Eating in Madison A to Z: Dimitri's Gyros

In a word: Vaguely Hellenic. (Hand)baskets come with fries.

The specs: #0128
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews by Linda Falkenstein, at Yelp;

JM ate the gyro dinner with a Mello Yello.
John ate the fish dinner with a diet Coke.
Nichole ate the gyro classic with a Sprite (they were out of regular Coke).
Rose ate the steak gyro with a diet Coke.
John and Nichole split some spicy chicken wings, and John also tried the baklava.
The bill was pretty cheap. (Thanks, Dad!)
Nichole gave Dimitri's Gyros a B; JM gave Dimitri's Gyros a B-; John gave Dimitri's Gyros a C+; Rose gave Dimitri's Gyros a C- (see our grading rubric).

Outside Dimitri's Gyros

We all agreed the french fries were really good and the staff were exceedingly nice, but after that our tastes diverged. Where Nichole saw a comfortably shabby place to get hot, guilt-inducingly good eats, most of the others didn't. The dim restrooms and wobbly toilets may have had something to do with that, though.

The tzatziki could be described as juicy, runny, or overwhelming, depending how messy you're willing to get. Yet, the very spicy wings lacked any kind of heat-cutting sauce of their own. The traditional gyros were unremarkable, and Rose found herself contending with some gristly bits in her steak version. John described the baklava as just OK.

But JM and John shared one big beef with Dimitri's: why, oh why in 2005 do we need to pay for fountain soda refills? Fountain sodas are never a good value in the first place and then you're charged $.50 for a refill. Aargh. Given the spiciness of the wings and the cucumber-magnitude of tzatziki, it seems downright unfair to make someone pony up for refills.

We hope the East Wash road work doesn't cut into their business too badly, because there's a lot of potential and some really nice people here.