Ali Baba's King of Gyros — Restaurant in West St. Paul

Just a quick note for anyone taking the time to read this, three stars to me is not bad. That is average. It just means it is nothing I would strongly recommend, nor strongly discourage.

I am from chicago, passing through. When I seen that I could try out a gyro, how could I pass up the chance.

I have had gyros this bad in Chicago. When you speak about gyros in Chicago, this bad, being average, would get hit even worse. If this place was located in or around chicago, I would have given it only one star.

First thing, a Arby's gyro has lettuce. Thank goodness I asked first. Up until Arby's released their gyros, I had never heard of lettuce being served on a gyro. If that is a local custom, enjoy. Not for me. Lettuce has very little flavor, and it tends to rob from the other flavors in this case.

Maybe I got the short straw, but they do not peel their onions far enough down. So I had quite a bit of the outer shell of the onion. The shell that is very hard to chew and not crunchy at all.

Food seems fairly expensive in this area. So maybe that is why the price, but in chicago, this is more like a five and a half to $7 gyro. When you get into the price of 8 and $9 gyros, there is normally enough meat on the single sandwich to make two sandwiches.

The tiki sauce, itself, is pretty flavorless. This is supposed to be a cucumber sauce, prepared with cucumber and yogurt. A Greek yogurt, not the standard yogurt that many people eat. I do not believe there is any cucumber in the sauce at all. If there is, it is hard for me to appreciate the flavor combination that they make here.

But the absolute worst. The thing that made it hard for me to give a three-star rating, is that the pita bread is supposed to be not only slightly heated, but with a slight toasting on the outer shell, giving a small amount of crunch when you fold and eat the sandwich. I really do not believe that my pita bread even touched the grill. So the result is a very chewy pita bread with the sandwich. This is a texture that, growing up in chicago, I also cannot appreciate. Although, again, you will find this in the Chicagoland area. Those are the ones that usually go out of business, because people eat their once and don't tend to return.

I might have even given them four stars, but I am also a truck driver. I am currently trapped for 34 hours in my truck. This makes it a challenge for finding and using bathrooms. So, I usually use the bathroom where I eat since I normally have to use the bathroom shortly after or during eating. I do not know what the current statutes are in this area or state, but where I am from if you have seating for more than 10 people, you must have a public bathroom. The bathroom here is clearly marked for employees only. This only means that they are too lazy to clean and sanitize the bathroom.

I also could not appreciate the personality. Come to a Greek restaurant in Chicago or in the surrounding area, they treat you like family. Here, it was a much colder experience. More like, pay for food, take your food and go. As stated, they did not even heat, let alone, slightly toast the pita bread.

If you are from the local area, and this is what you are accustomed to, I hope you enjoy it immensely. If you are from the Chicagoland area, I would just wait until you get back home. Honestly. With what I received, I would compare it to a Taco Bell gyro... It is good if you really need a fix, but don't plan on it satisfying your crave. My experience here is the exact same after I eat a Taco Bell gyro... I should have just...

I was visiting the Twin City for business, on my last day on my way to airport I stopped at this place to quickly grab a bite before I catch my flight, late and pressed for time I walked inside the place was empty seemed strange this place is terribly disgusting, the only women who was working there was very repulsive, she was on her filthy cell phone speaking a different language (Not English) as I stood there looking at the menu, she didn’t bother to acknowledge my presence or stop her telephone conversation to ask me about my order, I picked number 18 just wanted to get it over with (Gyro with hummus and salad she took my order as she was on the telephone still and charged my credit card then started to prepare my meal with the one hand (no gloves) I stood there watching her making a point with my face and body language that I was disgusted you can tell she was getting annoyed the I was staring at her she was gesturing me to have a seat which I ignored. Then my meal was ready, the pita was cold (by the way, she was on the phone still) I ask her if she can heat it up she refused saying that it was warm enough and I should touch it first, didn’t bother, sat down to eat my meal, the meat was awfully dry and disgustingly cold never mind the hummus tasted sour and old, left the meal on the table and I walked out appetite lost as I felt to barf drove to the airport just in time for my flight don’t go there this...

Decided to give this place a chance because I love supporting mom and pop shops. Sign on the front said 1292 for gyro, fries and a can soda. On the online menu it said around the same price but you can switch out the fries. In any case it was quite a bit more expensive than I thought it was so prices are a bit deceiving. We ordered a: 2 beef gyros that came with fries. Chicken gyro. They charge around 92 cents for extra sauce which I think is kind of absurd. It's cash only!! So be sure to bring cash or else you can't eat here. Food: The Euros were good enough, the meat however was really dry. The tomatoes and lettuce seemed fresh. Nothing special about the pita looks like they just took it out of a wrapper. I suggest getting extra sauce because the meat is really dry. The chicken gyro what's good. Meat seemed fresh. The styrofoam container of fries we got was utterly disgusting. So $12.92 plus tax so above $13 gets you one mediocre gyro disgusting fries in a can of pop. To me that's not really a value meal. From the business standpoint I can see why they give out so much fries, because they're cheap. Again the fries were utterly disgusting. Soggy, and overly hot. There's a lot of other better places to get gyros in the city. For the money, I would probably save your money and go somewhere else. Hope this place can revamp their pricing, and try to make their meat a little bit more...