Description: On a recent road trip to Philly my friends and I tried three different popular Cheese Steak joints in Philly....Pat's, Jim's and Geno's. Pat's was our least favorite of the three based mostly on the service that we received. The line was long...as anticipated. The three men cooking the steaks had the personality of rocks. The one manning the window didn't want to explain any menu options and was just pretty much rude. We asked if they could do onions on the side... to which he yelled back "no sides". We asked for fries "you don't get them at this window". Then he just said "next window" so I thought he meant that I had to pick up my Cheese Steak at the next window, but apparently he was still talking about the fries. So, I walked over to the next window then he yelled at me again to come back and get my steak from him. I grabbed the steak off the counter and immediately the grease ran off the wax paper and down my shorts. Couldn't they wrap the steak? Since I then spent some time getting the grease off my pants, I didn't bother trying the fries, but they did look good. Ordering an overpriced Cheese Steak should not be this stressful!
I get that these guys probably see thousands of people in a day, but the majority must be tourists so they should really learn to have a little more patience.
Now, on to the steak. Overall the Cheese Steak was actually a bit larger than at some of the other establishments we tried, but was just very bland. We got two. One with peppers and whiz and one with cheese. The bread at Pat's was the best and like I said, the size of the sandwich was the biggest and best value, but the flavor just wasn't there. The seating, similar to Geno's, was all outside, and you had to stalk the tables waiting for someone to get up. But if you go with a group, just have one person go around table hunting while you wait in the line and you shouldn't have a problem. It worked well for us.
All in all, we weren't impressed by the food and the stress involved in ordering was enough to put Pat's at the bottom of the list for the three that we tried.
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