George’s Famous Roast Beef | Steaks Review

George’s Famous Roast Beef and Steaks is located at 1007 South 9th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147. This Philly sandwich shop is a perfect example of a great cheese steak shop right in the backyard of the Top 3. Established in 1945, George’s Roast Beef is in the Italian Market only a few blocks north of the famous Geno’s and Pat’s Steaks. This place has history and for many years has been unrecognized. This will change today. Our blog is recognizing this location as a must visit. George’s deserves to have the same amount of tourists visits as any other of the top 3 Philly Cheese steak joints (a term I created for Pat’s, Geno’s, and Jim’s).

George’s Famous Roast Beef and Steaks is located in the famous Italian Market in Philadelphia (claimed to be the oldest outdoor market in the country). This is not to be confused with George’s Sandwich shop down the next block. George’s Roast Beef is a little hole in the wall luncheonette type of shop with about 4 tables to sit. The chairs are hard as a rock and the table does its job and that’s it. The looks of the places appears that there hasn’t been any renovations done since its opening 65 years ago.

Despite these limitations, the sandwiches here are fantastic. For $6.75 I received a foot long sandwich. What a value! They use soft dark brown Italian rolls that are as fresh as a new day. The onions are semi chopped and fried dark. The cheese used was American cheese and is placed under the steak. There were several ears of cheese that was not fully melted with the rest of the cheese as they hung over the side of the rolls. The sandwich was so good that I overlooked this.

The steak was fresh thin slices thrown on the grill. The steak was semi chopped meaning that there wasn’t large strips in the sandwich but the steak wasn’t fine chopped either. There was a balance between the methods of chopping the steak.

The sandwich had just the right amount of content inside the roll. There wasn’t an over amount nor was the sandwich skimpy. It was just right.

George’s Famous Roast Beef and Steaks also have roast beef on the menu and I may need to come back another time to try that.

The hospitality of the staff was very good. The chef appeared to be the owner and he was very polite and modest to me.

For the quality of the Philly cheese steaks here and the price I was surprised that people weren’t breaking George’s door down. There was an average of 1-2 customers in and out the whole time I was there. It was ironic because I drove by Geno’s and Pat’s a few moments before for comparison purposes and the lines were the usual: wrapped around the corner. Do these tourists know that they can walk just 2 blocks down Ninth Street and eat much better for cheaper? George’s sandwich is triple Geno’s or Pat’s and $1.25 cheaper. This is a no brainer. I am not trying to take business away from the Top 3 but I am trying to educate the tourists so that they know that other great places do exist.

George’s Famous Roast Beef and Steaks – welcome to the Best Philly Cheese Steak Club!

Simonetta’s South Philly Cheesesteak Review

Simonetta’s Italian Style Hoagies and Mediterranean Delights Review

Simonetta’s Italian Style Hoagies and Mediterranean Delights are located at 2510 South Broad Street, South Philadelphia, PA 19145. Simonetta’s owner, Philip Simonetta, derives his recipes from his half Italian and half Lebanese roots. This place specializes in Italian hoagies but has a special twist of underlying Lebanese culinary, which Philip learned from his grandmother.

Simonetta’s Italian Style Hoagies and Mediterranean Delights has a nice little place on Broad Street in South Philly. There is a back room where you can sit and watch television. You can also stare at all the nice Italian pictures on the wall. The staff was also extremely friendly and helpful and made me feel at home.

I ordered their version of the South Philly cheese steak, one of their specialties. I was impressed with their cheese steak (large about $7.25). Simonetta’s Italian Style Hoagies uses about a 10 inch soft Italian roll with sesame seeds. The steak is semi chopped (not fine chopped) and is very juicy. The American cheese that I ordered (you can select other cheeses) was stacked underneath the steak as it slowly was melting. I don’t usually like it this way as I prefer the cheese to be melted within the steak 100% but it actually complemented the Italian roll used. The cheese half melted and half unmelted created an Italian cheese steak hoagie effect. The onions were slightly cooked and chopped in small strips and mixed within the sandwich.

Overall, I was very impressed with Simonetta’s Philly cheese steak and their hospitality. Simonetta’s Italian Style Hoagies and Mediterranean Delights – welcome to the Best Philly Cheese Steak Club!