Regina M.
Yelp
"You are going to love this place", Lion said excitedly as we drove away from Longwood Gardens. OK, well, we'll see. I'm a Philly city girl, I have definite strong opinions on cheesesteaks, you know. Open mind and empty belly, we head in.
The restaurant has two entries - one, an upper entry, that is to a sports bar, and the other, on a lower level, to the restaurant. If you couldn't guess, the property is sloped somewhat, and the parking lot, while busy, was big enough that we were able to find a spot close by the 'lower' entrance.
The restaurant is definitely going for the "80s" vibe, lots of glass block partial walls and a red-and-tan decor, very open, tile floors. Even though we were on the restaurant side there were plenty of flat screen TVs hung high on the walls so that no matter where you sat you could watch whatever sports were on. They're not so obtrusive though to dominate the experience, and we largely ignored them.
Our server came promptly, delivered menus and took our drink orders. We decided on the soft pretzel appetizer. I got the pizza steak, as I've been craving one and my eye kept going there on the menu. Lion got a cheesesteak with (gasp) American cheese. You can't condemn him too much though, he grew up in Chester County. I am, however, slightly worried at what could come of a place that thinks the best cheese is American?
The pretzels were quite good, nice balance of salt and savory, soft in the middle, with a jalapeño cheese dip and a mustard dip. Neither dip appealed to me, however Lion gave the jalapeño cheese dip two thumbs up.
Our sandwiches arrived, they were both quite substantial in size and meat, these are not skimpy. The fries were fine, nothing exciting. Now here's where I am glad for the open mind: The pizza steak was very very good. One of the best I've had. Nice balance of sauce, mozzarella and meat, and the roll held it all nicely without falling apart. This really makes up for the "American cheese" decision on their standard cheesesteak.
We finished off with a piece of peanut butter pie which was quite nice, nothing extraordinary, a solid offering.
Service was generally good, trailed off a bit but nothing that caused us a great deal of concern.
Of course I'll be back, and I'm getting the pizza steak again. Soon.