Pat Clickener of Lincoln Park tells us how much she loved the lamb shish kebab sandwich at Nikkos Gyros at Diversey and Elston. That is, until new owners took over three years ago, remodeled, dropped one of the k’s (It’s now Nikos Gyros), as well as the lamb kebab sandwich from its menu. Clickener tells us: “I crave one of Nikko’s shish kebab sandwiches with the grilled pita bread, lamb chunks with tomato, onion and green pepper all hot from the grill and wonderful tzatziki sauce. Can you help me in any way in my search for a lamb shish kebab sandwich?”
At Play answers: Indeed, lamb is popular in Greek dishes, though you’re more likely to find shish kebab made of pork or chicken. So it sounds as if the lamb shish kebab sandwich at Nikko’s was something special.
We contacted dozens of gyros joints and didn’t find any that served a lamb kebab sandwich. However, if you expand your palate to include other Mediterranean cuisines, we found a few places that might tide you over.
Pita Inn features a lamb kebab sandwich served in a pita pocket ($3.95). There’s one in Skokie (3910 Dempster St., 847-677-0211), with others in Glenview (9854 N. Milwaukee Ave., 847-759-9990) and Wheeling (122 S. Elmhurst Rd., 847-808-7733).
Noon O’ Kebab (4661 N. Kedzie Ave., 773-279-8899) on the Northwest Side has a stand-alone lamb kebab ($5.75), that can also be made as a sandwich, the owners tell us.
If you insist on Greek and don’t mind paying a sit-down restaurant price, Greektown is the obvious place to go. Athena (212 S. Halsted St., 312-655-0000) has two lamb shish kebabs served over rice ($15.95). The Parthenon (314 S. Halsted St., 312-726-2407) has an extensive lamb menu, with the rotisserie-roasted lamb with rice pilaf and roast potatoes ($11.75) as the closest thing to the sandwich of your memories.
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