So this past weekend, I went to Philly to attend a concert. While I was there, I was determined to try an "authentic" Philly Cheesesteak. Based on online commentary, my significant other and I went to a place called Geno's Cheesesteaks.
It had long lines, and had been in business for some forty years, so I figured the online reviews were probably accurate. However...I was sorely disappointed with what I received, particularly given the price of $7 apiece. The meat was totally dry, the cheese was sparse, etc.
So I guess sadly, Jerry's Subs & Pizza is still at the top of the heap for that as far as I'm concerned. I guess thats why they boast that they're the worlds best cheesesteak anyways...
I have found that the best "specialty" food items can ALWAYS be found at the little mom and pop family businesses througout the USA...whether is be a sandwich, italian-greek-mexican-chinese-ethnic food, seafood, pizza, clam chowda, etc... and NOT at the Big Named businesses, famous restaurants, or chain restaurants!
Geno's, as far as I'm aware, only has one location, and is supposed to be a little mom&pop style place (as flamboyant as its exterior was). The only thing the main station served was cheese steak. It didn't have any variation except the type of cheese you could get. It seemed to be reasonably popular online, and the massive lines extending into the streets on a rainy day seemed to support that it was IT as far as cheese steak goes.
Jerrys on the other hand is a chain, which has like a dozen different cheese steak variations, serves pizza, etc.
To me its like researching the best pizza place in Italy to find it is significantly worse than Pizza Hut.
I've found that the Greeks usually make the best pizza in the US...I know, as U say, some things are NOT always what they appear to be, or what U would expect...
Heck, some of the best pizza I've ever had was at the El Dorado buffet in Reno. They've since changed it to something more befitting a $5 buffet, but at the time it was on par with some of the best pizza places I had been to.
Of course the absolute best pizza I've ever had was in Germany, in a little restaurant run by an Italian family.
I'm originally from Pittsburgh and when I moved to Jersey all I ever heard was how great Philly's steaks were and how I had to have one. Same thing as you, wasn't impressed. In my town the best is Gaetano's, steaks, pizza and wings. To me pizza is pizza and the cheese steak is all about the oil. You also hear alot about Jersey tomatoes but they're nothing special either lol. We do have cranberries and blueberries. What that's worth, I dunno.
I have been to Philly many times just to be disappointed every time. I am a cheese steak connoisseur lol and agree with LK that the mom and pop's places normally have the best food because they put time into cooking and preparing it. I have a Greek deli around me that has the best cheese steak I have ever had, much better then Philly.
this is a really funny/ironics story....me, my dad, 2 of my friends and their dads went on our annual baseabll trip....we stopped in philly to see a phillies game and got there around 12. so we decided to go explore the city. we asked about 5 people walking around where the best cheesesteak was and they all said Genos. we went and all got one, and they were not good.....i think the locals are paying a trick on all of the tourists lol
