I noticed recently that Baton Rouge has an abundance of Greek/Lebanese restaurants, including Albasha, Roman’s Cafe, and Serop’s Cafe, each with at least 4 locations around the Capital City.  To my knowledge, Serop’s is the oldest, having been around since 1979.  But somehow, I’ve never visited one.  Spencer and I decided to drop by the location nearest us on Perkins Rd. today for lunch.

Serop's

Serop’s has many Greek/Lebanese standards such as hummus, gyros, chicken shawarma, and kebabs, but they also know their South Louisiana audience.  Their seafood menu (not offered at every location) includes soft shell crab, shrimp ravioli, and fish creole.  Spencer and I decided to try their lunch special standards, the gyro plate and the combination plate (gyro and chicken).  Both were served with hummus, feta salad, and rice pilaf, along with pita bread for the table.

Combination Plate

Gyro Plate

The hummus and feta salad that came with the meals were both very good, though the salad dressing was slightly too oily for me. Neither of us were fans of the rice pilaf; it had a strange flavor that we decided had to be due to the peas that were hanging around in the rice. First bites (of gyro):

Jessica's First Bite

Spencer's First Bite

Sigh, Spencer is so unexpressive. We’re working on it! He does give good sound bites though (what’s blog-speak for sound bite?)–for instance, he said the gyro was “good, but not something I’d ask for”. As in, he wouldn’t say “ohh, let’s go to Serop’s for gyros!” I agreed with him there, the gyro was very good, but I’ve had better (only in Europe though…). As for the chicken shawarma on my combo plate, I thought it was much too dry, but Spencer informed me that all chicken shawarma is too dry. In that case, the chicken was well seasoned.

Overall, Serop’s was a nice place to go for a quick, “different” (i.e. non-fast food) lunch. I am already thinking about going back to try the gyro sandwich.

www.seropscafe.com