Ali Baba’s: King of Gyros – West St. Paul, MN

D.Rough and I were having a lazy day watching the Eastern Regional Championships of Roller Derby online like nerds. D.Rough is watching as many games as possible so when the Minnesota Roller Girls go to Nationals, she’ll have some insight into the other teams’ strategies. Yes, it’s that serious, people. We thought we’d grab something and eat it at home so we didn’t have to move far form the computer screen. Ali Baba’s is right up the street, so I headed over to grab us some food.

She told me what she wanted before I left, and I thought I knew what I wanted until I saw the menu once I got inside. There are a ton of things on there that I’m dying to try now. But since I had a hankering for gyro meat, I went with that. Regular gyro with an order of fries.
I didn’t wait long inside, since the most time-consuming part is waiting for the fries to get cooked. So within a couple of minutes, I was on my way back to roller derby.

I got home and took a couple of photos before I dug into everything.
The fries were quite tasty. They have that magic dust the some places put on them to make them extra addictive. It certainly has to be crack. It’s a tiny bit of spice and salt that makes you not able to stop shoveling them into your mouth. And the fries were pretty thick cut and crispy – just the way I like them.

The gyro was packed full of meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and tzatziki sauce. I had to eat a couple pieces of the meat out of the inside to even get the thing to roll in half so I could eat it properly. The meat is cut VERY thick at Ali Baba’s. I’m personally a thin-slice guy (and then throw it on the flat top and crisp up the edges – but then again, I’m apparently a high-maintenance gyro-eater…), but the meat was the good stuff and exactly what I had a craving for. I ate a couple of the meat slices and then picked up the sandwich to finish off. The pita stayed together, which is usually a sign of quality and fresh pitas, so I was thrilled with that. There was plenty of tzatziki sauce on this thing, which I love, and the toppings all seemed fresh.

Overall, this was a really good gyro. Not life changing, but definitely hit the spot and made me happy to go back and try the other things on the menu that I decided against this day. Nothing bad about this place at all, I assure you. Looking forward to my next trip there.

Ali Baba’s
1264 S. Robert Street
West St Paul MN 55118
(651) 552-9660