text: I am Cuban I am not Greek Nor do I think I know jack about authentic Greek food I just like certain dishes and I will go where I can get them the way I like them In this case the dishes in question are greek salad with chicken and souvlaki platters and to some extent hummusnnBefore living in New York I had not really had much by way of Greek food I tended to stick with my Cuban food runofthe mill American food and steak houses occasional Italian and whatever I made at home There were only a handful of mediterranean places near where I lived back in Miami and I just never got around to them before leaving BoonnThen I moved to New York Greek diners are on every corner it seems My nowhusband and I had a particular favorite Gracie Mews Diner where we would go at least once a week if not more and get a souvlaki platter without the pita That was basically broiled chicken or beef falafel greek salad garlic potatoes I do not know what it was about that dish but my god it was damn goodnnSometimes grapeleaves sometimes hummus and pita sometimes baba ganoushbut always that platter and the saladnnWhen we moved out here we thought for sure we would never find another souvlaki platter like the one at Gracie Mews Diner But we have tried Up until a few months ago when we finally went to Pitta Souvli we would settled for the one at Pita Jungle I have my thoughts on Pita Jungle on this site somewhere It was no Gracie Mews platter but it was good enough to keep us coming back Eventually though i just opted for the broiled chicken salad over there And that was fine because apparently Pita Jungle opted to remove the souvlaki platter from their menu at least in Chandler that isnnThen a client of mine mentioned Pitta Souvli and even told me a story I do not know how accurate it is about how the owners used to work at My Big Fat Greek but hated the direction the chain was going in moving away from the traditional way in which things are cooked in Greek cuisine so they went and opened their own restaurant striving for quality and authenticity judging by Sara Gs review they missed the boat Well that clients story about the owners was enough to get me interestednnPatrick my husband and I went to check it out as we still were without a gracie mews replacement for our souvlaki plattergreek salad thing It took us forever to find the place It is in the most unfortunate location in a shopping plaza on Germann and Alma School next to Cactus Bikes You have to try really hard to see it nnThe place is rather small and the owner seated us right in the middle of it Service throughout our visit was topnotch Very attentive staff our glasses were never empty and they did not ever leave us wondering when they would come back nnBut the food ah nnPatrick ordered the souvlaki platter and I ordered the greek salad with chicken We also ordered a hummus and pita appetizer Was it suitable as a standin for Gracie Mews Absolutely Pita Jungle who and i say this ONLY about these dishes as I really love the artmusic aspect of The junglennThe chicken was seasoned JUST the way I remember it from my Gracie Mews dish The salad dressing was identical The meat tender and moist The hummus was good but had that strange taste like the one at Big Fat Greek which i just cannot get behind I still like the hummus at Pita Jungle better But I looove that they serve the pita bread all cut up and warm and toasty nnWe even had some of their baklava for dessert That is the one thing that I can say was good but not good enough to be worth the whopping amount of calories in that dessert I would skip it next time Still it is like pizza even when it is bad it is good nnWe both agreed would definitely dine here again and in fact we have picked up takeout a few times since then I might even get a little adventurous and try something else from their menu for a change one of these days Despite the lukewarm or downright cold reviews from some other folks I did enjoy my food there and I appreciated the staffs service and attention something seriously lacking at MANY dining establishments in this area