It has been awhile since I have had true shoarma sandwich, last time was in Amsterdam. yet I've found it at the restaurant called Pita Town, located at 9001 N. Milwaukee Ave (just north of Dempster), Phone: 847.965.7202.

Shoarma at Pita Town consists of stacks of boneless cuts of Lamb and Beef on a vertical spit that rotates by a wall of flames, just like the gyros spit one sees rotating at a gyros restaurant, HOWEVER, the IMPORTANT difference is that true Shoarma is made of real meat, not the processed meat that makes up a gyro.

The cook slices pieces of lamb/beef off of the rotating spit then places them in a warm, soft pita that also has lettuce, tomato, onion and chopped parsley in it.

The sandwich is served with two kinds of sauce to put on, one is a very spicy/hot red sauce and the other is a yogurt sauce mixed with tahini (tahini is made from sesame seeds, think a kind of peanut butter made w/sesame seeds not peanuts). The white tahini is just great on the shoarma.

The falafel sandwich is very good as well; I like the way the falafel is spread on the inside of the pita and not left in whole pieces.

The baba gannough(sp?) has a good smoky flavor to it, but is a weak spot here, I've had much better elsewhere.

I highly recommend the shoarma sandwich at Pita Town.

Mmm Pita town! I haven't been there in years, but the hummus plate was always a favorite.

HigherFlyer, I don't know if I've posted this before, but I find your name very funny.

It reminds me of a line a comic used, "you know it would suck to be the band Ezra, when someone else names their band Better than Ezra"

There's HighFlyah, then there's HigherFlyer http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/smile.gif

SweetWillie - The sandwich, especially when prepared with the "chili sauce" sounds almost exactly like what the Brits would call a "doner kebab".
Am I right that I could actually get one here in Chicagoland without having to take a MR to my favorite one in London, or have I just managed to completely misread your earlier post?
Thanks in advance and Best wishes.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bseller:
SweetWillie - The sandwich, especially when prepared with the "chili sauce" sounds almost exactly like what the Brits would call a "doner kebab".
</font>

Doner Kebab is actually from Turkey but was "developed" in Germany so you will get the best ones at its place of birth in Berlin... http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bseller:
The sandwich, especially when prepared with the "chili sauce" sounds almost exactly like what the Brits would call a "doner kebab".
Am I right that I could actually get one here in Chicagoland without having to take a MR to my favorite one in London,...</font>

I don't know if Doner Kebab is the same as Shoarma. I'm thinking not as I was just in Amsterdam and menus had both shoarma and doner kebab entrees on them.

edited to add: just did some searching and perhaps they are the same thing, descriptions of both the shoarma sandwiches and doner kebabs appeared to be the same.

a quote I found

"GERMANS AND THE DöNERKEBAB: A TALE OF OBSESSION
Lederhosen, Goethe and the Brandenburg Gate are all as quintessentially German, a newly published book suggests, as the Dönerkebab. The Döner, a relative of the Greek gyro, is a pocket of Turkish bread filled with spicy grilled meat, salad and a yogurt sauce. Turkish “guest workers” introduced Germany to the Döner, and since the early 1970s it has progressed from an exotic ethnic specialty to a fast food staple. Today, the weekly Der Spiegel reports, Germans consume some 720 million Dönerkebabs annually, which translates to over two pounds' worth for every resident of the country. The DM 3.6 billion (U.S. $2.3 billion) Germans spend on Döners each year outstrips the revenues of all fast food chains in the country combined and represents a considerable source of income for a segment of the Turkish population in Germany."




[This message has been edited by Sweet Willie (edited 01-30-2003).]

SweetWillie- Thanks for the info, which sounds as though it confirms the post from Tim2008......
If true, I'll have to make it to Niles in no time in order to have one of the shoarma's!!!

Hope all is well with you and Best Wishes.
(P.S. - Interested in SIN for St. Patty's Day?)

bseller,

YGM

Willie

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by HigherFlyer:
Mmm Pita town! I haven't been there in years, but the hummus plate was always a favorite.</font>

Wife and I just ate at Pita Town tonight.

Just FYI, the small $1.99 serving of hummus is more than enough for two to share.

We had:

Hummus
Lamb Kebab sandwich
Falafel sandwich
drinks

bill was $10.28

[This message has been edited by Sweet Willie (edited 02-09-2003).]

SweetWillie - Just couldn't resist telling you that we missed one another at PT - Niles by perhaps 12-14 hours!! I was planning to go on Saturday lunch time, but errands got in the way....
So, after reading your post on Sunday AM, I had to get there for "Sunday Brunch" http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/smile.gif

The owner, Geozeph, told me about another customer of his who "wrote about the restaurant on a website and flys alot!!"....
The shwarma sandwich was very, very good, and quite similar to a doner kebab, but the meat may have been slightly different as it wasn't "identical"...

Thanks again for the original post....it'll make running to London quite a bit less attractive, as I can now indulge my doner passion quite closer to home!!
Best wishes.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bseller:
SweetWillie - Just couldn't resist telling you that we missed one another at PT - Niles by perhaps 12-14 hours!! </font>

Shucks, next time I get the urge for Pita Town, I will email you first!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Sweet Willie:
Shucks, next time I get the urge for Pita Town, I will email you first!</font>

Please Do!! http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/smile.gif

Best wishes.....