Grey Lodge Pub (Northeast Philadelphia) - Cheesesteak

Appearance is of an 8" steak sandwich, served on a DePalma Bakery roll, laid into a basket lined with paper. Plentiful amounts of large cut, fried onions and steak peek out of the top of the stuffed sandwich. It's certainly not one of the more intimidating cheesesteaks that's stood before me. In fact, based on Glen Macnow's Ultimate Cheesesteak Challenge (this cheesesteak ranked 5th - http://www.610wip.com/pages/351421.php), I was expecting to be drooling when this was placed in front of me. Judging by the presentation, it reminded me of a steak sandwich I made when I was about 15 and I just threw it together with whatever bread was laying around. We decided to get the cheese sauce on the side and add it at our discretion, as we were told that it wasn't Cheez Whiz. Hmmm... - 2


The roll is from DePalma's Italian Bakery in Philadelphia. It looks and feels to be one of the softest steak rolls that I remember having. The taste comes through as being very "wheat-like", and grainy to me. I'd be curious to find out the brand of flour they use, mill, and hydration ratio. Based on my experiences, I've rarely ran into cheesesteaks served on this soft of a roll. This particular one, IMO, would be best suited for an Italian hoagie with hard meats and aged cheese. The grease seems to cut right through the softness and diminish the bread aspect at all for me. Decent bread but probably not best suited for this application. - 1

The meat is decent. Ribeye that is soft, tender, and a bit greasy with some seasoning sticking to the steak. The sliced cuts seem to be enough to pack the sandwich but this one is on the smaller side of the steak sandwiches I've encountered. For 7 beans, I would've hoped for a tad bit more bang for the buck. It is what it is though, and this is the way they do it. - 4

The cheese is of a white sauce. It tasted like it was mostly American cheese with maybe a touch of Velveeta, flour, and milk thrown in there and mixed. It reminded me a bit of the queso dip that you get at some Mexican chains. I actually thought it was decent. I liked it enough to put on my sandwich but I would still rather have American, or Provolone. Heck, I'd even take this over whiz. - 2.5

Overall, I was a bit under-whelmed. I liked it enough to slam it and actually enjoy it a bit because of the well cooked ribeye but after seeing how high it ranked in Macnow's UCC, I was hoping for a diamond in the rough. Instead, I got a c.z. that needed a lot of polishing. - 2.5

Total Score: 2.4/5

If you like craft beer, this is the place to go, especially when they have firkins pouring. They may not be the king of the steak sandwich in my books but they clearly rule the roost when it comes to pouring firkins of beer.

Grey Lodge Pub's Website: http://www.greylodge.com/