Twice a month, El Estoque goes to restaurants around Cupertino and takes a chance by asking the waiter to personally choose our food for us. This week, we continued the alphabetical theme with Nick the Greek, located on Hollenbeck Ave.  

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Overall Price: 6.5/10

Meals

Pork Gyro Pita – $8.45

Rating – 8.5/10

The pork gyro pita’s bread was warm and soft, a welcome contrast to the dry toughness of the meat. The cool, ranch-like tzatziki sauce of the wrap melded nicely with the sharp flavor of the onion and the earthy taste of the tomato, producing a veggie combo that helped flavor the pork and make it go down easier. A surprisingly enjoyable aspect of the meal was the inclusion of french fries in the wrap. Although it did Americanize the dish, its presence evoked a comforting familiarity that made the dish even more appetizing. The entire wrap itself was a little on the smaller side, however. That was remedied by the next order, a bowl of lemon soup.   

Avgolemono Soup – $4.95

Rating – 7/10

The warmth of the soup was a nice complement to the wrap. It had a thick consistency, but its citrusy taste was a bit too light for it to really be considered lemon soup. The chicken was soft and absorbed the liquid well. The spices included added further heat to the dish, and was a nice complement to the coolness of the Pork Gyro Pita.

Gyro Salad – $8.95

8.5/10

Complete with arugula leaves, bread and gyro meat, this visually appealing salad was more filling than the wrap. The meat by itself, despite being salty, was succulent with flavor. Paired with the abundance of balsamic vinegar in the arugula, however, the salad was almost too strong. But the bread, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, gave respite from the strong flavor. The dish also included sauce on the side that added a ranch-like flavor to the bread and meat, but with the salad’s overwhelming balsamic and salt, there was hardly a place for more flavor.

Loukoumades – $4.95

9/10

The Loukoumades, which were more or less donut holes, were dunked in honey and topped with peanut crumbs. Its flavor was much richer than the sweetness of typical candies, making the large amount of sugar tolerable for those without sweet tooths and excellent for those with them. Its greatest selling point was its heat retention: after sitting for around 10 minutes, the Loukoumades still managed to be pleasantly warm and soft.