Review: Extreme Pita in Downtown San Diego

Pita is the rage in Southern California. Extreme Pita is yet another fast-pita franchise to invade the city of San Diego in the noble cause of providing our previously gyro-deficient population with easy access to made-to-order meat and cheese in hot pocket bread for less than $10. If there's a knight riding into town in the hope of breaking this culinary siege of America's Taco City on the Mexican Border, he is in for a rough fight with the increasingly pita-sympathetic citizenry. I, for one, am not willing to give up on my gyro and feta fixes now that I had been spoiled by the recently taken up ritual of having one for dinner every Friday night.

Extreme Pita on B Street in downtown (between 6th and 7th Avenues, just a block west of Copley Symphony Hall) is really a take-out fast food joint with a small dining facility. It's clean, though, with a good unisex restroom to boot. The menu is pita in its various incarnations. You can pick from a few selected fixed items or you can make your own combination. The pita comes in 2 sizes; 6" and 12". I go for the 6", which is a good and filling meal to my small-ish stomach (and, at $6, is not a bad deal for my wallet either). Vegetarians can load up their pita with falafel, veggies and cheese, though I prefer either the Gyro or the chicken caesar pita. There are some really exotic sounding combos (like Thai beef, Mandarin chicken, Buffalo chicken, Bourbon chipotle chicken) for the more adventurous eaters, too.

Also very good is the flat baked pitas that are as tasty as good pizzas, but not as fatty. There are a few selections of salad, chips, and a few cookies as side orders. Service is generally good and you are liable to have the pita ready within 10 minutes of walking in. They even have fax menu that you can grab a few of to fill out and fax in ahead of time to cut down on waiting time for your next trip.

Extreme Pita is within a short walk from Copley Symphony Hall, San Diego Civic Theater, and Spreckels Theater... though it isn't all that close to Petco Park (baseball stadium). It closes at 6PM, though, so if you want to drop in for a meal here before the opera or the symphony, you'd do well to call or fax the order ahead to be picked up before 6PM.

Extreme Pita: 631 B Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), San Diego, CA 92101. Tel (619) 233-PITA (7482), Fax (619) 233-7488. Website: www.extremepita.com