Pudge’s Steaks and Hoagies

Pudge’s Steaks and Hoagies are located at 1510 Dekalb Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422 (Whitpain Shopping Center). Pudge’s Steaks originally began about 1965 in the LaSalle University area. Ten years after its opening, they moved to the Blue Bell area and have been there ever since. The name "Pudge" came from the original owner, Frank Carbone, who was nicknamed as a child after the dog in the Betty Boop comic strip. After Pudge's death in 2000, the shop was taken over by his daughter.

Pudge’s Steaks and Hoagies has an extremely friendly staff that are polite from the minute you walk in the door. Their new location (they recently moved from across the street at 1530 Dekalb Pike) has plenty of tables and booths. Their place is very clean in appearance and looks like a place that you don’t want to rush your meal just so that you can leave. What I mean is that it is very cozy in there compared to the majority of Philly cheese steak joints.

Pudge’s Steaks and Hoagies also are very popular in the media. For example, they were awarded Best of Philly by Philadelphia Magazine in 2005.

Pudge’s Steaks and Hoagies has a beautiful Philly cheese steak. Their steak is semi chopped and filled high in the sandwich. The onions were sliced small and mixed well with the cheese and steak. But the highlight of this sandwich is the rolls. Pudge’s rolls come from a bakery called Conshohocken Italian Bakery and are the ideal Philly cheese steak rolls. They are soft Italian rolls with just the proper amount of texture as reflected by its smooth light golden brown appearance. I am certain that these rolls were fresh too as the boxes of rolls were stacked in customer view and appears to have been delivered the same day. Also, considering the line of people that were waiting to order, this increased the likelihood that they have a high daily turnover of their rolls inventory.

I really like Pudge’s Philly cheese steak. Even though they are almost an hour away from Philly cheese steak central in South Philadelphia, Pudge’s has done it right. The price of their Philly cheese steak was reasonable too at $6.95 for about a foot long. And their rolls…I would advise them not to switch bakeries…their bakery has mastered the formula for making Philly cheese steak rolls. Their rolls were definitely the highlight of the sandwich. I am not saying that the rest of the sandwich wasn’t good because it was. I am saying that the rolls really made Pudge’s sandwich stand out and have helped me consider them one of the Best Philly Cheese Steaks.

Pudge’s Steaks and Hoagies – welcome to the Best Philly Cheese Steak Club!