Bottom Line: The Beef Gyro from The Halal Guys is the perfect rendition of that Middle Eastern/Mediterranean street food and the hot sauce delivers quite a burn.
Continuing to recount my trek to New York City in search of spicy foods, my next stop was yet another food cart. This time I visited The Halal Guys, though largely because their proprietary hot sauce was recommended to me. I checked out one of the carts near my hotel and that beef gyro was calling my name, so I ordered that and made sure they gave me a packet of their hot sauce.
Their beef gyro includes a generous helping of well-seasoned meat cooked on a rotisserie and then shaved off and wrapped in warmed pita bread. It is topped with shredded lettuce along with their white sauce and hot sauce.
The beef is super-tender and perfectly seasoned, just as you would expect it to be. It is rich and meaty with the right amount of saltiness and maybe just a hint of smoke in the background. The pita is pillowy and soft and not too chewy. It actually starts to fall apart before you finish the wrap (they call it a sandwich), so be prepared to get messy and be glad they give you a fork! The shredded lettuce is fresh enough and adds some texture. The white sauce (which is similar to a tzatziki sauce though with a mayonnaise base instead of yogurt) adds a good creaminess and a slight tang throughout.
I didn’t realize that the red sauce was already included with the gyro, so I asked for an extra packet and I double-sauced mine. The sauce has the consistency of ketchup, though not the sweetness, with hints of curry and Middle Eastern seasonings along with the taste of red pepper. At first bite, it is not too hot, but by the time I got halfway through the gyro my mouth was burning (according to their website, it registers between 100,000 and 130,000 on the Scoville scale). I will make it a point to try the hot sauce on its own at a future time, but the wrap as a whole was definitely beyond the hot heat level (amped up by the fact that I added that extra packet). Fortunately, they charge only a buck for a bottle of water (dirt cheap for NYC!), so I had that close by to cool my mouth.
It was eight bucks for the gyro, but it is a big wrap and worth the price. They actually provide the nutrition value for their products on their website, and this one comes in at 939 calories! (And with 2700mg of sodium, it is certainly not health food.) That is a hefty amount of food and should hold you over for a while, even if you are doing a lot of walking in the big city.
The term Halal is associated with Islamic dietary laws and it refers to the humane killing of the animals used in the food. The Halal Guys is a nationwide chain that specializes in Middle Eastern street food like gyros, chicken, falafel, and more. They have restaurants and food carts throughout the country (you can see their locations here), though sadly none here in San Antonio yet. But if you do have one in your area, I highly recommend both the gyro and the hot sauce if you are looking for something that will deliver the heat!
Tale of the Tape:
Calories: 939
Fat: 36g (16g Sat/1g Trans)
Protein: 31g
Carbs: 113g
Sodium: 2700mg