After posting about the mediocre gyro at Gyro II, I complained that I couldn’t find a decent Greek version of the gyro sandwich in Midtown (my nit picky distinction between a “Greek” gyro, and what you get at street meat carts is in the original post). As always, the commenting faithful had some good suggestions, and while most of them were out of bounds (that’s where all the good stuff is), there were a few places I vowed to check out. Seeing as how I am already a big fan of the Famous Chicken Place on 3rd Ave. btw. 38+39th, I figured I’d start there.

Now that’s what I like to see!  Notice the clearly visable line where they cut the meat off the spit?  That means they left it on long enough for it to get crispy and brown on the outside.  You’ll almost never see that at a street meat cart!  No need for extra sauteeing (what a crime), just throw the sliced meat into a warm piece of pita, top it with lettuce, tomato, onion and tzatziki sauce, (what they refer to as “everything”) and you’re golden.

Perfection.  Sure it could have been larger for $5.95, but considering this is the first good gyro I’ve had since starting Midtown Lunch, please don’t mistake that for complaining.  The only tough part?  Not ordering a plate of their amazing smelling grilled chicken… if only there was some sort of chicken & gyro platter/combo.  Now that would be truly perfect.

Famous Chicken Place, 592 3rd Ave. (btw. 38th & 39th), 212-687-1800

But alas, there is no Pollo Tropical, or Zankou Chicken in Midtown- so we’ve got to live with what we’ve got… and it seems as if “The Famous” Chicken Place is where it’s at. A small hole in the wall on 3rd Ave. (btw. 38th & 39th), they serve up char-grilled chicken & sides, at amazingly cheap prices.

Pics of the chicken, what I got and the +/- after the jump…

I’m not sure what “The Famous” Chicken place is famous for (even the menu has seemingly ironic quotes around the famous part), but the chicken is pretty tasty. They butterfly the chicken and grill it on both sides, leaving perfectly crispy browned skin. A 1/4 chicken with potato salad or cole slaw is only $4.25 ($4.75 if you want white meat), and a 1/2 chicken with potato salad or cole slaw comes in at an awesome $5.35. You can sub fries for the slaw or potato salad, and it also comes with a piece of pita bread.

I went for the quarter chicken, with slaw (I didn’t know you could sub the fries at the time) and it was pretty damn good. The chicken needed a little bit of salt, but that was easily corrected. In the end, it’s a great deal for the money- and if you are the type of person who can eat a half a chicken on your own for lunch, I can’t imagine you are going to find a cheaper deal than this. They also serve chicken souvlaki & chicken gyros (recommended to me by a reader), regular gyros, burgers, Baby Back Ribs, buffalo wings and salads. They also just remodeled the counter, making it a little nicer than before. If you are looking for char-grilled chicken, at cheap prices this is definitely your place. It’s no Pollo Tropical, but it’ll do…

THE +

• Char-Grilled Chicken at super cheap prices
• You can sub fries for cole slaw or potato salad (even though it doesn’t say it on the menu)
• Comes with pita bread too
• If you don’t like chicken on the bone, they do have Chicken Souvlaki & Chicken Gyro platters and sandwiches  

THE -

• The chicken was a little under-seasoned (but that’s easily fixed)
• It’s a little greasy

“The Famous” Chicken Place, 592 3rd Ave. (btw. 38th & 39th), 212-687-1800