarkably smooth and yet still had a bit of grit, sorta like just enough to remind you this was chickpea bits after all.  Drizzled on top with some oil, sprinkled with sumac, and topped with an olive.  Fairly flavorful I guess.

But, at the end of the day, it was still hummus, and not life changing or something I wanted more of. Low ***, but again, just cuz its not what I like usually.

Pita.

The hummus appetizer came with a side of pita to dunk into it, 8 wedges (so I think 2 pita?).  It was served warmed up, and was really quite soft.  Clearly fresh pita.  It tasted pretty average though, not really different from a grocery store version, not lofty and fluffy like Oren's Hummus pita.  Eh.  Low ***.

Side Falafel. $2.

And finally, just a single falafel ball, as again, I had read good things about it.  I knew to expect this to just be a single ball, which was fine with me.

The falafel was fairly different from any other falafel I've had before.  This was clearly not a Sysco premade frozen one dropped in a fryer or baked.  No, this was clearly homemade, and fried to order.   Perfectly crispy outside, although a big greasy.  Getting one fresh really is a different experience!

The texture was the most unique aspect, as it had big bits in it.  I'm trying to think of how to best describe, but sorta like it had big grains within.  Like, coarsely chopped compared to normal finely chopped.   Sorta like ... tempeh?  Very different.  It also had a somewhat odd flavor, it reminded me of preserved lemon almost?  It was fairly strong.  Lots of herbs too, it was quite green inside.

Overall, I thought this was a unique falafel, and clearly a homemade fresh one, but I didn't particularly like it (but again, I'm not usually one for chickpeas in the first place).  **+.

Baklava. $5.

And finally, the reason I was there: baklava!  The order came with two very small pieces.  

This was only okay, a bit of a letdown given so many rave reviews.  The filo layers were a bit soft, and it didn't seem necessarily the freshest.  The top had a light glaze, the bottom was very soaked.  The syrup wasn't as crazy sweet as most baklava, much more restrained sweetness.  A bit floral.  You could taste that it was honey, not just corn syrup.

It was pistachio only baklava, no other nuts.  The filling was a thick layer full of really big hunks of pistachio.  The filling wasn't very sweetened either, so this ate a bit savory.

Overall, different from most commercial baklava, which was nice, but I didn't love it.  That said, again, not generally my preferences, as I prefer other nuts to pistachio, even in baklava.  Low ***.