chicago italian beef vs. philly cheese steak (Westmont, Lincoln: house, neighborhoods)

[edsg25]

after reading the comments, i have to wonder: did santa ever get booed while eating a cheese steak?

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by eating while walking

Portillo's is my favorite beef from a chain, but it depends on the location. T.

I prefer to think of Portillo's or Lou's as "collections", not "chains". both classic chicago companies have no franchises, run and own all their outlets, and keep them manageable in number to assure quality. in fact, that's where we differ…..I've never gone wrong with a Portillo's beef sandwich anywhere can can almost say the same thing about a Malnati's pizza (pizza being the harder to pull off, with some expected slip up's)at any location. the lexus and bmw of multi location restaurants.

[gwillyfromphilly]

Chicago Italian Beef is very good. Whenever I visit Chicago I also make sure I get one. In my opinion the Northside makes it the best.

[Irishtom29]

IME a good beef is very hard to find on the north side until you get pretty far west, when I lived in Lincoln Square I used to out to Montrose and Narragansett to get a good one. Like one fella already said in the thread there are LOTS of places in town making mediocre beefs. When I was a kid on the West Side good beef stands were common, as were Italians. I liked Carm's, Linda's and Dolly Joe's especially. I liked my beef a little on the dry side, so the bread was still snappy. I wonder if the current liking for sloppy dunked beefs has to do with so many places now using lousy bread that isn't crusty and snappy to start with.

That said I now prefer a good Philly "pizza steak" (provolone cheese, pizza sauce, green peppers) to a beef sandwich. My wife is from Philly and turned me on to Philly's Best which she says is the real deal. She left Philly before the current craze for putting Cheeze Whiz on the things.

I prefer a good combo, with the sausage cooked over a flame, to either a beef or a cheese steak. Well now I can't get a beef anyway and I assuage myself with stuff east coast people do well like meatball sandwiches, cheesesteaks and Italian subs.

[chet everett]

Tom:

The good guys that make Italian Beef are happy to ship it to even godforsaken places like Florida

You can hold a local taste test:

Bari Beef - Simply the Best Italian Beef

Al's Italian Beef Shipping

Ship Chicago Style Italian Beef from Portillos or Vienna Beef | Tastes of Chicago

[Dport7674]

A good cheesesteak can be pretty badass. Especially if they use sliced provolone, not that cheese whiz garbage.

But I'll take a good Italian beef every time.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Aleking

it's all about the spicy giardiniera

Exactly.

[MichiVegas]

I like both. If I have to pick, Chicago beef, but I agree that random places offering beef can be pretty bad. Basically the quality range is higher on the high and low end with Chicago beef.

For local chains, I think Al's is better than Portillo's, esp. the original and River North locations.

[oddstray]

I don't *hafta* choose one or the other! And I won't! (Even though I've never been to Philly, so can't claim to have had a really Philly cheesesteak.)

[Not_liking_FL]

I really can't pick one over the other, they're both great sandwiches if made with quality ingredients. That being said, I would give Philly the nod for having the best sandwiches overall. I can't think of any other city that has so many great sandwiches. Besides the cheese steak there is the roast pork, Italian hoagies, chicken cutlet, meatball, etc. I'm not putting down Chicago, which has an excellent food scene, but Philly wins out when it comes to sandwiches.