Souvlaki vs Gyros: What’s the difference?
Souvlakipedia: Greek souvlaki terminology
Greek souvlaki terminology is complicated. If it’s all Greek to you, you might want to take a look at the basics:
What is souvlaki? The short answer
Souvlaki essentially means skewer – the pork skewer – its meaning having evolved from the word for a kind of needle (i.e. skewer). But say souvlaki in Greece, and everybody knows that you’re referring to Greece’s national street food in its various forms and its ancient skewered meat tradition.
The complication arises when Athenians use the word souvlaki to refer to the pita wrap as a whole, or tylichto, regardless of whether it has an actual pork ‘skewer’ in it or not.
In Thessaloniki and northern Greece, and more traditionally, souvlaki simply refers to the pork skewer, with words like pitogyro (compound word derived from pita gyros) or sandwich used to denote the pita wrap.
Pitogyro is commonly used throughout Greece, most likely to refer to a pita with gyros in it, with more general terms like pita (pie) and tylichto (wrap) being widespread in central and southern Greece.
What is kalamaki?
In Athens, kalamaki is the word Athenians use to describe the plain (pork) skewer – without the pita.
What is gyros? The short answer
Gyros actually refers to the large skewer of layers of seasoned meat fillets that rotates, usually on a vertical axis (but also sometimes horizontal), and is carved to order.
Because it’s typically served in the pita, many Greek expats in the US, UK and Australia – as well as some Greeks and Cypriots – simply refer to the pita as a gyro, regardless of whether the meat is gyros or not. While Athenians use the term souvlaki in this way, Greeks are less likely to use the word gyro to refer to the pita as a whole. They’re more likely to say pita gyros or pitogyro.
In reality, gyros is actually the meat that is similar to döner and shawarma. You can read a brief history of gyros here.
What is gyros? Long answer here.
The long answers
What is souvlaki?
What is gyros?