Pita king — Restaurant in Escondido

I wish. I certainly wish I could rate this place higher. However, based on my experience (your mileage may vary). I see no point in coming back here any time soon . This is simply one of those times where I say to myself “I should have cooked for myself or just gone to Wendy’s (which I’m no huge fan of but at least they are consistently basic)”

My first clue should have been the utter inability to compute that I hadn’t walked in to pick up an order and wanted to dine in. There were no other diners-in. To their credit, the staff is super friendly.

I ordered the souvlaki plate. A warm smile and a window seat (with view of the gas station) and I was anticipating what reviews here convinced me would be some really good and authentic Greek cuisine. Soon it arrived.

Silly me, I was hoping against hope but got what I really expected. There are no dishes or cutlery. The food came out in the styrofoam containers you would recieve in a to-go order. Plastic fork and cheap napkins as well.

I opened the containers and was greeted to a promising sight. Portions that were alright for the cost and vibrant colors.

I immediately went for a bite of a clove of roasted garlic (my favorite)!

Yuck!!! The clove had gone rancid. It smelled of chemical and tasted of the same. A kind of ammonia/urine flavor to it.

Maybe it was just the one?… Ptoo!!! Nope.

I plucked all of the garlic out of the dish. Okay how about the roasted onions? First one sweet as expected and a nice bite. The second one… a spoiled off-flavor. Different from the ammonia garlic but still spoiled.

Okay the bell pepper… again first one sweet as expected. The rest bleckh! Again off to the side.

I then tried the steak. It wasn’t distinctly seasoned. Some of the strips were tender and nice tho. Others like shoe leather. Sadly all had flavor of the garlic ammonia it had been under with slight bad onion.

Let’s kick that to the side and check out the rice.

Again. Not significantly seasoned, but cooked well. There was a lingering taste of what I can only describe as old char to the rice. Sadly, it too had picked up some of the awful garlic urine flavor. So no rice. I decided to focus on my salad.

At this point I was now attuned to the expectation that the vegetables were going to be bad. Fortunately my first few bites were good. However, one cucumber piece presented with again a been-too-long-in-the-cooler flavor.

I’m done.

The best thing about my meal, and the only thing I finished (90% of everything else remains in the styrofoam headed to the trash in a minute) was my unsweetened Pure Leaf tea.

Scores:

Price: $$$ Quantity: 4/5 Presentation: 3/5 Friendliness: 5/5 Cleanliness: 4/5 Ambiance: 2/5 Location: 2/5 Flavor: 1/5 Freshness: 2/5

Would I bring my wife on a date here? No Would I suggest my team from work to lunch here? No Would I order from here for delivery? No Would I give the staff the time of day if I saw them on the street? Absolutely

Would I come again? The staff is super friendly. I would try again in a month or so. I hate to write a restaurant off from a first experience (unless the staff is horrible). So Yes. I would.

But not very soon. I just really hope my meal...

This has been our favorite Greek food in all of San Diego for the last decade. Apparently it is Under New Management. They did a great job with the food, though it isn't quite what it used to be. The gyros, chicken, rice, and Greek salad are all wonderful. They used a different type of beef and it was very grisly. The new manager said they were going to switch over to angus, so the next time I go in I will give it another shot. Still five stars though.

The atmosphere is not really one that you go to for a romantic evening or five star experience. It's more of a place to sit and eat your to-go order. No air conditioning. No metal silverware. No plates. But the food is great the people are nice and the prices are good.

In fact, the prices are lower than they used to be, which is a nice change considering the economy and inflation have gone insane. We spent $33 after tax and tip on a meal that used to cost us $55 there.

I do highly recommend you try this restaurant. Get the gyro combo plate. If they have replaced the beef with angus, try the beef. Otherwise get the gyros, with chicken, and salad, and rice, and...

Pita King serves absolutely delicious and authentic Mediterranean food in a casual and pleasant atmosphere. The chef is well versed and experienced in the preparation of all of the wonderful Mediterranean dishes on the menu. Everyone in our party of 6 adults raved about their meal, including the recent traveler just returning from a trip to Greece, who exclaimed " This food is just like what I was served in Greece, in fact it is even BETTER!"

The meals served with a delicious array of meats,including beef, lamb and chicken. They also come with rice, salad, hummus, pitas, tzatziki and the rest of the Mediterranean traditional faire. But, additionally, Pita King throws in abundant servings of amazingly prepared grilled vegetables as well. (I especially loved the grilled vegetables!)

In addition to being delicious and healthy, the portion sizes are so generous that we all left with extra food to snack on later.

Everyone in our group highly recommends the Pita King and all said that they are looking forward to coming back again for another delicious and healthy...