Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Ramzee's Mediterranean Mexican and the Quest for the Gyro Burrito

This is a highly personal tale for me. Several years ago, I had a gyro burrito at the Greek Sombrero in Jamul. I still haven' t forgotten how delicious that burrito was. Unsure whether or not I would ever return to that Greco-Mexican watering hole along the 94, I had resigned myself to the fact that I might never eat another gyro burrito again.

Enter Ramzees.

A Mediterranean-Mexican fusion restaurant right in the heart of North Park! Conferring with the online menu verified the my hopes: they served a gyro burrito!

Apparently, the current restaurant is a reincarnation of a Hillcrest shop that closed some time ago. Now, there's a greater focus on bringing together the seemingly disparate cuisines of Mexico and the Near East. The gyro burrito fits right into that plan.

The enormous menu board behind the counter had no gyro burrito listed. I scanned it once, twice, read over the paper menu sitting on the counter; no gyro burrito.

"Do you have the gyro burrito?" I asked the guy behind the counter.

He said they did!

I mentioned that it wasn't on the menu.

"Oh, this is the old menu," he said. "Soon there will be a new one."

Perhaps the new menu is identical to the one I had seen online. Curious, that the digital menu should be more up to date than the one in the material world when the opposite is almost always true. Regardless, I was getting my gyro burrito ($5.45).

I sat on the patio, which is great for afternoon sun and commands a good look out at University Ave, and waited a longer than expected time considering the restaurant was dead. When the burrito arrived, with its little side dish of tzatziki sauce, I was drooling with anticipation.

After the first bite, my dreams collapsed in on themselves like an over-caffeinated boy scout's pup tent. There was no rice or cheese or beans. No salsa, no pico. There was only a thin slice of gyro meat and a bit of salad. A burrito, it was not. The most fitting term would have to be, and I shudder to even type it, a "wrap." Neither sandwich nor burrito, with all the failings of each and the glories of neither.

For the sake of fairness, let it be known that I'll always give an alternative burrito a shot! I was starved, so I ate the whole thing, but the hopes were well shattered.

I also tried some of Ramzee's carne asada street tacos($5.50 for 3). They were superior to the gyros burrito, but only moderately so. The meat was on the watery side and lacked any real depth of flavor. The dominant taste was, if anything, onion and cilantro rather than rich, carne asada.

Overall, Ramzees did not deliver on the promise of Mediterranean-Mexican fusion in the way I had hoped it would.

Ramzee's
3028 University Ave
619-296-2304
M-Th 10-10
F-Sat 10-12:30
Closed Sundays

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema

This is a highly personal tale for me. Several years ago, I had a gyro burrito at the Greek Sombrero in Jamul. I still haven' t forgotten how delicious that burrito was. Unsure whether or not I would ever return to that Greco-Mexican watering hole along the 94, I had resigned myself to the fact that I might never eat another gyro burrito again.

Enter Ramzees.

A Mediterranean-Mexican fusion restaurant right in the heart of North Park! Conferring with the online menu verified the my hopes: they served a gyro burrito!

Apparently, the current restaurant is a reincarnation of a Hillcrest shop that closed some time ago. Now, there's a greater focus on bringing together the seemingly disparate cuisines of Mexico and the Near East. The gyro burrito fits right into that plan.

The enormous menu board behind the counter had no gyro burrito listed. I scanned it once, twice, read over the paper menu sitting on the counter; no gyro burrito.

"Do you have the gyro burrito?" I asked the guy behind the counter.

He said they did!

I mentioned that it wasn't on the menu.

"Oh, this is the old menu," he said. "Soon there will be a new one."

Perhaps the new menu is identical to the one I had seen online. Curious, that the digital menu should be more up to date than the one in the material world when the opposite is almost always true. Regardless, I was getting my gyro burrito ($5.45).

I sat on the patio, which is great for afternoon sun and commands a good look out at University Ave, and waited a longer than expected time considering the restaurant was dead. When the burrito arrived, with its little side dish of tzatziki sauce, I was drooling with anticipation.

After the first bite, my dreams collapsed in on themselves like an over-caffeinated boy scout's pup tent. There was no rice or cheese or beans. No salsa, no pico. There was only a thin slice of gyro meat and a bit of salad. A burrito, it was not. The most fitting term would have to be, and I shudder to even type it, a "wrap." Neither sandwich nor burrito, with all the failings of each and the glories of neither.

For the sake of fairness, let it be known that I'll always give an alternative burrito a shot! I was starved, so I ate the whole thing, but the hopes were well shattered.

I also tried some of Ramzee's carne asada street tacos($5.50 for 3). They were superior to the gyros burrito, but only moderately so. The meat was on the watery side and lacked any real depth of flavor. The dominant taste was, if anything, onion and cilantro rather than rich, carne asada.

Overall, Ramzees did not deliver on the promise of Mediterranean-Mexican fusion in the way I had hoped it would.

Ramzee's
3028 University Ave
619-296-2304
M-Th 10-10
F-Sat 10-12:30
Closed Sundays

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tu Taco is flamin’ hot in Chula Vista

Taco shop has embraced the “dangerously cheesy” ways of a certain snack food
Next Article

Best of 2003: Best Mex-Greek Fusion Restaurant

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.