Famous Chicken Place Has a Damn Good Gyro Sandwich

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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.

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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.

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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

23 Comments

  • There are actually two Sarahs who post on this site. I won’t let vegetarian Sarah take the fall for me, though I could. I’m the one who goes to Hallo Berlin Express on a regular basis!

  • This place has AMAZING chicken…I use to live near here, and get their WHOLE grilled chicken for $8.99 (plus pita), I think (after workouts…hey, I was hungry!!).

    Their Gyros are amazing, also.

    they are not open late, Ruby! :-(

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    Walked down to Chicken Place for lunch. The whole chickens looked great. I ordered a Gyro Platter that came to $9.99 including tax. I was not impressed. The Gyro machine was not even turned on — It was sitting in the window loaded with room-temperature meat. I took a seat where I could see into the cooking area and watched the chef throw a handful of meat on the grill. The pita and veggies were good but the meat was dry and even crunchy in some places. Bummer!

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