Pat's vs. Tony Luke's Cheesesteak in Philadephia, PA

I love Philadelphia: great city close to New York, with a fantastic food scene! Imagine that it is where there is the original Morimoto restaurant, where Marc Vetri has his amazing venue (review to come)! I will also mention the Reading Terminal Market, Sabrina's or Honey's for brunch!

But for sure, you cannot go to Philly without trying a Philly Cheesesteak! Now, there are many, many places serving this delicious sandwich, but not all of them are great. I remember that way back, we went to Philly with Jodi and a friend of mine from France, Malika. We found this amazing place close to the university that served us an amazing cheesesteak. It was not a popular joint and dinners were mainly students. Too bad that at that time I did not have the blog: no photo and no address! I then tried Geno's: this was fabulous! I remember the delicious bread and this incredibly tender meat. Then last year, we went to Geno's main competitor: Pat's King of Steaks.

Although the cheesesteak looked amazing, it was not good at all: not enough cheese when ordering something else than cheese whiz (provolone for instance), the meat was tough and the bread just ok. It left a sensation of dryness that was very disappointing!

This year, we went to Tony Luke's, thanks to the show Man vs Food (I always check where Adam goes). To be honest, I thought that Geno's was in fact Tony Luke's!!! But when we arrived there, after a 1h30 walk in a terrible heat, I realized it was not that! So, anyway, we ordered two foot long cheesesteaks. 

The first cheesesteak was with cheese whiz.

The second one with provolone.

Note that the color of the photo can be a bit greenish because of the lighting where we were sitting. 

So, let me tell you: this was amazing! I inhale mine and got part of Jodi's cheesesteak (no choice: it is solely for the blog - and yes: I am fully dedicated). First of all, not only were they generous on the meat portion, but it tasted amazingly good! It was made of ribeye and was tender, juicy and cooked to perfection. The bread was perfect too, very soft. Last but not least was the cheese: nice amount! It was the first time I tried cheese whiz and found that it was it was pretty good with the steak!

So definitely a good joint! A bit far from the center, but worth the trip!

Enjoy (I did)!