Adam & Eats: Nadia’s Gyros & More

Editor’s note: Adam Brandt is a graduate from the Cobra Kai School of Culinary Callousness, where he received their highest award, the Red Apron of Merciless Eating. Aside from eating and talking about eating, he makes pots, paintings, prints, books, photographs, and generally, a big mess. He has been the studio assistant at Mudpuppy Pottery for almost nine years and is attending a local university in a desperate attempt to earn a biology degree.

You know what I’ve been craving? Gyros. But, alas, Mr. Paizi’s stand won’t be arriving for another few months, so what’s a boy to do?

Good news, friends. There is a new Gyro place here in the Fort and it turns out that isn’t that bad, despite the fact that it is in the mall’s food court.

Located right next to the convenience store in Central Mall’s open eating plaza is Nadia’s Gyros & More. I like the name. It is simple and direct. I’m not going to go through the trouble of describing the décor of the food court. That just seems silly to me. It’s a food court. You know what they look like. I will tell you that if you go on certain days, you can watch people playing Mahjong while you eat. It is fascinating.

Anyway, since describing the décor is out, I have no choice but to skip right to the food. I’m sure this pleases some of you to no end since I am constantly getting snarky little comments from (anonymous) readers about my insisting on talking about the actual restaurant and not just what they make. So, today is your lucky day.

Guess what, they make gyros.

If you will recall from our previous lesson, a gyro is thinly sliced, slow roasted meat, traditionally lamb, topped with tomatoes, cucumber, sometimes lettuce or mint, feta, drizzled with a tzatziki, and wrapped in a pita.

The gyros at Nadia’s are good, but not as good as Paizi’s. The traditional lamb gyro is tender and appropriately messy, but I did find their tzatziki lacked the punch of flavor it should have. But, overall, their lamb gyro will satiate a desperate jonesing for what is, for all intents and purposes, Greek tacos.

I also recommend the “feisty” steak. Although, I wouldn’t call it feisty so much as I would call it frisky. I guess they don’t call it frisky because it makes people think of cat food and restaurants typically like to shy away from cat food references on the menu.

Anyway, it had some heat to it, but not enough to make you go crying home to Mama. The steak, however, is perfectly seasoned and tender. If you aren’t that hungry, the pita chips and hummus are a nice treat. I was pleased to see that Nadia doesn’t just open a bag of Simply Naked pita chips and serve them with the hummus. They make the chips. It was a very pleasant surprise.

Overall, Nadia’s pleases me. It is good that this town finally has Gyros year round again.

I do want to comment on something that has been bugging me since the last time I was at Nadia’s, though. While waiting in line to order, I heard at least three people say something negative about the prospect of eating lamb based solely on the thought of eating it, not on having tried it and not liked it. Not eating lamb on a gyro is like going to a BBQ joint and asking for tofu. I heard one person say that they were afraid to try it.

What are we, children? Granted, lamb is not something we eat traditionally in these parts, but jeez grow a pair already. What’s the worst that could happen? To answer my own question, a hundred dollar a week habit at Paul’s Meat Market.

All I’m saying is, try it. If you don’t like it, you at least have the experience to prove that you don’t like it rather than just  blindly turning your nose up at something that just so happens to be the traditional way it is prepared. I say all of this, not as a jerk, but as a fellow eater. You don’t know what you are missing. So, please give it a shot.

From one food lover to another, good eating.

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Adam also has this thing called Sandwich Control.