Nick's Gyros #1
8764 Mentor Ave.
Mentor, Ohio 44060
440-974-5138

I like gyros. I like gyros a lot. However, most gyros really suck. Seriously, when is the last time you had a good gyro and you weren't at a fair or street festival? And I'm talking about the kind where you have to eat all crunked up like I can only imagine Stephen Hawking spent many a dinner, with grease and sauce dripping all down your face, quickly covering your forearms and all hunched over as to avoid as much food as possible from landing on your shirt. The answer is simply never.

I think the reason for that is no restaurant is willing to invest in the giant meat spit off which they carve that delicious gyro meat. It's probably expensive and you'd have to sell a lot of gyros to make it worth while, so instead you get crappy frozen gyro meat that was made in some third-world country by a young boy working to feed his family and keep his sisters from being sold into prostitution. (That line right there might officially make this the worst restaurant review, ever!)

Well, I've found a place that cares enough about the gyro eating public of the United States to have one of those meat spits, Nick's #1 Gyros. While the building is pretty low key the food certainly isn't. Nicks makes by far, by far, the best gyros I have ever had. Nothing else even compares.

The Nick's name may seem familiar if you are from Northeastern Ohio. They have another location on Vine Street in Eastlake and they have a few travel trailers they take out to local fairs and festivals. If you remember having one of their gyros at a local event, they are of the same caliber in the restaurant.

What really sets the Nick's gyro appart from every other gyro you have ever tried is the meat. It is so juicy and flavorful, its actually hard to compare with anything else. You can watch the guys shave the meat right off before they stack it onto your pita. For what you get, the prices are excellent. Its only $5.19 for a regular gyro and $6.19 for a "Jumbo" gyro with double the meat. I, of course, opted for the "Jumbo" which was definately a meal in it self.

I think gyro meat is like the Greek bacon.

Its time for gyro lovers to unite and tell those chain restaurants to go to hell with their frozen gyro meat and dry pitas. We'll show our love to Nick's #1 Gyro in Mentor, where they really care about us. Where they spit roast the meat and carve it directly into your sandwich, that's true love.