BEST GYROS IN OMAHA
My Personal Mount Rushmore
Gyros are a fascinating dish. It’s incredible how most have the same components—generally beef/lamb meat, tzatziki, onions, and tomatoes inside a pita—yet they can taste so vastly different based on preparation. As just a fan of gyros in general, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the options in Omaha, but there are some that, to this palate, do the Greek dish better than others.
These are, in my opinion, the best four gyros in Omaha (with honorable mentions).
Gyro (Jim & Jennie's Greek Village
With nearly 40 years of delighting the Omaha community, Jim & Jennie’s knows how to make a great gyro. It starts with the meat, a combination of lamb and beef, that’s sliced thick of a rotating spit. It’s tender and has a distinct roasted flavor that plays with the hints of thyme, rosemary, and oregano.
A small mountain (I’d guess 3/4 of a pound) of meat is loaded into a soft, chewy pita that’s oiled and grilled to add a crisp texture. The tzatziki is tangy and dill-forward, a fresh component to balance the meaty mass. It’s a big enough meal to put you into a coma, but it’s so delicious you’ll keep eating long after your stomach tells you you’re full.
Gyro (Zaytuna)
Like most Mediterranean restaurants, Zaytuna cooks a cone of beef/lamb on a rotating spit. But this restaurant goes one step further, finishing the meat on the flattop to give it a crispy texture and just a bit of charred bitterness. I’ve never had a gyro quite like it.
There’s so much meat on this gyro that you have to eat a good amount of it to have any hope of picking it up and consuming it as a sandwich. The cooling tzatziki helps offset the saltiness of the meat, and a touch of sumac adds a tart, lemony flavor. The grilled soft pita is the finishing touch that pulls it all together.
Gyro Wrap (Omaha Kebabs)
Omaha Kebabs is known for its delicious meat skewers, but if it operated solely as a gyro shop, it could be a successful business. A warm, grilled pita is stuffed with thin slices of beef/lamb meat that is not only tender enough to cut with a plastic spork, but also very well-seasoned, with plenty of garlic and salt. Marinated onions add a bit of a twist on the traditional gyro, injecting acidity and bite.
But the kicker is Omaha Kebabs’ cucumber dip, a creamy condiment that’s very similar to tzatziki. But this version is less dill forward, allowing the garlic and the tang of the greek yogurt to elevate this delicious sandwich.
Chicken Gyro (Gyro Kings)
Looking for a gyro that’s completely different from the rest? Gyro Kings is more reminiscent of a New York-style street gyro than the traditional Greek version, making it a flavor bomb with its own unique expression.
First, the tzatziki is replaced with a thinner, tangy, garlicky sauce that is delicious enough to lick off a shoe. Second, while Gyro Kings offers a beef gyro, its star is the ridiculously juicy chicken, amped up with Egyptian spices. The thick, doughy pita is the perfect delivery device, soaking up any remaining sauce and chicken juice.
Honorable Mention Omaha Gyros
Gyro Sandwich
A native of Greece, owner John Sakkas has been slinging gyros in Omaha for more than four decades, so it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about the famous sandwich. Like Zaytuna, John’s Grecian Delight takes the sliced meat and finishes it on the grill. This last-second addition of heat adds char and smokiness to the dish while drawing out the spices in the tender meat.
The pita is buttered and grilled to give it an underlying smokiness, and the tzatziki is creamy and sour. The gyro at John’s isn’t quite as large as some of the others you’ll find in Omaha, but whatever it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in flavor.
Gyro
The tzatziki is what makes this gyro stick out. It’s thicker and more yogurt-y than most, and it has a distinct tang. There’s a lot of it on this sandwich, and it’s a wonderful complement to the thinly-sliced beef/lamb. This tender meat has notes of rosemary, garlic, and thyme, and fresh onions and tomato add bite and freshness, respectively.
This grilled pita has a good amount of char, giving it a pleasant bitterness to go along with its crispy texture.
Gyro
No Omaha gyro struggles with portion control like Feta’s. To be clear, the pita at Feta’s is quite large, encompassing nearly the entire plate. But Feta’s loads so much meat atop it, you can barely see the base when it arrives at the table.
The meat is flavored with garlic and pepper, and the tzatziki is cooling and creamy. With fresh onion and tomatoes, it’s a fantastic gyro. Just don’t plan on getting much done for the rest of the day—this beast is a food coma waiting to happen.
Doner Kabob
This offering differs from the traditional gyro in several ways. The meat, while still sliced lamb, is flavored with Turkish spices. It’s caramelized and served in a grilled telara pocket alongside tabouleh, pickled cabbage, and chickpea salad. You can also choose your sauce, from the creamy, tzatziki-like Garlic Sauce to the mild Spicy Green and the more assertive Spicy Red.
Your traditional gyro this is not, but its various flavors come together in a way that make it impossible to leave off this list.
Gyro Sandwich
The tzatziki is the star of the show on this sandwich. The dill-forward sauce injects a tang and a bright herbaceous into every bite.
The meat, while plentiful and moist, doesn’t add a lot of flavor. And though the pita is hearty and holds up to the large helping placed inside it, is pretty mild. This gyro relies on the tzatziki to do the heavy lifting, and fortunately, this sauce is more than up to the task.