Zgara Revisited and Pita Grill SD

I was looking forward to revisiting Zgara again, since it had been a while. For some reason, I was missing their pork gyros. So, I headed off to grab some lunch and when I got to that area of Morena….well, there was no parking to be found….I could not even find any parking on Savannah or Vega street! So, I needed to come up with another option. I headed toward Linda Vista Road…thinking of perhaps J&T. Yorimichi2 also came to mind, but it was just a few minutes after 11 and they weren’t open yet. But instead of taking the left onto Linda Vista, I went straight ahead on Napa Street and turned into the Arrive Mission Valley center. My usual choice here would be Pho Kitchen….but it was a bit too hot for pho or bo kho on this day. I saw another place that caught my attention.

Pita Grill SD:

Pita Grill…hmmm….. So, I thought why not? And walked on in.

The interior looked very “chain like”; but doing a quick check; I couldn’t find any other “Pita Grill” in San Diego. The prices didn’t look too bad…but it seemed like one of those fast casual “concepts”.

Still, the prices were not bad.

It seems this was one of those places that makes everything from Gyros to Hummus….. All the nice women working were speaking Spanish. In the end; I went with a Chicken Shawarma Wrap ($14.95). My wrap was put together on the “line” and I picked it up at the register.

It was quite hefty. At first bite, I knew this wasn’t typical. The “bread”…this was closer to a tortilla than something coming off the “sajj”. It was chewy, not warm enough. The chicken was on the tougher side, not really Shawarma in flavor…lacking in savory-herbaceous aromatics….you could take this chicken and put it in a tortilla with some salsa and call it a burrito.

The “tzatziki” was really watery lending little of that sour-savory-herbaceousness to this. This made the stuff that Tahini and the now defunct Simsim seem like great traditional food! I’m sure this will do fine for hungry students at USD or folks looking for something not too assertive in flavor, but this really didn’t do it for me.

Unless anyone has a recommendation for this place, I think this is a “one-and-done”.

Pita Grill SD
5375 Napa St. Unit 110
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 11am – 7pm
Sunday 11am – 6pm

Now, I was really determined to head back to….

Zgara Greek Grill:

Once a upon a time Zgara was a big part of my “rotation“. I’d been a fan since they first opened in PB back in 2015! Then back in 2024, because of all our travels…I didn’t visit for about six months. I finally returned to find out that Eric, the original owner had sold the place. Folks I know who were regular customers have told me that the food has definitely changed and on my revisits under new ownership, I’ve noticed perhaps some changes.

I figured since it’s been over 5 months since my last visit, it was time…… At least there was ample parking this time around.

I quickly noticed that since my last visit in October of last year, the price of the Pork Gyros has gone up $1.60, from 11.86 to $13.46, that’s a 13% increase in less than five months!

Though they still feature a lunch combo at $16.04 which becomes $17.68 after 4pm. Me, I’m just wanting my pork gyros fix.

I have noticed that the new owner does wrap things a bit tighter and the pork seems to be more chewy these days. Also, there seems to be less tzatziki????

Still, that savory porkiness with some nice crisp bites, with a bit of acidity, pleasant pungent tones, with a background of olive oil is still there. So, while I do miss Eric, I’ll probably still be coming here for my gyros fix.

Zgara Greek Grill
1229 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 11am – 8pm
Closed on Sunday