Usually when I find a restaurant that’s a little off the beaten path and demonstrates no reverence for decoration, I get a little excited. The hole-in-the-wall places usually have amazing food (even if they aren’t up to code with OSHA).

One can find a plethora of gyros at the Greek Islands restaurant. Matt Beaty/ The Lumberjack

Greek Islands is one such place that fell under that paradigm. The menu was what I was expecting: appetizers of fried zucchini, mozzarella and calamari; a sandwich selection revolving around different variations of Gyros; and two vegetarian options: a falafel pita and a Greek vegetarian pita.

It took one of the two servers nearly 15 minutes to take my order, which was mildly perturbing because they walked by me about five times. But, when I got the chance to order, I went with the Gyro and Feta because this was supposed to be authentic Greek food. I was given a side option of either greek pasta or french fries. I wasn’t feeling too adventurous, and went with the fries accordingly.

The sandwich was brought to me in less than 10 minutes, and it was barely warm. The french fries were still pretty hot, but the sandwich looked like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for quite some time. 

The presentation itself wasn’t anything remarkable; it was a good-sized Gyro wrapped in parchment paper and a side of fries with a ramekin of ketchup. I bit into the Gyro and tasted dry meat with a disturbing amount of tzatziki. I really couldn’t put a finger on any sort of particular seasoning; maybe the tzatziki was overpowering everything, or maybe there was no flavor to begin with.

The french fries were crinkle-cut and more enjoyable than my Gyro. It was unfortunate, seeing as the fries were poured out of a bag, and my Gyro was made in-house.

My bill came to $7.80. I guess I was just expecting a little more from The Islands.

One saving grace for Greek Islands is their nocturnal weekend hours; Monday through Wednesday they are open until 10 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday they are open until 3 a.m. This could let them fill the niche for a Pita Pit south of the tracks.