Eating Every Cheesesteak in Philadelphia to Find the Best One

Bon Appétit

We sent Elazar Sontag, Restaurant Editor for Bon Appétit, on a mission to find the best Philly Cheesesteak in Philadelphia. The most famous sandwich in Philly, cheesesteaks comprise thinly sliced beef and melted cheese on a long hoagie roll–join Sontag as he eats 19 of the city’s most recommended cheesesteaks in a single day to crown a winner.  Director: Ian Stroud Director of Photography: Kevin Dynia Editor: Kristopher Knight Host: Elazar Sontag Director of Culinary Production: Kelly Janke Creative Producer: Christie Garcia Line Producer: Joe Buscemi Associate Producer: Amy Haskour Production Manager: Janine Dispensa Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila Camera Operator: Rob Marish Assistant Camera: Eli Martine Audio Engineer: Andy Wenrich Production Assistant: Caleb Clark Staff Editorial Consultant: Ryan Harrington Researcher: Madeline Scheier Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo Assistant Editor: Andy Morell Animation: Lea Kichler Director of Content, Production: Ali Inglese Senior Director, Creative Development: Dan Siegel Senior Director, Programming : Jon Wise  VP, Head of Video: June Kim

Transcript

00:00I'm in Philly to find the absolute best cheesesteak.

00:02I'm Elazar, the restaurant editor at Bon Appetit,

00:05and I eat at restaurants for a living.

00:06I'm about to try 19 different cheesesteaks in a single day,

00:10all of them recommended by locals,

00:12best of lists, and a lot of online forums.

00:14Then tomorrow, I'll revisit my top picks

00:17to crown the absolute best one.

00:21We're at Pat, the originator of the cheesesteak.

00:23Super classic cheesesteak.

00:26Just okay.

00:27Bread is really dry.

00:28I'm at Gino's.

00:29It's a bit of a mystery.

00:31Can't really see any whiz.

00:32It's kind of just giving beef.

00:34The cheese isn't really super incorporated,

00:36and the meat's a little dry.

00:37To keep things standardized,

00:38I'm ordering every cheesesteak with onions and cheese whiz.

00:41If whiz isn't an option, I'll order American cheese instead.

00:44Caw-caw!

00:46Tony and Nick's, absolutely decked out with cheese.

00:49Juicy, flavorful, it's really good.

00:51I'm at John's Roast Pork.

00:53The bun is seeded.

00:54The steak is really nicely charred,

00:57and it's working really, really well.

00:58We're outside Rocco's,

00:59built into the Home Depot parking lot.

01:02I do really like it,

01:03but it's almost giving me beef bulgogi.

01:05Gooey Louie's told me that they only do real cheese,

01:08and that means no whiz.

01:10The beef is great, but it's straight beef.

01:12This is Mike's Barbecue,

01:14and this is a brisket cheesesteak

01:15with homemade Cooper Sharp whiz.

01:18Got that deep, smoky flavor,

01:20so it's definitely something a little bit different.

01:21I like it a lot.

01:22It's about 12 o'clock.

01:24I've had seven cheesesteaks today.

01:25I would say my body is suffering a little bit by now.

01:29Most of the cheesesteaks are sitting right here.

01:31I've eaten a lot of beef.

01:32I waited 30 minutes outside of Angela's

01:34for this cheesesteak.

01:36It seems like all of Philly is here.

01:38The onions are really, really well caramelized.

01:40I haven't seen that on any of the other cheesesteaks.

01:42Amazing across the board.

01:43We're outside Lorenzo's Pizza.

01:45It looks great.

01:46It's got a ton of cheese.

01:47The meat is nicely chopped.

01:48I wish there was more cheese.

01:50Lube it all up, but it's really nice.

01:52I'm next door to Woodrow's.

01:53Read to you from the receipt, all caps.

01:55Our truffle whiz is not from a can.

01:58The truffle is strong.

02:00This is Jim's.

02:02This is Jim's cheesesteak.

02:03Just submerged in whiz all around the perimeter.

02:06The meat looks super juicy.

02:08Bread, for me, is reading just like a tiny bit dry,

02:10but overall, it's really, really juicy.

02:12Ishka Bibble's won.

02:13I'm learning.

02:14I think I like a really juicy, overloaded cheesesteak.

02:18The ratios on this one look really nice to me.

02:20The bread actually holds up

02:21to sort of keep all that juice in.

02:23I think this is a really good cheesesteak.

02:24We're having a late roadside lunch at Cleaver's.

02:27It's a really nice looking sandwich.

02:29The bread is really nice and pillowy.

02:31I'm getting a bit of a bite that's really juicy right here,

02:34and then it's just kind of straight bread.

02:35Across the street from Taste,

02:37there's a neon sign that reads,

02:39do you want to taste me?

02:40And I do.

02:41The meat is cut pretty fine.

02:42It's good.

02:43It's like a really moist, classic,

02:44totally satisfying cheesesteak.

02:46This is Sunny's famous cheesesteaks and burgers.

02:49The onions, they're long.

02:51They're not chopped very finely.

02:52A little bit unusual in contrast

02:54with what else I've tried today.

02:56They're good, but I wish they were throughout the sandwich.

02:59You know, I think a lot of people think that,

03:01oh, just eating all day, it's so easy,

03:04it's not really a job.

03:05And you're right.

03:07But it still causes serious pain to the body.

03:10I'm at Campo's, and these onions

03:11are cut into pretty long strips.

03:14This one's fine.

03:16I'm at Steve's Prince of Steaks.

03:18The meat, sliced as opposed to shredded or chopped,

03:23so it's these long slices.

03:24I don't think I love this one.

03:26This is cheesesteak number 18.

03:28Just went into Cafe Carmela,

03:29which is mostly seemingly a sit-down restaurant.

03:32Whoa, that is a good-looking cheesesteak.

03:35Super flavorful, super moist.

03:38True love.

03:39Day of cheesesteaks in Philly would not be complete

03:41without a trip to D'Alessandro's.

03:43I was convinced by the owners to do provolone and American.

03:47The sharpness of the cheese does something

03:49really different than the whiz.

03:51The flavor's way deeper.

03:53And that was my final cheesesteak.

03:5519 in a single day.

03:57I truly did not think it was possible.

03:59I'm not even sure how we crammed them all in,

04:01but we did it.

04:02I had a ton of great sandwiches today,

04:04but four stood out as deserving of another try.

04:07Angelo's, Cafe Carmela, John's Roast Pork, and Tony and Nick's.

04:12Tomorrow, I'm going to head back

04:13to analyze every part of those four cheesesteaks

04:16and decide which is the best in Philly.

04:21We are back at Angelo's today.

04:26Technically, we are above the restaurant.

04:29There is nowhere to sit down there,

04:30and there is a line around the block.

04:32So they are letting us basically hang out

04:35in their living room.

04:37Even though I woke up with heartburn, indigestion,

04:40mildly concerning headache,

04:42I was still thinking about eating this sandwich yesterday.

04:46It really just does sort of stick in your mind.

04:52Oh my God.

04:53That is such a good sandwich.

04:55It's the bread.

04:56It's got like a real crispness.

04:58It doesn't quite have like a crust that you can feel,

05:00but in the mouth,

05:01it like still gives you something kind of sturdy.

05:03It doesn't feel soggy at all.

05:04Again, I don't really know how that's possible.

05:06I mean, as you can see, it's totally saturated.

05:08A lot of cheesesteaks are made with bread

05:10from just one or two really prolific,

05:13respected bakeries throughout the city.

05:15And they're good.

05:16They make a really, really solid, crusty piece of bread,

05:19but their bread oven is taking up a full back wall

05:22of the restaurant.

05:23So this is something that they clearly

05:24are taking super seriously.

05:26The beef, it's tender.

05:28It's thinly sliced.

05:29It's not overcooked.

05:30It's got a tiny bit of color on it.

05:32Okay, here's the thing about Whiz.

05:35It's kind of weird.

05:36I really like it.

05:38I wouldn't order it in any other sandwich.

05:41You know, there's a lot of other classic cheeses

05:44that can kind of complete this sandwich.

05:46With the quality of the bread

05:47and the really well-seasoned steak,

05:49the Whiz is really nice.

05:51It doesn't just melt and then re-harden.

05:54It just sauces the whole sandwich

05:56and then it stays that way.

05:57And I think it really, really works in this sandwich.

05:59We actually got here before Angelo's opened.

06:02Within five minutes of pulling up,

06:05there was a line around the block.

06:06You should definitely come here,

06:08but you should come here early

06:09or you should come here prepared to wait.

06:10But there is something about it

06:11that this sandwich just kind of keeps getting better

06:13and better for me.

06:14So I'm really interested to get a sense

06:17for what the rest of the day's gonna be like.

06:19This is starting really, really strong.

06:21This is gonna be a hard sandwich to beat.

06:23["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"]

06:31I'm in the dining room at Cafe Carmela right now.

06:34Yesterday, it was not part of my plan to come here,

06:37but I was looking through some of the comment boards,

06:40doing a bit of trawling on Reddit,

06:42trying to figure out if there was anything that we missed,

06:44and I kept noticing this name come up

06:45again and again and again.

06:46I think the reason we missed it is it's pretty new.

06:49It opened in 2020.

06:50I feel like you know it's good

06:51when the protective paper completely soaked through.

06:56Yesterday, this was cheesesteak number 18,

06:59and I think it really says something

07:01that even after eating that much, it was still that good.

07:07Oh my God, you see the drip?

07:10My favorite thing about this steak, the Whiz.

07:13They make their own cheese sauce here.

07:15Tried to get them to tell me what's in it,

07:17but it is definitely a house secret,

07:19so I cannot tell you too much about the contents,

07:21but it is really, really delicious.

07:23A little more complex than Whiz.

07:27Shocker.

07:27We actually got a little extra...

07:31It's still got the sweetness.

07:33It's still salty,

07:35but you can actually taste cheese, for one.

07:38It's a little bit sharp.

07:39I wouldn't describe it as aged.

07:40It's not funky at all.

07:42It just has a lot of flavor.

07:44Just to open it up a little bit,

07:46the whole sandwich is soaked through with that cheese.

07:49The bread is coming from a local bakery called Carangi's.

07:52It's a seeded loaf.

07:53I'm really liking seeded loaf.

07:55Just that extra little bit of sort of like

07:56nutty flavor from the seeds.

07:58I was talking to the mother-in-law of the owner,

08:00and she was explaining they mix the cheese sauce

08:03with the meat on the grill.

08:04That's part of why the sandwich feels so well combined,

08:08and it almost feels like the meat and the onion

08:10and the cheese are like one cohesive element.

08:13It's really getting like almost emulsified on the flat top.

08:16That's really working for me.

08:18So I think that's an awesome technique.

08:19Meat itself, ribeye, not super finely chopped.

08:23You're getting little sort of shreddy pieces,

08:26but you're still getting enough to kind of chew through it.

08:29The onions are nice.

08:31I like that they're there.

08:32I think I wish that they were cut up a bit more finely

08:34so that they were kind of soaking through the sandwich

08:37instead of just being dotted around.

08:39Before we started filming,

08:41I was talking to a customer.

08:42He's from Philly, and it actually has become

08:44his favorite cheesesteak in the city.

08:46And I think that speaks volumes in a city like Philly

08:48where a cheesesteak is really like legacy.

08:51It's really history.

08:52I don't think that you get a ton of new cheesesteaks

08:55that contend for best in the city.

08:57That just doesn't happen that often.

08:58Two down, two to go.

09:07I'm outside at John's Roast Pork.

09:09I mean, come on, it is a thing of beauty.

09:12Extremely heavy, absolutely packed with meat.

09:15It's really, really generous, thinly sliced,

09:17chopped a little bit, but not shredded up.

09:19The bread is really holding up

09:20despite being totally soaked with juice.

09:22There's cheese all throughout.

09:24We got white American cheese on this one.

09:27The bread on this cheesesteak might be familiar,

09:29same as one of the other four that we're trying today.

09:32It comes from Karanjis.

09:33Holds up really nicely to a cheesesteak like this,

09:36which just has so much going on inside of it.

09:40Oh my God.

09:43It's all about the steak.

09:44The bread is good and the cheese is flavorful,

09:47but there's so much meat, it is so moist

09:50that that is what you taste.

09:51Like that is exactly where your brain goes.

09:53It's just cooked so well.

09:55Layer of onions, layer of oil

09:56to get everything starting to caramelize,

09:58and then the meat goes down.

10:00You get beautiful color on the onions,

10:01really, really nice caramelization and sear on the meat.

10:04And that for me is what really, really stood out yesterday

10:07when we came here the first time.

10:08I don't know if you can see,

10:09but the steak is really peppery.

10:11This is the first cheesesteak I've had

10:12where it actually leaves like a little bit of heat

10:14in the back of your throat.

10:15It's really nice.

10:16So the meat here is this kind of in-between texture.

10:19It gets a little bit of cook on both sides

10:22before those line cooks start chopping it up.

10:24And so it's kind of holding together in these smaller bits.

10:28In the mouth, that just means,

10:32chewy, it doesn't melt away right away,

10:35but it's small enough that it's still just like

10:37one bite after the other.

10:39Kind of my ideal texture for the steak on a cheesesteak.

10:41Really interesting thing I picked up yesterday

10:44was that the steak is so flavorful.

10:46I almost thought there were like mushrooms in the mix.

10:49There weren't, it was just onions.

10:51The way they cook the meat with the onions,

10:53letting it really char and caramelize,

10:55it just gives it this amazing flavor.

10:57The same ingredients as a lot of other cheesesteaks,

10:59but it just tastes really different.

11:01And that is it for John's Roast Pork.

11:03We are at Tony and Nick's.

11:05Almost definitely holds the title of world's best mascot.

11:09Caw-caw!

11:10It's perfect.

11:12It should really be the flag of Philly.

11:14When I close my eyes and think about

11:16a super traditional cheesesteak,

11:18this was the one that came to mind.

11:19The bread is super sturdy,

11:21really, really generous with the meat.

11:23And then it has these onions all the way throughout.

11:25Also, can't forget about the cheese.

11:27It's a little bit like a cheeseburger.

11:28It's a little bit like a cheeseburger,

11:30but it's a little bit like a cheeseburger.

11:31It has these onions all the way throughout.

11:33Also get lots of whiz.

11:34Seems pretty nicely proportioned.

11:39They go heavy on the whiz here.

11:42And I'm glad they do,

11:43because the meat is definitely a little less juicy

11:46than some of the other spots we're hitting today.

11:47It's okay, but without that whiz,

11:49I think this would start to dry out a little bit.

11:51I am missing a bit of that juiciness.

11:53Some places buy their bread from a wholesale bakery.

11:57Some places make it themselves in the back of the shop.

12:00We're falling somewhere in the middle here.

12:02This is their own recipe,

12:03and they're finishing the bread in their own ovens

12:05right back here,

12:06but they're sending it off to get proofed,

12:09all of that, at a wholesale bakery.

12:11To me, that's the most important thing,

12:13that this bread is being baked fresh every day.

12:15I want you to see.

12:16There's like a quarter of an onion chopped up in here.

12:19That's gonna be some people's poison.

12:20I'm an onion lover, so for me, this is kind of nice.

12:23It gives it some sweetness.

12:25It balances out that whiz.

12:27It cuts through a lot of that beef.

12:30But if you are someone who does not go hard for onions,

12:32this is gonna overwhelm you.

12:34I'll admit that when we tried this one yesterday,

12:35it was like the second or third cheesesteak of the day.

12:38I was still kind of a cheesesteak baby.

12:40I didn't have the world open to me yet.

12:42I don't think I was wrong exactly,

12:45but after trying the other three today,

12:47I will say it doesn't hold up quite as much.

12:50It's leaving my mouth just a little bit dry.

12:52I'm wishing it was a little bit juicier.

12:54So we live, we learn,

12:57we salute the bald eagle holding the cheesesteak.

13:00That is it for the final four.

13:02After two straight days of eating,

13:04I think I've finally found the best cheesesteak in Philly.

13:07My absolute favorite cheesesteak in Philly was Angelo's.

13:12They're making their own bread.

13:13It kind of doesn't get better than that

13:15because each bite is just so incredibly fresh.

13:18It absorbs the juices.

13:19It balances out the flavor.

13:20It keeps the sandwich feeling really, really sturdy

13:23for every single bite.

13:25I just really couldn't get over that sandwich.

13:28The meat was really tender and really well sliced.

13:31Cheese, perfectly coated every single bite.

13:33And actually I thought the onions were pretty standout too.

13:35They were just a little bit caramelized.

13:37So it gave more sweetness,

13:38but also just a little bit more depth to every bite.

13:41Ultimately though, it was the bread.

13:43If I had an also perfect award,

13:46I would give it to John's Roast Pork.

13:48I think that that is such an excellent sandwich

13:51and it was truly so standout.

13:53The only thing putting Angelo's just a tiny bit above

13:57was that homemade bread.

13:58Everything from the hospitality

14:00to the freshness of the ingredients

14:02and the way they cook that steak at John's

14:04is really, really special.

14:05And if you have time in a day for two cheesesteaks,

14:07you've got to hit them both.

14:09One spot in our top four that gets a little bit less shine,

14:12probably because it's a lot newer, is Cafe Carmela.

14:14I thought that was a really, really good sandwich.

14:17The homemade cheese is just such a nice touch

14:20and having it robe every single bite of steak,

14:22for me, was a really special experience.

14:26Welcome to Philly.

14:29Philly in the building.

14:29Anything to say about cheesesteaks?

14:31Oh yeah, the best cheesesteaks.

14:33You got to go to Angelo's.

14:35There you have it.

14:36Seven for fish water.

14:38There you have it.

14:38There you go.

14:39Best cheesesteaks in the city.

14:41Rosciato told you, y'er.

14:43Do we have a release?

14:45Get it, get it.

14:47Do we have a release?

14:49Are we going to get like a once over,

14:50or like a what, where it's going to turn into control?

14:52What the f**k is Whiz?

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