Philadelphia Cheese steak, Where is the best place to try one?

My oldest son is considering Temple University and so we are coming to Philadelphia on Saturday, November 12th, (actually we're coming on Friday night and staying over) to attend an open house. We should be finished around 2:00 PM.

We don't want to leave Philadelphia without having a genuine Philly Cheese steak. Where should we go for it? All suggestions will be appreciated.

i was at pats on friday, absolutly loved it

Where is Pat's?

Yeah Pats is great, its where 9th street crosses Wharton and Passyunk Ave.

Geno's is right next to it. Both are real good. I like pats better though. Its 1237 E passyunk ave.

Thanks. My son's friends recommended Geno's to him. I think maybe we'll try both.

We're probably going to pass by "Love Park" as my son is an avid skateboarder and he claims it is quite a park. Do any of you know where it is? Is there anything else that we should do/look at for the few afternoon hours that we'll be there?

Thanks again.

I am partial to Jim's at 5th and South.

Pats ! 9th & Wharton

Make sure you get cheese fries too

Gino's and Pat's Steaks are for the tourists. If you want the best cheesesteaks in Philly, Jim's Steaks is where it's at. They have a location on South Street and at least one more location in the suburbs (Springfield maybe?).

Andrew

All of the above mentioned places are great...some are touristy but isnt that part of the point?

Tony Lukes gets my vote Best bread and SHARP Provolone cheese. It is at Front and Oregon

Abners which is on U' of Penns campus is also very good. Around 31st and Chestnut.

I believe Love Park is now OFF limit to skateboarders!

We took an out of town guest there this past Saturday night! It usually gets my vote to go with out of towners because you get the whole South Street experience as well.

Yeah, LOVE park is right next to City Hall on 16th Street, but skateboarding is not permitted there. And there is normally a visible police presence there at LOVE park to dissuade potential skaters.

Maybe he meant FDR Skate Park? He sould definitely check out FDR if you have time. It's a pretty much world-famous skate park in South Philly:
http://www.fdrskatepark.org/
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~blathrop/fdr1.html

Andrew

Thanks for the info. I think my son, Andrew, said that the X games had been in Love Park a few years ago. He did know that skateboarding is not allowed there anymore. He read this thread a little while ago, and is familiar with FDR.

Anyway, thanks for the info. We'll be in Philadelphia on Saturday. I can't wait for my Cheese steak.

me to, but you really have to plan that trip out...the last few times i went i waited for over 30minutes, but its worth it...Main problem with Jims is the parking...

Genos is great, Tony Lukes is also very good

Hey,

My wife and i agree that Jim's on South Street is by far the supreme cheesesteak to eat. If you go on a Saturday, the wait is over an hour. it is well worth the wait.
Larry

We got into the hotel in Cherry Hill at about 7:30 on Friday evening, checked in and decided to head into Philadelphia for our cheese steak sandwich. I set the GPS for Passyunk and 9th and we were on our way.

In a little while we found ourselves in South Philly. We parked about two blocks away from Pat's and Geno's and headed over. My son had heard about Geno's from his friends so we decided to try it. The cheese steak sandwiches were very good as were the cheese fries. The woman behind the counter laughed as we asked so many questions, it was obvious that we were tourists from Northern Jersey. She gave us 4 official Geno's pens. The man next to her, cooking the sandwiches gave me a lesson in how to properly pronounce the street name Passyunk. We had a great time and enjoyed the meal except that we were freezing cold. As soon as we got back into the car we put the heat on high.

We spent the next hour driving around South Philly admiring the houses and architecture. We loved the row houses and how well kept everything seems to be. We are native New Yorkers and unfortunately, New York doesn't have anything as charming as the row houses in South Philly except maybe for Greenwich Village.

We drove up to Society Hill and looked around. In the 70s I used to buy fabric from some jobbers who had their warehouses in the area. It was a nice area then, but now it's just magnificent. We enjoyed looking around.

The next morning we went to Temple University for the open house. Liz and I were very impressed with it. Both of us went to urban schools (Liz went to New York University and I went to the City University of New York) so we were very comfortable there. Our son Andrew liked the school and now his decision is even more difficult. If he is accepted to all of the schools that he applied to, it will be real hard to make up his mind. There is a good possibility that he will pick Temple.

After the open house, we went downtown to see the Liberty Bell. Our youngest son wanted to see it. We parked on Walnut and walked around. Once again, we admired the row houses and Philadelphia in general. The Liberty Bell was ok, but I'm not sure it was worth the 45 minute wait. Security is real tight. We even had to take off our belts and go through scanners.

We had a nice weekend, and I want to thank all of you who offered advice on the cheese steak sandwiches. Thank you again. Philadelphia is a great town.

Rob, Liz, Andrew, Adam-

Sorry that we missed y'all.....would have loved to meet up. OTOH, we were pretty exhausted last night with car repairs etc (the VW) and today saw a quick trip to Gettysburg to shut down our cottage for the winter.... I'm also still under the weather with a post-NZ headcold and other yucky stuff.

Give some advance notice if you come thru Philly again on the college rebound. Temple would be a good choice...

Jerry,

I was going to call you, but I figured that returning from NZ so recently would have you in jet lag. I imagine both of you must be exhausted.

I'm sure we'll be back again. We'll get together. Where is your community in relation to Temple?

Acc to mapquest , Narberth is 8 miles almost due west of Temple Main Campus (Broad St & Montgomery Ave). 21 minutes driving time.

Habitat Philadelphia's headquarters is only a few blocks away from Temple. Temple has an excellent college radio station in WRTI- fm 90.1 (jazz from 6 pm to 6 am/ classical from 6 am to 6 pm). I listen to it all the time

Great recap Rob from a nice visit to the town some of us

Rob used to live in Manhattan....moved out to raise his family....now looks fwd to the 'empty nester' opp'y to move back into the city.

Sound familiar

It sure does! Ten year center city Philly tax abatements..luxo condos.. Rob should follow his son to Philly

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Philly Cheese Steak

I am hoping that Andrew considers Temple. It would give us an excuse to visit Philadelphia often. It's a great town.

Liz and I are native New Yorkers and we loved living in midtown. We are thinking about moving back when our youngest, Adam, leaves for college in another 6 years. If for some reason we don't move back into New York, we may very well end up in Philly. It really is a great town.

We may just have to come and visit with all of you one of these days. We should have an S2000 and Cheesesteak meet.

Andrew was accepted to Temple today. There is a very good chance that he'll go there. We just have to wait for the University of Mass. and Rutgers to reply before he makes up his mind.