There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek.

Location:

The Gyro Shoppe

2061 Henderson Rd

Columbus, OH 43220

(614) 442-1200‎

Located on Henderson Road in Upper Arlington, just down the street from Neighbor’s Deli, is a sweet little gem of a place located in an old Taco Bell.  The Gyro Shoppe has been on this corner for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been getting their amazing gyros and fries for at least ten years.  Finally, I decided to give them a shout-out on the blog.

 

To be generic, everything they serve is delicious… I’ve had the gyros, the Greek salads, the baklava, stuffed grape leaves (see photo above), you name it.  But my favorite meal is a super gyro and fries (and pop).  The gyro meat (lamb, traditionally) is tender and peppery, and cooked on a vertical spit to ensure maximum deliciousness.  A nice amount of meat is stuffed into a pita and topped with onion, lettuce, tomato and tzatziki sauce.  Oh, the tzatziki sauce – a yogurt based cream sauce involving cucumber, dill, garlic, and lemon juice (among other ingredients) – is to die for.  I’m not sure what they do to make it so tasty but the creamy zing of the tzatziki cuts through the density of the lamb-pita combo perfectly.

The fries, which I believe are fried in peanut oil, are breathtaking.  They come in a little wax bag, always overflowing and leaving those renegade fries at the bottom of your brown paper bag.  I love those renegade fries.  But I digress… the Gyro Shoppe’s fries are thick cut, but not steak fries, giving them a super-crispy outside and perfectly potatoey inside.  They offer “Greek seasoning” to shake on them, but I don’t think it’s necessary, and besides I’m pretty sure the “Greek seasoning” is really just Lawry’s seasoning salt.

All in all, a spectacular place for Greek food.  The service is fast, the prices are cheap, and now you can even find another Gyro Shoppe in Dublin on Woerner Temple Road!  The only downside to the Gyro Shoppe is that they close kinda early, so if you get a late-night craving for lamb, you’re s.o.l… at least if you want good lamb!  I used to be a big Yanni’s fan, and then I moved on to loving Gyro Express.  Now that I’m a grown-up, I love the Gyro Shoppe and that is where my devotion will remain!

Overall Scores: (1-5, 1 being lowest, 5 highest)           

Cleanliness: 4

Value: 5

Accessibility: 4

Friendliness: 5

Menu: 5