One of the new food trucks I’ve been looking forward to is Phil’s Steaks. When I spoke with the guys from Phil’s a while back, they were amazed there was not already a Philly cheesesteak truck in New York. Lot’s of places in New York serve cheesesteak, but most are lacking. Time to see if these guys are the real deal.
It always take longer than expected to get a new food truck on the street, but Phil’s finally had a soft opening this weekend to work out the kinks before heading to higher traffic areas this week.
We went up to 23rd St & 5th Ave on Saturday, got the lowdown from the guys (and gal) in the truck, and had a cheesesteak hot off the grill, in addition to bringing one home for my family to try.
Working at Phil’s are a mix of people from Philly, New York and some other places. They told me they spent a lot of time testing out meat and cheese from different vendors before making their final choices.
The options are many. You can get beef or chicken, wit’ or wit’out grilled onions, add peppers, mushrooms, tomato, lettuce and extra cheese, of which they have white American, provolone and whiz. As for the bread, they use Amoroso’s, which is as authentic as you can get for a Philly cheesesteak.
A full-sized 10″ hero is $8.50, and it comes with 1/2 pound of meat. You can also get a half (5″) for $5.50. The full sandwich menu is here and the combo menu is here.
As you can see from the combo menu (and the small logo on the truck’s door,) Phil’s is working with Cupcake Stop to offer several different cupcake flavors daily. In fact, Phil’s truck is actually one of the old Cupcake Stop trucks. In case you haven’t noticed, Cupcake Stop is no longer on the street. Instead, they are now concentrating on Cupcake Stop kiosks in malls, with the first one recently opened in the Staten Island Mall.
For our first cheesesteak, we asked J.J. what he recommended, and he said his favorite was beef wit’ onions, white American and whiz. Sold!
You have to be careful eating the sandwich right away because it is full of heat and steam, and I almost burned my mouth. The risks I take for New York Street Food are unbelievable!
The beef was shaved thin, but you could tell it was decent quality meat. It wasn’t fatty at all, and every bite was delicious. Every bite was also filled with the taste of cheese, making it a true cheesesteak.
I’m not a big fan of cheez whiz, although mixed with white American, it added some edge to the sandwich. I also put some hot sauce on the 2nd half of my sandwich, which was a nice addition.
The bread was nice and soft and held everything together well, but these sandwiches are made for eating right away. The cheesesteak I ate at the truck was hotter and the bread firmer than the one I brought home for my family to try (photo below) – although they seemed to enjoy it just fine.
I definitely want to try the chicken cheesesteak next time, and will probably get mushrooms and provolone for some variety. You can make your own decision on what to get at Phil’s, but let us know your thoughts after trying them out.
You can find Phil’s Steaks on twitter here or on our Mobile Munchies twitter feed.
