NY Food Truck Lunch: Souvlaki & Greek Fries From Souvlaki GR
Perry, the voice behind New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City food trucks.
Way back in the summer of 2010, I saw a tweet from a Souvlaki Truck about how they just passed their inspection.
I sent them a congratulatory note, checked out the food during their "soft opening," and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship: They turned out to be one of my favorite food trucks, and I'm not the only one who feels that way.
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I could tell that Souvlaki GR was going to be something special, and this was borne out by them winning the 2010 Vendy Award for Rookie of the Year, and following it up with the People's Choice Award at the 2011 Vendys. But enough background - let's get to the grub!
I went to the truck with a friend, so with two of us, we were able to get a lot of variety. How does a pork souvlaki ($4), a beefteki ($4.50), a chicken stick ($1.75) and Greek fries ($4.50) sound?
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The chicken and pork pitas are skewers of meat grilled over charcoal (yum!) with red onion, tomato, a real yogurt tzaziki sauce on a warm pita - and they put a few fries in each sandwich! The meat was lightly spiced and had the distinct flavor of being charcoal-grilled. The red onion added some bite, and the tzaziki sauce was wonderful. It was thick and creamy, with a bit of a garlicky edge.
Beefteki is a long, oval ground beef patty with Mediterranean spices. It was also served on a pita with the same toppings as the chicken and pork pitas, but they included feta cheese in the sandwich, which played nicely off the heavier spices of the beef. The beefteki was a little more, but worth it. It was soft and very tasty.
The chicken stick was well grilled, with a nice char on one end, but it wasn't dried out. It came with a cup of tzaziki sauce and a pita triangle, which were great in the tzaziki sauce. The tzaziki , which went great with the grilled chicken.
The Greek fries were a large portion of fries with crumbled feta cheese, thyme and oregano. This was easily large enough to share with a friend or co-worker.
It's easy to see how Souvlaki GR won their awards. Their ingredients are top notch, from the soft, pillowy pita bread to the grilled meat to the tzaziki sauce.
The Souvlaki GR truck doesn't travel around the city. They park downtown weekdays on Old Slip by Water Street, and they opened a beautiful, small restaurant on the Lower East Side last spring which serves beer & wine too.
If you can't get downtown to the truck or the store, they usually attend weekend events during the warmer weather such as the Prospect Park Food Truck Rally and the Food Truck Bazaar at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market. Keep an eye out for them - it's worth it.
