Eating Every Cheesesteak in Philadelphia to Find the Best One

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

I'm Elazar the restaurant editor at Bon Appetit

and I eat at restaurants for a living.

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

all of them recommended by locals, best-of lists

and a lot of online forums.

Then tomorrow I'll revisit my top picks

to crown the absolute best one.

We are at Pat's, the originator of the cheesesteak.

Super classic cheesesteak.

Just okay. Bread is really dry.

I'm at Geno's. It's a bit of a mystery.

Can't really see any Whiz.

It's kind of just giving beef.

The cheese isn't really like super

incorporated and the meat's a little dry.

To keep things standardized,

I'm ordering every cheesesteak with onions and Cheez Whiz.

If Whiz isn't an option, I'll order American cheese instead.

[Elazar crowing]

Tony and Nick's, absolutely decked out with cheese,

juicy, flavorful.

It's really good.

I'm at John's Roast Pork.

The bun is seeded.

The steak is really nicely charred

and it's working really, really well.

We're outside Rocco's.

Built into the Home Depot parking lot.

I do really like it,

but it's almost giving me like beef bulgogi.

Gooey Looie's told me that they only do real cheese

and that means no Whiz.

The beef is great, but it's straight beef.

This is Mike's BBQ

and this is a brisket cheesesteak

with homemade Cooper Sharp Whiz.

Got that deep, smoky flavor,

so it's definitely something a little bit different.

I like it a lot.

It's about 12 o'clock.

I've had seven cheesesteaks today.

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

Most of the cheesesteaks are sitting like right here.

I've eaten a lot of beef.

I waited 30 minutes outside of Angelo's

for this cheesesteak.

It seemed like all of Philly is here.

The onions are really, really well caramelized.

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

Amazing across the board.

Outside Lorenzo's Pizza.

It looks great. It's got a ton of cheese.

The meat is nicely chopped.

I wish there was more cheese.

Lube it all up, but it's really nice.

I'm next door to Woodrow's.

Read to you from the receipt.

All caps. Our truffle whiz is not from a can.

The truffle is strong.

This is Jim's.

This is Jim's cheesesteak just submerged in Whiz

all around the perimeter.

The meat looks super juicy.

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

but overall it was really, really juicy.

Ishkabibble's one.

I'm learning, I think I like a really juicy,

overloaded cheesesteak.

The ratios on this one look really nice to me.

The bread actually holds up to sort

of keep all that juice in.

I think this is a really good cheesesteak.

We're having a late roadside lunch at Cleavers.

It's a really nice looking sandwich.

The bread is really nice and pillowy.

I'm getting a bit of a bite that's really juicy right here

and then it's just kind of straight bread.

Across the street from Taste,

there's a neon sign that reads, Do you want to taste me?

And I do.

The meat is cut pretty fine. It's good.

It's like a really moist, classic,

totally satisfying cheesesteak.

This is Sonny's Famous Cheesesteaks and Burgers.

The onions, they're long, they're not chopped very finely.

Little bit unusual in contrast with

what else I've tried today.

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

You know, I think a lot of people think that,

Oh, just eating all day, it's so easy.

It's not really a job.

And you're right,

but it still causes serious pain to the body.

I'm at Campo's and these onions are cut

into pretty long strips.

This one's fine.

I'm at Steve's Prince of Steaks.

The meat, sliced as opposed to shredded or chopped.

So it's these like long slices.

I don't think I love this one.

This is cheesesteak number 18.

Just went into Cafe Carmela,

which is mostly seemingly a sit-down restaurant.

Whoa, that is a good looking cheesesteak.

Super flavorful, super moist.

[indistinct] day of cheese steaks in Philly

would not be complete without a trip to Dalessandro's,

but I was convinced by the owners to do provolone

and American.

The sharpness of the cheese does something really

different than the Whiz.

The flavor's like way deeper.

And that was my final cheesesteak.

19 in a single day.

I truly did not think it was possible.

I'm not even sure how we crammed them all in, but we did it.

I had a ton of great sandwiches today,

but four stood out as deserving of another try.

Angelo's, Cafe Carmela,

John's Roast Pork, and Tony and Nick's.

Tomorrow I'm going to head back to analyze every part

of those four cheesesteaks

and decide which is the best in Philly.

[groovy music]

We are back at Angelo's today.

Technically we are above the restaurant.

There is nowhere to sit down there

and there is a line around the block.

So they're letting us basically hang out

in their living room.

Even though I woke up with heartburn,

indigestion, mildly concerning headache,

I was still thinking about eating this sandwich yesterday.

It really just does sort of stick in your mind.

Oh my god, that is such a good sandwich.

It's the bread.

It's got like a real crispness.

It doesn't quite have like a crust that you can feel

but in the mouth it like still gives you

something kinda sturdy.

It doesn't feel soggy at all.

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

I mean it's, you can see it's totally saturated.

A lot of cheesesteaks are made with bread from just one

or two really prolific,

respected bakeries throughout the city and they're good.

They make a really, really solid crusty piece of bread,

but their bread oven is taking up a full back wall

of the restaurant.

So this is something that they clearly are taking

super seriously.

The beef, it's tender, it's thinly sliced,

it's not overcooked.

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

Okay, here's the thing about Whiz,

it's kind of weird.

I really like it. I wouldn't order it in any other sandwich.

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

that can kind of complete this sandwich.

With the quality of the bread

and the really well seasoned steak,

the Whiz is really nice.

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

It just sauces the whole sandwich and then it stays that way

and I think it really, really works in this sandwich.

We actually got here before Angelo's opened,

within five minutes of pulling up,

there was a line around the block.

You should definitely come here,

but you should come here early

or you should come here prepared to wait.

But there is something about it that this sandwich just kind

of keeps getting better and better for me.

So I'm really interested to get a sense for what the rest

of the day's gonna be like.

This is starting really, really strong.

This is gonna be a hard sandwich to beat.

[groovy music]

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

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

but I was looking through some of the comment boards,

doing a bit of trolling on Reddit,

trying to figure out if there was anything that we missed

and I kept noticing this name

come up again and again and again.

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

It opened in 2020.

I feel like you know it's good when the like protective

paper completely soaked through.

Yesterday this was cheesesteak number 18

and I think it really says something that even

after eating that much, it was still that good.

Oh my God. You see the drip?

My favorite thing about this steak, the Whiz,

they make their own cheese sauce here, tried to get them

to tell me what's in it,

but it is definitely a house secret.

So I cannot tell you too much about the contents,

but it is really, really delicious.

A little more complex than Whiz. Shocker.

We actually got a little extra.

It's still got the sweetness.

It's still salty, but you can actually taste cheese,

for one.

It's a little bit sharp.

I wouldn't describe it as like aged.

It's not funky at all. It just has a lot of flavor.

Just to open it up a little bit,

the whole sandwich is soaked through with that cheese.

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

It's a seeded loaf. I'm really liking seeded loaf.

It's just that extra little bit of sort

of like nutty flavor from the seeds.

I was talking to the mother-in-law of the owner

and she was explaining they mix the cheese sauce

with the meat on the grill.

That's part of why the sandwich feels so well combined

and it almost feels like the meat and the onion

and the cheese are like one cohesive element.

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

That's really working for me.

So I think that's an awesome technique.

Meat itself, ribeye, not super finely chopped.

You're getting little sort of shreddy pieces

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

The onions are nice.

I like that they're there.

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

so that they were kind of soaking through the sandwich

instead of just being dotted around.

Before we started filming, I was talking to a customer,

he's from Philly and it actually has become his favorite

cheesesteak in the city.

And I think that speaks volumes in a city like Philly

where a cheesesteak is really like legacy.

It's really history.

I don't think that you get a ton

of new cheesesteaks that contend for best-in-the-city.

That just doesn't happen that often.

Two down, two to go.

[groovy music]

I'm outside at John's Roast Pork.

I mean come on.

It is a thing of beauty.

Extremely heavy, absolutely packed with meat.

It's really, really generous.

Thinly sliced, chopped a little bit but not shredded up.

The bread is really holding up

despite being totally soaked with juice.

There's cheese all throughout.

We got white American cheese on this one.

The bread on this cheesesteak might be familiar,

same as one of the other four

that we're trying today, comes from Carangi's.

Holds up really nicely to a cheesesteak like this,

which just has so much going on inside of it.

Oh my God.

It's all about the steak.

The bread is good and the cheese is flavorful,

but there's so much meat.

It is so moist that that is what you taste.

Like that is exactly where your brain goes.

It's just cooked so well.

Layer of onions, layer of oil to get everything starting

to caramelize and then the meat goes down.

You get beautiful color on the onions.

Really, really nice caramelization and sear on the meat.

And that for me is what really, really stood out

yesterday when we came here the first time.

I don't know if you can see,

but the steak is really peppery.

This is the first cheesesteak I've had

where it actually leaves like a little bit

of heat in the back of your throat.

It's really nice.

So the meat here is just kind of in between texture.

It gets a little bit of cook on both sides

before those line cooks start chopping it up.

And so it's kind of holding together in these smaller

bits in the mouth.

That just means chewy.

It doesn't melt away right away,

but it's small enough that it's still just like

one bite after the other.

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

Really interesting thing I picked up yesterday

was that the steak is so flavorful,

I almost thought there were like mushrooms in the mix.

There weren't. It was just onions.

The way they cooked the meat with the onions,

letting it really char and caramelize,

it just gives it this amazing flavor.

It's the same ingredients as a lot of other cheesesteaks,

but it just tastes really different.

And that is it for John's Roast Pork.

[groovy music]

We are at Tony and Nick's.

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

[Elazar crowing]

It's perfect.

It should really be the flag of Philly.

When I close my eyes

and think about a super traditional cheesesteak,

this was the one that came to mind.

The bread is super sturdy, really, really generous

with the meat and then it has these onions

all the way throughout.

Also get lots of Whiz, seems pretty nicely proportioned.

They go heavy on the Whiz here and I'm glad they do

'cause the meat is definitely a little less juicy than some

of the other spots we're hitting today.

It's okay, but without that Whiz,

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

I am missing a bit of that juiciness.

Some places buy their bread from a wholesale bakery.

Some places make it themselves in the back of the shop.

We're falling somewhere in the middle here.

This is their own recipe

and they're finishing the bread in their own ovens

right back here, but they're sending it off

to get proofed.

All of that at a wholesale bakery.

To me that's the most important thing

that this bread is being baked fresh every day.

I want you to see there's like a quarter

of an onion chopped up in here.

That's gonna be some people's poison.

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

It gives it some sweetness, it balances out that Whiz,

it cuts through a lot of that beef.

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

this is gonna overwhelm you.

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

it was like the second or third cheesesteak of the day.

I was still kind of a cheesesteak baby.

I didn't have the world opened to me yet.

I don't think I was wrong exactly,

but after trying the other three today

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

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

I'm wishing it was a little bit juicier.

So we live, we learn,

we salute the bald eagle holding the cheesesteak.

That is it for the final four.

After two straight days of eating,

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

My absolute favorite cheesesteak in Philly was Angelo's.

They're making their own bread.

It kind of doesn't get better than that

because each bite is just so incredibly fresh.

It absorbs the juices, it balances out the flavor,

it keeps the sandwich feeling really, really sturdy

for every single bite.

I just really couldn't get over that sandwich.

The meat was really tender

and really well sliced.

Cheese, perfectly coated every single bite.

And actually I thought the onions were pretty standout too.

They were just a little bit caramelized.

So it gives more sweetness,

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

Ultimately though it was the bread.

If I had an also-perfect award,

I would give it to John's Roast Pork.

I think that that is such an excellent sandwich

and it was truly so standout.

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

was that homemade bread.

Everything from the hospitality to the freshness

of the ingredients and the way they cook that steak

at John's is really, really special.

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

you've gotta hit 'em both.

One spot in our top four

that gets a little bit less shine probably

'cause it's a lot newer, is Cafe Carmela.

I thought that was a really, really good sandwich.

The homemade cheese is just such a nice touch

and having it robe every single bite of steak

for me was a really special experience.

Welcome to Philly. Thank you.

Philly in the Building.

Anything to say about cheesesteaks?

Oh yeah, the best cheesesteaks.

You gotta go to Angelo's.

There you have it. 7th and Fitzwater.

There you have it. There you go.

Best cheesesteaks in the city.

Will Skiano told you. You heard.

Do we have a release? Get it, get it.

[Elazar] Do we have a release?

[Cameraman] Are we gonna get like a once over on what Whiz

is during the intro?

What the [beep] is Whiz?