Friday, October 20, 2006

The Pita Pit

The Pita Pit is delicious. No, not "Deelishis" as in the girl that Flavor Flav chose to spend his life with on his reality show the other night..."delicious" as in yummy for my tummy. Yeah, I know...lame reality show reference.

Anyways, I went to the Pita Pit tonight and I really enjoyed it. I'm still a little confused why they chose to go into such an old building with such a small parking lot, but the fact that the restaurant sits on busy Washington Street does give the place good visibility and seems to be really bringing in customers. The place was packed and, at times, the line stretched to the door. They've gutted the interior of the building and it looks very similar to their restaurant in Fargo. Nothing fancy, but certainly a step up from the old Giovanni's Pizza.

I've heard some people say that the employees have seemed to be a bit confused and bewildered, but I think they've ironed out the kinks now. All of the employees I encountered were friendly and quite competent. The food was the big selling point for me, though. I had a chicken souvlaki pita...tasty and filling. I do think that prices are way too high at the Pita Pit. Call it "fast casual" if you want, but most people would come to this place expecting to pay fast food prices. $15-$16 dollars for two meals is too much.

On the minus side, the napkins were a little too thin and I couldn't help but think that the ambience might be a bit improved if each table had a little vase with flowers. Oh, sorry...I was channeling Marilyn there for a second. No offense, Marilyn...we love you!

Check out CoffeeGuy's review of the Pit.

Update - 11/1/2006 - 3:20 PM
Marilyn has reviewed the Pita Pit.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

GFG, your review is a regurgitation of CoffeeGuy's. Sure, you added a link to his post; but for someone obsessed with WDAZ "stealing" his stories, I'd have expected more from you. You reviewed the same menu item, made the same complaint about the price, and even reviewed the same napkins.

Anonymous said...

hey anonymous...maybe they had similar experiences? that can happen, you know. Anyways...thanks for the good info about the Pita Pit. I will have to stop in sometime soon myself.

GrandForksGuy said...

Yeah, I know my review was probably too similar to CoffeeGuy's review, but I didn't really mean it to be. Oh well, sorry CoffeeGuy. Still, I did link to the other review so I wasn't trying to hide anything...

Coffee Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I think the prices are reasonable (about 6 or 7 bucks per person) but the quality of food is terrible. Very typical BLAND midwesternization of good food. I had the gyro, and not only did I have to instruct the employee on what goes on it (she said, oh, you can get whatever you want on it.... THEN ITS NOT A GYRO, DUMMY.) but there was absolutely no hint of any flavor in it!!

Won't go there again.

Coffee Guy said...

Considering the fact that there are dozens of items put on gyros (not just all over the Aegean—which often include french fries, tomato sauce, and mustard—but all over the world, I'd say your argument is not valid.

I like the Turkish döner kebab, which is the same thing. They serve it with a paprika-tinged hot sauce or a melted butter with garlic sauce. Good stuff.

Coffee Guy said...

Besides, what did you expect ordering a gyros from The Pita Pita chain restaurant in Grand Forks, ND? I'd say you got what was to be expected. Like it or, as you say, leave it. I still say it's a welcome addition to our restaurant scene.

Anonymous said...

Coffee-That's the beauty of the gyros, 99.999999% of the gyro product out there is a pre-processed meat product that comes from a commercial supplier. So, any restaurant should be able to bang out a good gyros...even in little old Grand Forks. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being a snob against the stuff, I'd like to mount one of those gyro-roto-brolier units in my house and mac on it all day.

Coffee Guy said...

You're right about the ease of preparation. If you ever get the time to make your own, PLEASE let me know. I'd love to come over (with some coffee, of course).

Here's a nifty DIY set-up and recipe:
http://cruftbox.com/blog/archives/001184.html

Anonymous said...

Alton Brown did a show on home-made gyros. Looked sooo good. Truth is...if a restaurant served house-made gyros, it may through the consumer and not be what they expected.

Unknown said...

Pretty much all food places in Grand Forks blows. The employees are typical ND dumbfucks who don't know their head from their asshole and wonder why they don't get paid more than they do. Can't wait to leave this god damn hell hole of a state.