After lining up for an hour at last year's Taste of Danforth, I have been wanting to go back to this restaurant for quite awhile. Luckily, JW finally had the time to bring me there (& courage since he does not like warps, shawarma,sandwiches etc.)! I was super super super excited when I saw these meats being slowly cooked right after entering the restaurant.
For appetizer, we ordered grilled calamari. The portion was actually almost two times bigger than what is shown in the picture. But we forgot to take a picture until we were half way through! The calamari was very juicy and tasty. Most importantly, it was not TOO chewy which I am always scared to find when eating calamari. Messini's calarmi was tendered with a little chewiness. However, I think it was a little too oily to the extent that it almost looked like its fried instead of grilled.
& of course I would order lamb gyros pita. Messini is famous for its gyros topped with its signature tzatziki sauce and french fries which is not very common in other gyros. I was very excited when I reunited with the gyro that I had been craving for for awhile and shocked at the same time because it was huge. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed. The lamb in the gyro had an interesting combination of lamb fat, some really tendered lamb and some that were rather hard. Although they were juicy and had a strong taste of lamb, I expected the meat to be extra tendered and not what I found this time. The portion was too huge that the french fries became too soggy and a burden half way through that I had to take them out. The tzatziki did an amazing job of adding a hint of freshness so the gyro was not crazy-heavy. This gyro was acceptable but nothing like I had at Taste of Danforth.
JW ordered the mixed gyro pita which came with pork and chicken as well as tzatziki and french fries. The pork was very very dry while the chicken was reasonably tendered. Overall, it tasted exactly like the lamb gyro pita except for the meat. The portion was very big that even JW found the gyro to be rather overwhelming.
conclusion:
not roasted.
I am sad to say I was rather disappointed. The gyro I had did not match up with what I expected. I will probably not come back again. I think its because the demand was so high at Taste of Danforth that the turnover of the meat was much faster so the meat was not overcooked and a lot more tendered. I highly recommend one to share the gyro with another person because the portion was very big as I mentioned a few times.
visit http://theroastedacorn.com/2013/01/21/messini-authentic-gyros/ for awesome pictures about the food i mentioned :)