It's All Greek to Me, carryout only, opening on Frankfort

Looks like they opened yesterday. Did anybody check it out yet?
http://mariasgreekkitchen.com/

but it appears that the taco materials are brought up from Radcliff and assembled

I didnt see tacos on the menu? Oh well, I was hoping for another good gyros spot.

[Robin Garr]

I didnt see tacos on the menu? Oh well, I was hoping for another good gyros spot.

Brain flatulence. We had Mexican yesterday and today, and my mind is stuck. Plus, a gyros is sort of a Greek taco, isn't it? D'oh! I'll edit the original post.

OK Rodger that. I will try to check it out next week and report back. The web site showed July 31 as the grand opening. Maybe some of the kinks will be worked by the time I go.

As of two weeks ago, she had a sign on her Radcliff restaurant saying it was closed and she had moved to Louisville. I hate that. Radcliff has been the only location she has had that has been successful, and she shuts it yet again.

Well, went by yesterday and got a couple of gyros to go. Not impressed. The lamb lacked any of the browning you would normally expect. I pointed to the empty rotisserie and asked the lady where the lamb was. She told me that due to the weather she decided not to put the meat out. Im not sure what that meant. She was taking meat out of plastic tubs and heating it up in the microwave. The lamb itself wasnt bad,but the microwave didnt do it any favors. My bigger gripe was the pita,very oily and "raw",if you can call a pita raw. My pita was not browned at all,my friends pita did have brown grill marks on it so I guess will call it 50/50 on the pitas.The tzatziki sauce was good but lacked enough garlic for my tastes.The onions were sweet and put on in the proper proportions. The tomato tasted like a real garden tomato should. The gyros come wrapped in foil and then placed in paper sacks. By the time I drove to DCE(not a far drive at all) the paper bags were soaked with grease and falling apart. We also tried a side of the meatballs. I ate them cold(they are prepacked in a cooler case in the front of the store) and we both found them to be pretty bland. The lady who running the place by herself seemed to be very nice. She had to instruct a couple of guys who in line ahead of me to eat outside and not at the tables in the store,something about no inside eating permits yet. They were asking the history of gyros and she went on to tell them the Greeks came up with it. Good thing there werent any Turks in the store. I cant say if I will be back or not. There are so many gyros out there and so little money.

Well, went by yesterday and got a couple of gyros to go. Not impressed. The lamb lacked any of the browning you would normally expect. I pointed to the empty rotisserie and asked the lady where the lamb was. She told me that due to the weather she decided not to put the meat out. Im not sure what that meant. She was taking meat out of plastic tubs and heating it up in the microwave. The lamb itself wasnt bad,but the microwave didnt do it any favors. My bigger gripe was the pita,very oily and "raw",if you can call a pita raw. My pita was not browned at all,my friends pita did have brown grill marks on it so I guess will call it 50/50 on the pitas.The tzatziki sauce was good but lacked enough garlic for my tastes.The onions were sweet and put on in the proper proportions. The tomato tasted like a real garden tomato should. The gyros come wrapped in foil and then placed in paper sacks. By the time I drove to DCE(not a far drive at all) the paper bags were soaked with grease and falling apart. We also tried a side of the meatballs. I ate them cold(they are prepacked in a cooler case in the front of the store) and we both found them to be pretty bland. The lady who running the place by herself seemed to be very nice. She had to instruct a couple of guys who in line ahead of me to eat outside and not at the tables in the store,something about no inside eating permits yet. They were asking the history of gyros and she went on to tell them the Greeks came up with it. Good thing there werent any Turks in the store. I cant say if I will be back or not. There are so many gyros out there and so little money.

John,

Thanks for the review. BTW- I have an excellent, easy recipe for very garlicy tzatziki if you want to make some- stuff keeps for weeks in my refrig.

Hope to see Anne on Saturday,
Deb

John brought me lunch yesterday from It's All Greek to me. Couple of thoughts on the meal.

#1 the gyros were packaged in tin foil and paper bags for carry out and when John brought it over the bags were soaked through with grease. I would reccomend using some kind of plastic container for cary out in the future.
#2 the pita wasn't toasted at all
#3 the meatballs were flavorless and had a bland texture.

I'm more forgiving than John on the gyros. It wasn't great (I lived in Germany for years & grew up in Chicago and nothing will ever beat Greektown or Turkish Doner Kebab for me) but it wasn't terrible. The tzadiki sauce was tasty and the meat and onions were good. Not sure about adding lettuce.

For me it was the meatballs that really disappointed.
I'll give them another try in a bit once they have worked out the opening kinks.

Not sure about adding lettuce.

For me it was the meatballs that really disappointed.

Yeah, I had them leave the lettuce off mine. I guess its a Louisville thing. I dont ever remember having lettuce on a gyros before. To be fair, I didnt heat up my half of the meatballs,but I dont think it would have changed anything,they really were bland.
Ill agree with Matthew that its hard to beat a Chicago gyros,but Louisville does have some really good options. I think I only have three places left to try before Ive sampled every version in town.

I just dont get the lettuce thing.

[Robin Garr]

I just dont get the lettuce thing.

We lived for four years in Astoria, Queens, NYC, the largest Greek community in the world outside Athens, and they generally put lettuce on the gyros. Unless memory fails me, which it certainly may.

Now, souvlaki, that's just meat on a stick. We could use a few street-corner souvlaki stands in this town!

We could use a few street-corner souvlaki stands in this town!

Only if accompanied by an honest glass of retsina

Oooh, I do love a good Retsina! Especially with lamb souvlaki.

We lived for four years in Astoria, Queens, NYC, the largest Greek community in the world outside Athens, and they generally put lettuce on the gyros. Unless memory fails me, which it certainly may.

For what its worth...I recently had some gyros in Rahway and one in Red Hook and they didnt come with lettuce. I was also up in Detroit(very large Greek community) recently,where I had several gyros all of which came with no lettuce.I did look up the definition on a few online dictionaries,Answers.com,WIKI,thefreedictionary.com,yourdictonary.com,dictionary.babylon.com and found none of them to include lettuce in the description. All they listed was tomato and onion.I wont even begin to tell what was listed on the urban dictionary,that was my first time checking out that site. Im not saying there is a wrong way or a right way, I was just noting that this seems to be a regional thing. I have seen the lettuce on gyros out west as well,but people in California will put lettuce on anything.

[Robin Garr]

We lived for four years in Astoria, Queens, NYC, the largest Greek community in the world outside Athens, and they generally put lettuce on the gyros. Unless memory fails me, which it certainly may.

For what its worth...I recently had some gyros in Rahway and one in Red Hook and they didnt come with lettuce. I was also up in Detroit(very large Greek community) recently,where I had several gyros all of which came with no lettuce.

John, we ate a LOT of Greek food in Astoria over four years, but we came back to Louisville in 1994 (and almost immediately started LouisvilleHotBytes). Maybe I've had so many Kentucky gyros since then that I forgot. Certainly your evidence is compelling.

I had the misfortune of trying the chickpea soup. It was nearly cold chickpeas in oil. No seasoning and no broth. I threw it straight in the garbage. I also got the eggplant dip out of the prepackaged case. It was almost five bucks for a little thing of it and that is without the pitas that you have to pay extra for. NO big deal at this point- I hadn't tried the soup yet. Eggplant stuff was a no go as well. Hubby liked the gyro. Didn't even give me a bite.

I had to walk next door and get a coney from coneyz and conez. It was delish.

I am really dissapointed with what I've been reading on this thread. I had hoped that the food would have been good and that Maria would do well. I only hope that things change soon and they get all the kinks out. I was looking forward to trying the food, but now I don't know.

And about the lettuce thing...Who Cares? I've had lettuce in my gyros before and I like it!