Jim's Steaks, Philadelphia

We were at Jim's Steaks on South St. in Philadelphia recently. Their cheesesteak is good- personally, I prefer mine with Whiz and mushrooms. The bread is also good, with a nice crust.
See, even Dustin Nguyen agrees.

400 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 928-1911

Tony Luke's, Philadelphia

We'd all heard of Tony Luke's -- saw it on Bobby Flay Smackdown, friend raved about the NYC branch -- but with it's location way South of Center City, we'd never been. So we made a point of driving down I-95 to make the trek. Above is 1000yregg's Cheesesteak Italian, Tony's signature sandwich with bread baked fresh at the restaurant, 100% ribeye steak, sauteed broccoli rabe and sharp provolone. Redneckhunter got the same but with Roast Beef.

I got my standard cheesesteak order for a baseline comparison -- Steak whiz wit' -- cheese whiz and grilled onions. What makes Tony Luke's steaks stand out from Pat's, Geno's, et al. is the quality of his meat and bread. Those fresh-baked rolls were amazing -- crusty, light and airy, yet substantial enough to hold all the juices.


The fries there rock too -- crispily double-fried and topped with your choice of toppings. We got bacon and ranch -- so good.... So I think our consensus was TL's is worth the drive and the extra couple bucks.

Tony Luke's Old Philly Style Sandwiches
39 East Oregon Avenue
Philadelphia, PA. 19148
(215) 551-5725

Cheesesteaks at Abner's

We've covered many Philadelphia cheese steak joints at this blog. The other night Fougoo and I were up in Philly, and we decided to go to Abner's near UPenn and Drexel.
The restaurant is above a "Gentleman's Club" which will accept delivery from the cheesesteak place- how awesome is that? Boobs and hoagies!
Oh yeah, you can also get 40's at this place- even more awesome.
Anyways, the cheesesteak was pretty damn good. I had it with onions, mushrooms, and of course, the WHIZ!
One thing unique to Abner's is that you can get waffle fries smothered with warm Cheez Whiz. Plaque formingly delicious.

Philly Cheesteaks: Pat's vs. Geno's

My friend had never really explored Philly, so I took her on a day trip. No visit to Philly is complete without eating a cheesesteak. Now Abner's in W. Philly and Jim's on South Street are both good and hold many memories of late drunken evenings, but the undisputed champs and the biggest rivalry in town are Pat's and Geno's, across the street from each other at 9th and Passyunk.

I won't go into the "rules" behind ordering a cheesesteak, as you can read them yourself. We taste-tested Pat's (front) and Geno's (back) head-on, getting a "whiz wit" from each one. Hands down we both agreed Pat's won on aesthetics, overall flavor, ratio of meat to cheese to onions. Though as we ate on, my friend thought Geno's meat was actually more tender, Pat's being a little tougher and fattier. But where Geno's was lacking was runnier, less cheezy whiz, and blander, soggier onions.