Dimitri Best Food

Good morning (again) readers! I'm sorry I've been slacking lately. I've been enjoying time with my in-laws and husband in Chicago-land and haven't been cooking or eating out much but that'll quickly change. Tomorrow we're off to Harry Caray's for our annual downtown Chicago family dinner so be on the watch for that!

In the meantime, Nate took me to one of his childhood haunts: Dimitri Best Food.

Dimitri Best Food is located at 207 W Joe Orr Rd, Chicago Heights, IL 60411; almost directly across from his old high school so he spent many a dollar eating there in his youth as a vegetarian. Now that he is most certainly NOT a vegetarian, he's able to enjoy more of their full menu which hosts gyros, rib tips, wings, pizza puffs and sandwiches.

During my very first visit to Chicago four years ago, Nate brought me here to eat gyros. Honestly, these things were the size of your head and stuffed full of meat, I'm not entirely sure how they get away with only charging $10 for what is surely 2 pounds of meat.

Anyway, here is my formal evaluation of Dimitri Best Foods.

Decor: poor. There is literally no decor at all. Upon entering the tiny eatery (really, there's only about 6 tables or so), your eyes are immediately drawn to the chalkboard menu on the wall with some menu items being written in short-hand and a tad illegible. However, when walking up to the counter/kitchen you can watch hypnotizing cones of gyro meat circle and cook, so that kinda counts as decor, right?

Food appearance: poor. Food is served to you in a paper bag regardless if you get the order for dine in or carry out. There is really no attention to detail as far as plating or in this case bagging is concerned.

Food taste: good. The food at Dimitri Best Food is obviously where they shine (how else would they be in business?). The gyros are delicious, Nate braved the Zeus sandwich which is a fried chicken breast topped with gyro meat and tzatziki sauce. I will say despite the massive amount of ingredients everything was cooked to perfection and never did it seem like the ingredients were competing with each other. I ordered the Italian Beef sandwich, my first ever! The beef was tender and succulent and the giardiniera was spicy and vinegary and a perfect compliment to the beef. We both ordered fries with their house-made hot and mild sauces. They were perfectly spicy without being too overwhelming.

Service: good. The counter attendant (is this "Dimitri"?) speaks a broken, heavily accented English but he's friendly and treats every guest like a friend, cracking unintelligible jokes and asking about family members. That's as far as service goes though, you walk up to make your order and he calls it out when the food is ready.

Cleanliness: good. The restaurant itself is clean and tidy. I didn't venture into the bathroom but I'm sure it was probably satisfactory. Not surprisingly for the style of restaurant, customers buss their own spaces.

Total: 8/15

Well, this place isn't a "must go" when visiting Chicago but if you're craving some reasonably priced (and massive) food and happen to be in the area try to stop by and check out Dimitri Best Food.