Phil's Steaks

On this cold and windy day I felt the need to give food trucks some love. After all, they brave this terrible weather to bring us food, and the only way we can show our appreciation is to stuff that food down our hungry gullets. Today's bastion of food truck goodness comes in the form of Phil's Steaks.

M and I had eaten from Phil's once before during a Hell's Kitchen Flea Market stop, but it had been over a year since that day. Since they're awesome and started coming out by my office more, I had to go back. The funny thing about M and me with regards to cheesesteaks is that we went to Philly earlier this year, and we weren't impressed by the offering we had. The place was consistently rated as one of the best from the various food blogs and sites we read so maybe we're just not that into cheesesteaks. The other funny thing about them is that we've found so many "non-traditional" cheesesteaks that we like better. I don't know, maybe we're just anti-Philly.

Anyway, the food itself from Phil's is solid. It's easily the best cheesesteaks I've had here in NYC, and one of the best I've had ever. I will admit, I don't eat many cheesesteaks so please take my hyperbole with a small grain of salt. I ended up getting a 10" shroom steak wit whiz. For those that don't understand, that means I got a 10" cheesesteak with sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions (wit), and cheese whiz (whiz). I probably should have stopped there since the sandwich is actually really big, but I foolishly got a side of fries as well.

Shroom Steak Wit Whiz

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the sandwich is a beast. Normally a 10" sandwich wouldn't be near enough for me for a meal, but I honestly could have eaten just this. It's a stuffed sandwich full of chipped beef, sauteed mushrooms, and sauteed onions. It is insanely dense. The bread that they use is from a famous bakery from Philadelphia called Amoroso's. The bread is really something special. It has some bite to it, but it's also nice and chewy. The beef is always the part of the cheesesteaks I like the least, and I think overall here it's still the case. It's good quality beef, but I sometimes find that since it's so thin, it's sometimes overcooked. The mushrooms and onions add some form of vegetable matter to the sandwich, and I do love sauteed mushrooms and onions. The whiz is a standard when you're ordering a cheesesteak, and it's always tasty.

Giant Bag of Fries

So I was hungry when I went out for lunch, and as noted, I opted to get a side of fries with my gigantic, dense cheesesteak. These fries are really good. They're thick cut which is my favorite style, and their perfectly crisped on the outside while still starchy and soft on the inside. A toss with some salt, and they're done. As good as they are, though, there was no way I was going to finish them. The fries are definitely something that needs to be shared.

Overall, this is still my favorite cheesesteak in NYC. It's probably my favorite cheesesteak overall, but there is some serious competition from a place near Portland that M and I will hopefully write about soon. It's not the cheapest option for lunch depending on what you order, but it's also really good. I highly recommend giving the guys on Phil's Steak truck a try if you come across them.