Gastro Mania Deli NW — Restaurant in Portland

Service was ok, they were busy at lunch on a Tuesday afternoon. Another place where you serve your own water, silverware and napkins. There's nowhere to park unless you pay $3 an hour, or $5 for a day pass or get lucky. Tried the porchetta sandwich and the brisket sandwich. The brisket sandwich is pretty much a Philly, with slow cooked brisket. Sauteed shrooms and onions, horseradish mayo etc, but with tender slices of brisket, definitely could use an au jus or a lil kick. The porchetta sandwich was served on a fresh ciabatta with a pesto mustard aioli. Unfortunately, it was a greasy underseasoned mess of a sandwich that cut your mouth and was full of fat. The "aoili" was basically an herbed up olive oil with some mustard seed, the crust wouldn't let you get a bite without squeezing pork fat and oil all over your hands. My advice, bring wet naps. It seems like it could be a good place, especially if you live in any of the several apartments that surround it. But the parking, bland, incredibly oily sandwich that cut the roof of your mouth like Capt crunch makes me downgrade it. I'll try it...

Gotta say as a New Yorker living in Portland this deli was a pleasant surprise! It reminds me of some nice Delis back home. I have had the Brisket plate, the lamb, and the salmon. You can't go wrong with any of their choices! All the servings are very large and lots of meat too so this place is a great value.

Now the Halal food carts in Portland can be pretty good sure, but Gastro has a better balance of salad, rice, hummus, and meat in their plates that makes for a much more well rounded meal. The ingredients are more fresh than many restaurants and the To Go boxes are really sturdy, reusable plastic- the best kind for taking lunch to work!

Best of all it's a small local place run by good, hard working people. This is a place you can feel very good about giving your money too and always get your money's worth.

One note: pretty much everything comes with a nice serving of Feta cheese so if you don't like it like me tell them to remove it...

Apparently this used to be a food truck, and was voted in the 'Top 5' in 2015 (so says the sign in their window). This is then going to be their next step on the ladder, and they're keeping it good.

They had a rather awesome sounding tuna gyro, but I decided to stick with tradition and have the lamb (all 3 of us did) gyro plate. At $9 I thought that was good value. After eating for what felt like an age, I can confirm that there's a whole lotta meat on it, so +1.

The food is good quality too. The jalapeno aioli adds a nice hint of heat, the lamb was top notch (and very well cooked). The sauce wasn't overpowering (a little touch too much if I'm being picky) and the veggies were fresh (and no cucumbers, yeah!). Very pleased with it.

I'm holding back a mark as it isn't the biggest menu in the world - and they didn't have any ice for...