The Best Cheesesteak In Philadelphia | Best Of The Best

We don't need to film anymore. Hey, I'm Emily. Tomorrow we are going to Philadelphia in search of the best Philly cheesesteak. For those of you who don't know what a Philly cheesesteak is, it's basically an iconic sandwich from Philadelphia. So generally speaking, a Philly cheesesteak is a roll, and in the roll is thin slices of beef or steak and cheese. Options of toppings include onions, but that's totally up to you. We asked you on Snapchat to vote for your favorite Philly cheesesteak, and we're headed there to figure out what our favorite is. Four different cheesesteaks, four different places. Let's see which one tastes the best. Let's go. First stop, John's Roast Pork. So why is John's Roast Pork your favorite Philly cheesesteak place? It's my favorite because you get the most steak, you get the best cheese, you get the most out of it. This is John. He's the third-generation owner of the restaurant. John believes simplicity is key when it comes to a great cheesesteak. He uses thinly sliced steak and chopped onions as his base. The restaurant's called John's Roast Pork, and you guys are equally famous for your own vegetables. You know, that's only happened in the last, like, 10 years. Around 2001, we were written up by Craig LeBanon, the inquirer, as having the best cheesesteaks. You know, ever since then, it's been great. An important little detail? John scoops out some bread from the fresh roll. People ask me, like, why is your sandwich different than any of the others? And the reason why is, like, we cook everything fresh. She won't come here and get your sandwich right away. She'll cook everything individually. It's, like, the size of an infant. It really is, like, opening a present. That's gonna be the best bite right there. Are you ready for the first bite here? I am. I'm ready for the first bite. The thing I like most about this cheesesteak is that the American cheese and beef are, like, piping hot and, like, kind of, like, congealed together. My initial thoughts are that I watched Karen eat this first, and I'm drooling. I'm so ready to try this. Oh, dude, this is great food. Like, that's just the greatest feeling in the world, to bite into something this good. You can tell how fresh the beef is. It's really, like, just, like, chewy and delicious, and it melts in your mouth at the same time. Next up, Jim's Steaks on South Street. What are the best cheesesteaks in Philly? Jim's Steaks. Yeah, Jim's is the best cheesesteaks in Philly. Jim's is the place for the Philly cheesesteak because... Top-round black Angus beef is sliced paper-thin and distributed into 30-pound containers. The steak is tossed and broken down into smaller chunks on the griddle. What should we get? Someone's never had a Philly cheesesteak before. I always tell them to keep it simple. So, for us, it's whiz, wit, and that's cheese whiz, steak, and onions. That's all. The fresh roll then gets dressed with a slab of cheese whiz. Meat and onions are swiftly added on top. And, of course, a drizzle of extra cheese whiz makes the sandwich complete. The cheesesteak is quite messy and greasy, but in a good way. Can I get you a napkin? No! Thank you! The steak here is finely chopped, so you're getting more of a tender, beefy texture. The onions are these nice, robust, big chunks with that melty cheese whiz. It's just trifecta of flavor. When I think of Philly cheesesteak, I think this is the cheesesteak that I'm probably going to imagine. It's the one that everyone's been talking about. This is what I have been waiting for. This is the first time I've ever had a Philly cheesesteak, and this is exactly what I imagined it to be. It's rich, full of flavor. Just a quick update for everyone. We smell like cheesesteak now. We embody cheesesteak. I'm sweating it out, my pores. Sorry, that's a nasty visual. About 25 minutes outside Center City is D'Alessandro's Steaks and Hoagies, our third stop. We grew up coming here our entire lives, and this is like the only cheesesteak we've ever done. Other cheesesteaks you meet in there just don't come in as good. Each cheesesteak starts with finely chopped rib-eye steak. Up to 40 to 50 pounds of steak can be sitting on the griddle at one time. So when you come in and order a cheesesteak with us, we recommend America. That's our first option. It's our most popular cheese. We want everybody to get the true experience. Also, we offer cheese whips just as an option, although we don't recommend it. That's more of a South Philly way to do it. We're also going to ask you if you'd catch a break. The sauce on your cheesesteak is a compliment just as usual. So the steak here is rib-eye, and it's like chopped even finer than a lot of the places we've went to. The bread immediately feels plush, and like it's not as greasy as the other places. I love it so much. I thought it was going to be too much. Oh, but it's so good. I'm really excited about this one because I love how this meat looks so finely chopped. I totally, totally get how crazy this is. I could eat one of these every day. We're from Utah. We got referred to come here by a friend. Thumbs up. Our final stop was Pat's King of Steaks. The restaurant is open 24-7, and you can always rely on them to have a cheesesteak ready for when you come. Unfortunately, the restaurant did not allow us to film the making of the cheesesteaks, so we just had to order one. My initial thoughts immediately are that the ratio of the amount of beef is in here is quite smaller than all the other places that we've been to. Also, the bread is not as soft. Pat's is probably one of the places that everyone said we should go to, so maybe it just tastes a lot better than it looks. It is a good cheesesteak, but I feel like I'm a little underwhelmed. It talks about as like a go-to spot, but honestly, the beef is a little bit dry. It tastes like it was thrown together super quickly, which is like the whole point of this place. You know, the point is get in, get your cheesesteak, and you get out, and it satisfies that craving totally. We asked other customers what they thought. After eating four cheesesteaks in one day, it was time for us to go home. We just came back from Philadelphia. We almost had to stay an extra night just to recover, but we're back. And it also gave us time to marinate our thoughts, and now we have a definitive ranking of our preferred cheesesteak place. Do you have a ranking? Yes, I definitely have a top-to-bottom ranking. All right, so coming in hot at number four, definitely Pat's. I have to agree with you. I think it was because we tried so many other great cheesesteaks that day, and that one just did not live up to like the freshness of the other ones. It tasted like the fast food version of everything else we ate that day. It was definitely the fastest, the most convenient, but it tasted the least fresh. All right, so number three. Jim's. I agree, too. Yeah, beloved Jim's Steaks. I really liked it. The thing is, I have honestly not a bad thing to say about it. It just wasn't in my top two. Jim's, though, I feel like it hit all the right points. Everything about it was great, but that was it. If I do have to say one thing, I feel like Jim's is one of those places that tourists and locals will go all together, and it's the quintessential, what did you say? The quintessential Philly cheesesteak. It felt like an iconic location, and that, to me, made it an experience in and of itself. So number two is where we diverge in opinions. Why don't we count down three, two, one, and then say our second favorite? Three, two, one. John Saunders. Why was John Saunders second for you and not first? John Saunders was delicious. I thought the meat was really, really finely chopped, which I understand is the appeal. To me, that wasn't my preference. Now we know why John Saunders was my second choice. Obviously, it's your first, so we'll get into that in a second. Why is John's Roast Pork your second favorite? John's Roast Pork is, in a way, the exact opposite of Del Sandro's. Because John's Roast Pork has really chunky, beefy texture, whereas Del Sandro's is very finely chopped. Everything was fresh to order. But the meat for me, because it was so chunky, I didn't like it. That's fair. I mean, that's fair. I think this comes down to a difference in meat preferences. Yeah. So the reason why Del Sandro's for me was the best is because it was finely chopped. The reason why it was my top favorite is because they added mayonnaise. If you don't like mayonnaise, you can get the Del Sandro's without mayo. I just want to say that the four places we visited were all, I mean, very good places. You guys recommended them. The bar was set very high. I would go back to each and every one of those places. I was enormously happy all day long. Insert Philly cheesesteak montage now! I'm all warm. I love it so much!