Wud First Industries

Mike's Steaks is one of the few carts in the city that has a name. Directly across from Lou's steaks this is the closest thing that center city has to pats an genos(::facepalm). The first thing I noticed was that this was the cleanest cart I had ever seen. Maybe it was new, but the hole thing seemed to shimmer, and the inside seemed incredibly organized. There was a young girl running the cart by herself, and she seemed quite capable of doing so. However It was starting to rain, and not too many people were out. Unfortunately the menu was full of many different types of sandwiches, which didn't make too much sense to me. If you have steak in your name, why not focus on steaks and do them incredibly well?

I ordered a plain cheese steak, said no onions, and watched her drop the telltale frozen block of meat with paper back on the skillet. Then got to work chopping up the meat, to which I shuddered. AS she finished up an older man walked popped in from the back of the cart wearing a mike's steaks shirt, Im guessing this was mike. I payed, then quickly went under ground to cut through suburban station back to work.

The roll was about 11 inches long, and a bit too soft for me. It was warmed up and had an alright taste, but it was a bit generic. This was a chopped up steak, just like every steak I've ever seen in center city. I generally don't like chopped steaks, so I'm not too excited about this. All of the cheese was on the bottom underneath the meat, I find this infinitely preferable to being mixed throughout. I always feel like they're trying to pass shitty meat when they mix the cheese in. As I started to eat the first thing I noticed was that this steak was not as greasy as Ive come to expect over the years. Actually It was not greasy at all, this was a pleasant surprise. The meat was evenly cooked, I didn't notice any fat or gristle, and it had a good flavor too it. I assume they season the meat before freeze it, as I tasted a bit of garlic. The major downside to this sandwich was that it was mostly air. At first it seemed to be of a good size, but after giving it a squeeze it flattened out to to the thickness of about 25 sheets of paper. If Mike or any of his subordinates read this I recommend smaller rolls, so that the meat can fill them up better. Maybe even offer a "large" with more meat for an extra price.

Maybe I was really hungry, or maybe I was just expecting it to suck really bad, but I really liked this steak. It was the best "lunchroom cafeteria" steak I've ever had. That being said, it still didnt qualify as a Philly steak, or even a Jersey steak. Those are words my friensd all know, and I'll explain them some other time. I give Mikes steaks 7 out of 10.