Istocki’s Shish Kebob House

Gyro and Kebab Review — just. plain. no.
The reviewer who mentioned the place had changed hands and now was Euro Gyro only needs to be stuck to the top… I missed it… until we got home.
«Would you like a sandwich, entrée, or platter?»
Seems like a straight forward question… not so much. My husband was expecting the pork kebab platter to be an entrée plus fries… oh no… it was HUGE chunks of dry, flavorless pork in a sea of raw unions and HUGE pieces of tomato on a commercial pita with a decent side of ok /​nothing special fries.
I shouldn’t have ordered the Chicken Gyro… I know better… if you can’t see the spit don’t commit… but I did.
I got tiny, flavorless, dry chunks of chicken with a sea of raw onion and HUGE pieces of tomato… rather bland tzatziki that seemed to be sour cream based with tiny pieces of cucumber and a wiff of feta.
There was waitress service… kind of… when they remembered us… and we were the only ones sitting in the restaurant… they were doing a steady take out business… but not really busy.
We ordered baklava and it showed up as an after thought when we had long finished our sandwiches and were debating who was going up to the register to see if it was coming.
I would like to have that 10 minutes back… it was tiny, over heated to the point of sliding apart… and there are no napkins holders on the table… so we used a wet one I had in my purse… we escaped the blaring music as soon as we could… and sure won’t be back.

Went in during a particularly slow time. The service, and I use that term loosely, was lacking. Waited at my table for nearly 10 minutes before anyone came to take our drink order. Employees were parked in a booth chit-​chatting. When the drinks did come, they were flat. Free fried pita and hummus was yummy. The food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exceptionally great either. The place is small, but not overly inviting. It could stand for a complete stripping down to the studs. Maybe then it would be clean.
The prices were good, and the amount of food was welcomed. I may go back some day to give it another shot, but I’m in no hurry.

This place is right around the corner from me and until yesterday I never stopped in. Now I am upset I didn’t stop by sooner. My wife and I stopped in mid-​afternoon on a holiday and the place was empty. We placed our order and like the other reviews stated the service was a little slow. However our beverages came out fast and the food was slow because it was being made to order. We were sitting in plain site of the kitchen door and watched the salad being assembled.
Do not miss the pita chips and hummus if you go here. Unbelievable, I could eat that all day long.
I like to go into a new place and ask them what they make best then order that item. In this case they said Gyro’s. The special was 3 for $ 9 so I went that route. Now I have had a few gyro’s in my life an honestly I was not a fan. When these came out first off they were HUGE I ended up taking 1 home and it weighed in at well over half a pound. With the first bite I was sold. Flat out delicious.
The wife ordered a cheese steak and she said it was very good as well.
It appears as though the place began with the intention of being pure ethnic and added many American dishes to try please the masses. They do the ethnic side unbelievably well and the American fare just all right.
Prices are affordable, the food is very good and they deliver. What more could you want?

I had to come back and change my review, and I am so bummed about it.
I really liked this place when it first opened. Now… eh. The last few times I’ve been there I have gotten the wrong order. The service is nice, but slow.
The worst part is they changed the menu. This place is owned by the same guy who own Euro Gyro, and they switched basically over to the Gyro menu. They still have some grill stuff, but its basically just greasy college food now. Don’t know why they would do that. They should have stuck to the original menu. We don’t need another Euro Gyro, especially in Wallhaven.

although they take a LONG time to prepare your food, your meal is cooked fresh, has a great taste and is reasonably proportioned.
I like sticking to what they do best, their ethnic fare.

Went to this place for dinner last week and we had a great meal without spending too much. From the flavoring and combo of offerings, I think owners may be Balkan rather than Greek, but all well executed, well seasoned and fresh. Excellent gyro and chicken souvlaki, accompanied by fantastic fresh-​cut fries and a decent Greek-​style salad. The server brought out some hummos and fried pita to start the meal; don’t know if this was comped to get us back, but it sure will. It was amazingly good (and I’ve had a lot of hummos.) Very attentive service, though kinda slow in the kitchen (we went at an off hour, and I think there was just one cook there) but well worth it. And for the reviewer who gave a lousy review because «the place serves souvlaki instead of shish ke bob,» just a note – souvlaki is shish ke bob. It is cooked on the stick, then taken off the skewer to serve. That detail seems to have thrown you. Since this place offers several kinds of souvlaki and makes them highlight of the menu, that doesn’t strike me as false advertising, and I hate to see a bad review born of ignorance.

I would, under almost any circumstances, never write a review of a restaurant that I hadn’t patronized. There are, in this situation however, very extenuating circumstances. I stopped there to buy take away. I grabbed one of their menus and was on the cusp of phoning my wife to secure her requests.
What is the one thing that anybody’s «Shish Kebob House» should sell?
Shish kebob you say?
Not here!
No shish kebob, no falafel, no hummus with pita bread, (pita chips but no pita bread), no stuffed grape leaves or eggplant,
I felt like I was in a 1970’s Saturday NIght Live sketch «cheeseburg cheeseburg cheeseburg», except in this case it was souvlaki, souvlaki, souvlaki.
Pork, chicken, or beef souvlaki. If you didn’t want the chicken souvlaki, you could get the chicken souvlaki without the green peppers and onions but rather placed on a bed of rice, or you could get it with green peppers and olives, cheese and rice with their «honey gold’ barbecue sauce, or if you didn’t want souvlaki in any form you could get a gyro, a chicken gyro (chicken souvlaki in a sling), a veggie pita or one of several salads.
That’s it.
To flesh out the middle eastern theme, they offer both tzatziki sauce, and cucumber sauce, (also known as tzatziki sauce.)
Happily they don’t charge more if you know what tzatziki means!
I’ve patronized food trucks with more variety!
Feeling much like a McDonald’s patron finding a franchise that didn’t serve a hamburger, I found myself just leaving. Perhaps they might re-​think the name, e.g. House of Souvlaki?, so as to not confuse patrons?
To allow for the other possibility, don’t do a «doobie» while you write out the menu! You might just forget to list your signature dish, then find yourself just scratching your head in wonder when no one orders the shish kabob! Oh well time to light up again! Fortunately the menus are just photocopied pieces of paper with the address and phone hand printed on the face, so changes may be made at a whim!
Who knows? Next week they may offer shish kabob?

Istocki’s is slinging the hell out of some souvlaki, but I sincerely found it to be average at best.
This was my first trip to the new spot tucked in between Swenson’s and Arnie’s SRO in West Akron and my immediate impression was that the food smells fantastic. The inside of the restaurant is, well, average. My view was limited as I was there for takeout, but it looks to seat maybe 30 — 40 in mostly booths with a few tables. There were only a few tables occupied when I walked in, but you could clearly hear every conversation in the room.
I ordered there because I wanted to see a menu and was kind of shocked when they told me «give her 30 minutes before you come back because we just sat a table». Seems like an extended wait, but no biggie.
I asked what the signature menu item was and was directed to the «Chicken Deluxe» which was grilled chicken covered in a sauce, onion, cheese and olives. I got one of those and one each of chicken, beef, and port souvlaki. Each entre came with a Greek salad and rice or fries and was about $ 10 — seemed reasonable.
The food is good. Not great. Not particularly memorable, but good. The salads were great — olives, tomato, feta — all well done and good dressing with fresh greens. The souvlaki consisted of very lean meats that were of high quality and grilled well although I thought the portions for dinner were a little light. I didn’t care for the Chicken Deluxe although it was clearly of the same high quality — the sauce just wasn’t my favorite but that is merely a matter of preference as my son liked it a lot. The rice was not at all like I expected. I thought maybe a long grain rice with some spices or even butter, but this was a vegetable rice that tasted a bit like an Uncle Ben’s bag deal (boil and serve or something). It wasn’t bad at all, just threw me off a bit.
I’m certain we’ll stop back here as it is truly different in this area and the food was good, but I see it as more of a take-​out on occasion choice for us.
I’ll be interested to see if it’s any different in a few months after they’ve been open for a bit.

In a gist: Very nicely done. Great food, decent price, good location.
I have been sick for the past week and a half and have had ZERO appetite for anything beyond maybe the occasional Phở soup and toast that I ate to keep me going. Today was the first day I was actually hungry, so I took my rumbling tummy over to Istocki’s. They just recently opened (a month ago today), and I’d been meaning to go. But, as we all know, life has a tendency to get in the way. After lunch there, I really should have gotten my butt there sooner.
I ordered the pork soulvaki, the chicken soulvaki (for my ma), a side order of beef soulvaki, two greek salads, a side order of hummus with pita chips, and baklava. ‘Cause there is NO way I’m going to a Greek place and not getting baklava. Total? $ 29.
I can’t speak for the chicken soulvaki, but I inhaled the pork soulvaki and the beef soulvaki as soon as I got home. And the hummus with pita chips. And half the baklava (gotta save some for my ma). The pork was juicy and tender, well-​seasoned with a side of veggie rice and grilled onions+peppers. If I had had a Greek grandmother, it probably would have reminded me of home.
The hummus with pita chips was unusual but so freaking good. The hummus had tomatoes in it, and the pita ‘chips’ were pita wedges deep fried to perfection. It sounds weird, I know, but the crispy outside + the soft inside was AWESOME. Definitely not good for the waist-​line, but ohhhhhh man. I’m in some serious trouble with this place so close to home. The baklava was also a bit different. Reminded me of a traditional baklava + a cinnamon roll. There was lots of cinnamon and a sweet frosting on top. Kind of odd, but it worked (I had trouble saving my ma half, and I don’t have much of a sweet tooth).
I am definitely going to become a regular there. The food is delicious, the restaurant is quaint, and the price fits my budget quite well.