Max's Cheesesteaks

I've been driving past this cheesesteak spot smack in the middle of North Philly Time Square (Broad & Erie) for years and finally got it together a few months ago when we were doing the Best Cheesesteak thing for Serious Eats. Max's didn't make the cut for Serious Eats but this place is really one of a kind.

Cheesesteak Madness

cheesesteak with american from john's roast pork

big daddy from carmen's in bellmawr

dont be scared- donkey's is awesome and probably safer than where you live

Check out our Cheesesteak roundup over on Serious Eats. Definitely got some new favorites - Carmen's, Donkey's, Chinks... Philip's is still way up there. Something about the way these places do it... the instant you taste it you know you're eating one of the top 10 in the city, and it's sort of sad to ever go back to eating some pile of frozen "chopped and formed" steak that tastes like cardboard.

Serious Eats: Philadelphia Sandwich Tour: 10 Cheesesteaks We Love

donkey's steak on round del buono poppy seed rolls, beer is a dollar

quit worrying about the name and go eat one the best in the city

giant mint shake barely thinned down from ice cream, good luck

apparently chink's didnt serve whiz until 1 year ago.. delicious

philip's pepper steak... awesome

Of course the article got a lot of "why the hell didn't you go to Jim's or Tony Luke's" (yawn) plus a couple that I keep hearing about over and over that look damn good- Mama's Pizzeria in Bala Cynwyd (read about them on Roadfood) and Chick's Deli in Cherry Hill (read about them on Beef and Buns, awesome blog)

The future is definitely not "fancy" cheesesteaks on baguette with gruyere truffle wiz but instead ethnic cheesesteaks like the korean bulgogi "Koagies" and Mexican pizzeria cheesesteaks.... There's others out there too - some real some imagined - so if you know about some hole in the wall in the back of a Cambodian fish market that makes shrimp paste cheesesteaks feel free to let me know!

George's Tripe Sandwich

I've walked past this place a million times but never tried it until a few months ago. Split a roast pork and cheesesteak with some friends and holy s#$% it was good, totally blew my mind.

If you order a roast pork he warms it up on the grill, bastes the meat and greens with the pork juices. Sharp provolone and a lightly toasted roll and you're ready to go. Cheesesteak was great too, good amount of meat but not so much it falls out onto 9th street. A good mid-sized steak somewhere between the smaller soft-roll style of Pat's and the massive Sarcone's-loaf style of Cosmi's and John's Roast Pork.

Anyway if you don't know they are famous for having an Italian Tripe sandwich which made it onto the PBS Sandwiches You Will Like documentary a few years back featuring Philly food guru Holly Moore.

I'm a big fan of tripe but until now had only eaten it Asian or Mexican style. So I went back last week for a roast pork & tripe combo with provolone, roasted long hots, hot peppers and onions, a monster of a sandwich. The tripe cooked in tomato sauce was super tender and the combination with the pork was out of this world.


Some guy drinking out of a paper bag asked me for change while I was ordering. But don't let the exotic atmosphere scare you away, or you'll miss out on some of Philly's best. There's another George's sandwich shop across the street, haven't been there & can't vouch for it, look for the one with the "sandwiches you will like" sign.

George's
900 South 9th Street
Philadelphia, PA

John's Roast Pork

Believe it or not I had never actually eaten at John's Roast Pork until a week ago. Tried plenty of times, but usually got there 15 minutes after they closed the doors. One day this summer I even rode down there at 10 am and there's a big sign on the door, "on vacation".

Finally caught them when they were open and have to say John's lives up to the hype, especially the roast pork. It has a unique flavor like they might throw some cloves or something in the mix. I would rank John's a notch or two above Tony Luke's, whose famous roast pork is decent but fails to knock my socks off ..although their Texas Tommy is amazing. I would say John's and George's on 9th street are in the running for best Roast Pork that I've had.


John's cheesesteak -winner of "best" many times over- was decent. Heaping piles of meat on seeded Sarcone's bread, very similar to Cosmi's Steak. I love Sarcone's Bread, especially for hoagies but I have to say I prefer a cheesesteak with a medium amount of meat and a softer Amoroso long roll, just sturdy enough that it doesn't fall apart.

Steve's Prince of Steaks comes close to a perfect cheesesteak for me, at least in the bread department, although I prefer the meat more thinly sliced. It's tough to pick a favorite, there's a handful of places that consistently do Roast Pork and Steaks really well, after that it comes down to personal preference and/or neighborhood loyalty.

But if you were wondering if it's worth it to take an extra hour for lunch, or wait in a long line to get John's Roast Pork before they close, the answer is definitely YES.

Walt's Steaks

Found myself in a U-Haul in Delaware County sunday morning and came across this awesome looking Steak & Shake shoppe in Clifton Heights. It's been there for 70 years and has an awesome soda shop vibe complete with a diner style counter and tons of old signs.

Cheesesteak was really good, with broccoli raab and american cheese, (delco is not really whiz country) nice soft roll and lots of meat, but not so much that the sandwich fell apart. The Roast pork was good but unfortunately while the cheese & bread were hot the pork itself was cold. The one guy in the back seemed to still be learning so hopefully this isn't a common occurence. Anyway I hate to talk smack about a place that looks so cool. The fries were incredible, piping hot, crispy and salty. Good fuel for moving a truck full of drywall.

329 E Baltimore
Clifton Heights PA

Philip's Steaks

Cheesesteaks are a crazy topic here in Philadelphia. People will fight to the death over the best cheesesteak, the most authentic, the least racist, provolone or whiz, sarcone's or amoroso. Some fight for no cheesesteaks at all, and prefer the city to be recognized for its "higher-brow" culinary achievements, or argue the superiority of hoagies or roast pork.

For some reason a lot of writers and experts fail to mention Phil's . I didn't even know it was there until a friend proudly announced he knew of a "secret" spot at 22nd & passyunk that has no line and better food than Pat's or Geno's. A recent re-visit confirms that this is all true. It's not nearly as busy as the well known "cheesesteak vegas" of 9th & Passyunk. But it's open 24 hours and the cheesesteaks are fantastic.

More meat than Pat's but not so overfilled that everything falls apart. And they put so much whiz on my fries that I had to use a fork. AND they have fish cakes which for me is the mark of the real deal. I think the main reason Phil's gets passed over is that it's in a neighborhood that's not considered to be the best, but it's really not that bad and totally worth the trip.

Philip's Steaks
2234 W Passyunk Ave
Philadelphia

Tony's Shakes & Steaks

On the way home from Brigantine / Atlantic City, so hung over i could barely talk, this place was like a bright shining light of jersey shore heaven.

Roast Pork as good as anywhere in the city, with actual sharp provolone and
broccoli raab. The milkshakes were thick and delicious, made with homemade ice cream. The cheesesteak meat was a little on the chunky side - i enjoy a thinly sliced (but not shredded) cheesesteak meat - but covered in hot cherry peppers it was still damn good.

My only complaint is that they were out of the 6 pack of cheese wiz sliders(!!).

I guess I could have gone back to Atlantic City for $45 "sliders" made from cows massaged by wizards, topped with blueberry ostrich cheese and seaweed marshmallow aoili... or maybe just wait 'til next summer.

Tony's also has burgers, hot dogs, homemade chili, pork roll sandwiches, and about 4000 flavors of ice cream.

Tony's Steaks & Shakes
3107 Atlantic-Brigantine Blvd
Brigantine, NJ

Gooey Looie's

So I'd heard a lot of fuss about Gooey Looie's, that their sandwiches are so jammed with meat that people actually buy another roll and make two hoagies out of it. They weren't kidding.

Gooey Looie's is deep in south philly inside a strange little enclosed shopping court. It's also a deli / convenience type store with video poker, cigarettes, newspapers, etc.. but most of the people jammed wall to wall and at the 3 tiny tables are there for the food. 3 guys behind a counter in the back crank out the steaks & hoagies while the customers fight to the front of the line, hollering about the latest Eagles game or the day's winning lottery numbers. So pretty much the best place on earth.

The hoagies are classic, massive and delicious. No prosciutto or roasted red peppers here- just massive piles of meat with mountains of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions. The corned beef hoagie-which I didn't have a chance to try- seemed to be a big seller.

The cheesesteak took me two days to eat. Loads of meat and a sturdy roll held it all in, suprisingly the thing didn't fall apart when I tried to eat it. Really good too.

Gooey Looie's
Moyamensing & Moore
grill open 'til 7:00pm
deli til 8pm most nights
Closed Sundays