I Tried the Best Cheesesteaks in Philly… Here’s What I Found

In this video, I travel to Philadelphia to try some of the best cheesesteaks in the city.
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📃 TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 – The Goal
0:22 – Cheesesteak #1: Dalessandro’s
1:21 – Cheesesteak #2: Pat’s King of Steaks
2:14 – Cheesesteak #3: John’s Roast Pork
3:52 – Bright Cellars (Ad)
5:03 – Cheesesteak #4: Angelo’s Pizzeria
5:58 – Cheesesteak #5: Steve’s Prince of Steaks
7:07 – Going on an Important Mission
8:04 – Designing My Ideal Cheesesteak

Written and Filmed by: Charlie Anderson
Edited by: Van Clements and Charlie Anderson

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I traveled to Philadelphia to try some of the best cheesesteaks in the city with the goal of answering one question what actually makes a great Philly cheesesteak now my ultimate goal is to make a recipe that anyone can follow to make an authentic Cheesesteak at home

And I’m willing to go to any lengths necessary in order to get there but before we can do that we need to try the real thing so we’re at a spot called Dalessandro’s so I ordered this one whiz-wit meaning with cheese whiz and with onions but

We’ll talk more about all that later for now let’s give it a try all right so a few things I know about this place the first is that they use thinly sliced ribeye which is really the traditional cut for a Philly cheesesteak but what they do different than a lot of

Other places is chop it up really finely on The Griddle to create sort of a minced texture but another thing I found out is that they actually don’t season the meat on the griddle and to me that really does come through the meat tastes a little bit under seasoned and there’s

Not really enough cheese on here to make up for it I will say though the roll is really good it’s super soft and chewy with a little bit of crustiness on the exterior and I do also know that they get these rolls from omarosas which has

Been around for a really long time as far as I know they’re basically the originator of this style of roll or if not they’re at least the most popular speaking of Originators though this next place is one that actually invented the Philly cheesesteak and I actually don’t

Have the highest of hopes for it based on what I’ve heard but I wanted to check it out just for the tradition of it and one of the nice things about it is they’re open 24 hours all right so at 7 42 in the morning and I’d say it’s about

Time for a Cheesesteak so we’re at Pat’s King of Steaks and claims to be the originator of the Philly cheesesteak but the reason I said I don’t have super high expectations is because it’s kind of become a touristy spot over the year but even so I had to give it a try all

Right so I ordered my whiz whip same thing I got at de la Sandro’s so it’s actually not bad they put a lot of whiz on it which actually do kind of like the main difference though is the way that the meat is cut you can see on

This one it’s still thinly sliced ribeye but they don’t really chop it up on the grill quite as much seems like it’s mostly just preference as far as which method you use and for me I think I still need to decide which one I like better

Not a huge difference in the bread so that nice soft roll flavor of the onions on this one does come through a little bit more I think they just didn’t cook them down quite as much but again this isn’t really about which is best it’s really just to get a feel for what

Actually makes this sandwich instead I can replicate it at home but overall definitely a pretty solid sandwich so let’s move on to the next one all right so we’re here at John’s Roast Pork and you can see right off the bat this one looks a little bit different than the

Others the roll definitely has sort of a more rustic feel to it reminded me a lot more of a homemade roll than sort of the commercial softer rose that I’ve had the first couple places all right so the first thing I noticed the cut of meat seems to be a little bit

Different it’s still those kind of bigger slices like what we saw at Pats and actually the owner of the restaurant came out here so I was able to ask him what kind of meat they actually use he said they used loin it’s different it’s a little bit of a

Leaner cut than the ribeye that you sometimes see I won’t gripe with it it’s a little bit drier because that lower fat content I think you have to be really careful when you’re cooking it and I wish it did have a little more seasoning on it again they might even be

Like de la Sanders where they don’t season the meat on the griddle the other main thing with this one though is the cheese so when it comes to a Philly cheese steak there are basically three main cheeses that you might choose from the first is American the second is

Provolone and the third is the cheese whiz like what I’ve gotten in the first two places now here they don’t do cheese whiz so I ended up going with the extra sharp provolone and to me I think it has a little bit too sort of strong and

Funky of a flavor it kind of overpowers the steak and really with this sandwich the steak should be the star of the show so for me when I’m making my recipe I don’t think I’m gonna go with provolone I still have to try American at some of these next couple places but I’m

Definitely gonna come up with a whiz recipe because first thing I do like that and even though I know not everybody does I at least want to have that available as an option now as far as the roll I actually do like this one too I don’t know that I have a

Preference between this and the softer roll it’s still got a very soft interior but I do like that contrast of the sort of crustier outside but speaking of rolls this next place is one that does them a little bit differently as well and this is the one that I got the most

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We go this is from Angelo’s Pizzeria and even though it is a pizzeria a lot of people say that they have the best cheesesteaks so again you can see the roll is pretty similar in style to John’s Roast Pork it’s a little bit more rustic and they actually bake them

In-house right at the restaurant Bob that is really good easily the best one I’ve had yet so I got it with American cheese which I actually really like and they put a perfect amount on it super nice and melty with a little bit of tanginess but not overpowering like

The provolone was the steak again chopped up pretty finely not quite as finely as Dalessandro’s but more fine than some of the other places I’ve tried and actually I was a little worried about the bread I thought it might be too rustic for this type of sandwich but

It’s not sort of hard and crusty like a baguette it’s still got that nice chewiness to it but a really really good flavor wow I mean I just can’t yeah I mean to me this is almost like the perfect cheese steak if I can find a way

To make something like this at home I think I’ll be pretty happy but even so there are still a few more places I want to try which we’re going to do tomorrow so I’ll see you there all right so it’s actually a pretty nice day out here

Today so I found a quiet spot to come eat this but this is from Steve’s Prince of steaks up on the North side of Philadelphia and this is actually the only place that I saw them making the sandwich and the main thing I noticed is that they took the slices of ribeye and

Basically just seared the whole pieces on both sides and then gently placed them onto the grill start contrast from somewhere like dalessandros who basically just chops it like crazy on the grill but let’s give it a try so definitely a very solid sandwich obviously I got it with whiz again and

Onions I’m still trying to decide whether I like the whiz or the American cheese better but the main thing that hits me with this sandwich is number one I probably would have preferred a little bit more meat it just doesn’t have nearly as much as some of the other

Places but the other thing is I’m not really the biggest fan of those big chunks of ribeye they’re a little bit too chewy for my taste almost like you’re eating an actual steak to me they should kind of blend a little bit more into the sandwich one thing I will say

Though is the roll is pretty good here it’s more of that commercial style roll slightly crusty exterior but a really soft interior so definitely no complaints there the other thing is the onions to me they could have been cooked down a little bit more they still have a

Little too much bite and sort of oniony flavor to them and some of the better places I tried they kind of just blend into the sandwich and add that nice sweetness without too much oniony flavor so there are a few more places I could

Try but I think at this point I’ve got a pretty good idea of what makes a great Cheesesteak and instead I have an idea that I think is going to be a little bit better use in my time I brought home some souvenirs I’m by souvenirs I’m in rolls I brought home

Some rolls but not just any rules I got the iconic Omarosa rolls like the ones used at dalessandros and a lot of other Cheesesteak spots in Philly and I also froze some so as I developed my recipe I can check and have my progress but that’s not all because if you remember I

Also really love the style of roll that they use at John’s Roast Pork and at Angelo’s and actually when I talked to the owner at John’s he gave me the name of the bakery that they actually used it’s a place called karanji Bakery just a little Italian bakery in South Philly

But they make really good rolls so I definitely recommend you check them out if you’re ever in the area so in addition to that giant one I also got some mini ones in the same size as my Amorosa rolls on top of all that though I also saved half of each of my

Sandwiches so that I could compare them side by side back here at the lap and after some further analysis I think I’m ready to build my ideal cheese steak recipe now the one non-negotiable is that we need to start with a thinly sliced relatively fatty cut of beef I’ll have

To do some more testing before I can decide exactly which cut but one thing I can decide on right now is how I want to prepare because really there are just three different methods you’ve got the fully intact slices of beef like what we saw at Steve’s you’ve got the super fine

Chop like what we saw at Dalessandro’s and then you’ve got somewhere in between like what we saw at most of the other spots now for me the big slices were definitely my least favorite so those are out between the last two options though I didn’t hate the fine chop but

That also makes it pretty easy to overcook the meat and dry it out so I think for me that metal option is perfect I will probably air more toward the side of finely chopped though maybe like something we saw at Angelo’s because I do think that helps the cheese

To melt into the meat a lot better and create a more cohesive sandwich firstly I’m also going to add some onion on my cheese steaks but you don’t have to use those if you don’t want to now speaking of the cheese again there are three options here so as we discussed earlier

I am going to develop a whiz recipe because number one I do actually like The Whiz but also number two I don’t think it would be a true Philly cheesesteak recipe if we don’t at least have that available as an option now between the whizzes I I tried I really

Couldn’t tell any difference for all I know they could have all just been craft cheese whiz what I do know is that I’m gonna try to create my own recipe that’s a bit more interesting than the classic stuff then for my non-whiz option I think I’m gonna go with American cheese

I may also try a very mild provolone just for comparison but anything too sharp or too funky is definitely out now last but certainly not least the rolls and honestly I’m kind of torn here because all of the rolls were really good I did like the sort of commercial

Amoroso style roll it was super soft and chewy but still pretty sturdy pretty much unlike anything I had ever had before and it’s definitely the more classic style for a Philly cheese steak but I also really love the more rustic style Rose like those at John’s Roast

Pork and at Angelo’s I may actually have to do recipes for both but if anyone has any preferences let me know in the comments below Honestly though I’m thinking the two will be pretty similar anyways because they both got that same softness and chewiness on the inside it’s mostly just the exterior that’s

Different but if my quest for the perfect New York style pizza dough is any indication it’s probably a bit harder to nail down than it seems at first glance so we better get started foreign Now in the meantime I recommend you check out this series right here where I successfully reverse engineered a New York slice just like I’m trying to do here with the Philly cheese steak so thanks a lot for watching and I’ll see you in that next video