Every time I go to New York City, I average more than one halal meal a day, but always just from random carts in Manhattan and Brooklyn - I'd never made it to The Halal Guys' NYC outposts. So naturally I've been pretty excited about them opening up here in Vegas.
It just didn't live up to the hype. Almost every gyros I've had on the street in New York was better than this one.
The best part was the red sauce. I was warned that it was spicy. I generally thumb my nose at what other people consider spicy, so I dumped red sauce all over my sandwich. It was that kind of spicy that hits you like a punch to the stomach.
The pita was fluffy but stiff.
The meat, which was chopped as finely as taco meat, was bland. And there wasn't nearly enough of it. My sandwich was pretty much all tomatoes.
But the unforgivable sin? The white sauce. The legendary Halal Guys white sauce is freaking mayonnaise. I thought it was going to be some variation on tzatziki but it's spiced mayonnaise.
I always saw The Halal Guys' using the slogan "we are different." Putting mayo on a gyros is different, all right.
I wish I liked this more.