Cindy found a little place on 53rd Ave. on the north side of Davenport that she likes to go to for lunch from time to time - Olympic Gyros. Sometimes, I'll meet her over there for a quick bite and just to get out of the office for a bit when I'm not on the road. Although it's probably not as good as a couple of other gyro places around the Quad Cities, we think it's a pretty good value.
Olympic Gyros opened in late 2010 and is owned by Andy and Pete Hasakis. The Hasakis family also owns the Family Restaurant near North Park Mall. In addition to gyros, the menu at Olympic Gyros includes burgers, Italian beef sandwiches, breaded pork tenderloins, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs and chili dogs. They also have fresh cut French fries in addition to onion rings and mozzarella sticks. Oh, and by the way, you can also get grilled chicken gyros, if you like.
We've gone to Olympic Gyros about a half dozen times together - Cindy goes there on a regular basis just to get out of her office a few blocks to the north of the restaurant. We usually meet up sometime around 1:30 pulling into the parking lot off 53rd Ave. near Menard's. (see map) Well, that is until Menard's moves to their new location in far northern Davenport.
The interior of Olympic Gyros is pretty simple. There are a number of booths and tables in the small, well-lit place. A television that is perpetually tuned to CNN is on in one corner. Pictures of Grecian landmarks are on the walls with multi-colored Olympic rings as the center piece on the long wall of the restaurant.
The menu board is above the counter and our orders are usually pretty simple - a gyro and water. Although, I have to admit - the flat-grilled burgers smell pretty good. You place your order at the counter, pay, and then find a seat.
There always seems to be a group of mailmen that are in there when we're there. In fact, we see a number of the same guys in the place when we go in. We're far from regulars in the place, but we seem to see a lot of mailmen in there about the same time we're in. In fact, the staff seems to be on a first name, "flip-'em-shit" basis with the mailmen.
It usually takes less than 10 minutes for them to bring out the gyros to us. And there's a lot of gyro meat on the pita bread each time we've gone there. Chopped onions and bits of tomatoes accompany the gyro meat. About the only thing that they need is more tzatiki sauce on the gyros. But for an additional .69 cents you can get a tub of the sauce. We usually do that.
The meat is a little salty, but it isn't bad. For a gyro, it's pretty damned good. And for $5.95, it's damned good deal.
There's not much to Olympic Gyros - gyros, burgers, a few sandwiches and salads. And that's all right. They've got a nice little niche, a nice little following and a nice little place. It's clean, the food is good and it's one of our favorite little places.
Love gyros! I'll have to try this place. We're going to try the place over in Rock Island that had Mediterranean food, too. Maybe tonight!
Posted by: Steph's Mom | September 20, 2013 at 07:11 AM