Shawarma vs Gyro: What's the Difference?

Shawarma vs gyro: the short version

Same idea, different accent. Both are meat roasted on a vertical, turning spit and shaved off in thin slices. The differences come down to where they are from, how the meat is prepared, the spices, and the sauce on top.

• Origin: shawarma is Levantine and Middle Eastern, gyro is Greek
• Meat: shawarma is usually layered slices of marinated chicken, beef or lamb; gyro is often a seasoned ground beef and lamb blend in the US, or pork and chicken in Greece
• Spices: shawarma leans on warm spices like cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and allspice; gyro leans on oregano, garlic and herbs
• Sauce: shawarma goes with toum (garlic sauce) or tahini; gyro goes with tzatziki

Where do shawarma and gyro come from?

The family tree starts with döner kebab in the Ottoman Empire. The vertical spit is usually traced to Bursa, in what is now Turkey, in the 1800s. Döner comes from the Turkish word for “turn,” and both cousins kept that meaning. Shawarma traces back to the Turkish word for turning, and gyro means “turn” in Greek.

As the dish traveled, each place made it its own. In Lebanon, Syria and across the Arab world it became shawarma. In Greece it became gyros. Gyros caught on in the US in the 1970s, with Chicago as one of its big homes, which is why Chicagoland knows the gyro so well.

How do they taste different?

Chicken shawarma tastes bright and warm: marinated meat, crispy edges from the spit, spices you can smell from the door. With toum and pickles, it is tangy, garlicky and juicy. That is the Lebanese way, and it is how we serve it.

Gyro is more herby and savory, with a dense, tender texture when it is a ground meat blend. Cool tzatziki, tomato and onion round it out. Neither one is better. They are just different moods.

Which should I order?

Like garlic and pickles? Go shawarma. Want something herby with cool yogurt sauce? Go gyro. Still deciding? Ask for a taste. Every bowl is built in front of you, and you can ask to try the meats before you choose.

Want something in between? Try tawook, our Lebanese grilled chicken marinated with yogurt, lemon and garlic. It is not cooked on a spit at all, but it scratches the same itch. Or go half and half on your base and build the bowl around whichever meat wins.

Try both at AMBA in Joliet

At AMBA you can get chicken shawarma, steak shawarma and gyro, carved from the spit and built in front of you. Put any of them in a build-your-own bowl or a wrap. For the classic pairings, finish shawarma with toum and gyro with tzatziki. Both sauces are on the drizzle list. You can also order online for pickup.