Carl’s Steaks

I swear, it’s been years that I’ve been trying to eat at this truck! When it first randomly appeared on the street corner near of one of my offices (70^th and York, an area usually not visited by most food trucks, despite thousands of hungry hospital workers that would LOVE it), it was December 2014. It stayed for a few days, then on the day when I went to finally get a cheesesteak for lunch, it was gone! With Murphy’s Law in full effect, it would show up one one, days, I had brought my lunch, or two, days when I was working at a different hospital campus. Then, one fateful day, it showed up while I was on the Upper East Side… and though I had my lunch, I saved it for the next day. Ha!
A group of six people from my office, including myself, ordered. The options are decent: cheesesteaks, chicken cheesesteaks, and steak sandwiches. There are plenty of cheeses and add-​ons to pick from. However, by 12:30 on a Tuesday, they were already out of provolone and were out of green peppers. Booo. I ordered a cheesesteak with American cheese, grilled onions, and sweet peppers. My co-​workers followed suite with a changes of add-​ons.
Once I got to eat the sandwich… I was a bit nonplussed. I guess I had been building it up in my head for so long. It wasn’t bad, and I enjoyed it, but it was a bit bland. To the chagrin of any true cheesesteak purist, I took some of my co-worker’s dipping sauce from her onion rings and spread it on my sandwich to give it a little bit more flavor. Still! The meat was tender, as were the onions and peppers. The roll held up well and was soft and chewy. The onion rings, actually, were quite phenomenal! I would go back to the truck just to get another batch!
So…after that long wait, I wasn’t quite disappointed, but I suppose I had built it up in my head too much. Haaaa.
Overall, I was satisfied; next time, I may go a bit earlier to make sure I get provolone, and I would definitely get more onion rings to go with it!

Sometimes, you’re at work and you just want something incredibly unhealthy for you. And sometimes, Fooda brings Carl’s Steaks to your office. I did their half sandwich and chili combo. The portions on the half sandwich were still pretty generous, with onions and whiz. Exactly what my fat ass needed after a few hours of mind-​numbing work. The chili was also fine, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Standard stuff. If you want a cheesesteak, just order one. Live without regrets, guys.

Tried this truck for the first time after hearing a coworker rave about this for a little while. Let me start by saying this is literally a heart attack in the making. The amount of grease and cheese alone would give any cardiologist nightmares. While I will admit it is not as good as Jim’s steaks in Philly it is a wonderful substitute in the NYC. The portion was more than enough and the cheesesteak alone was worth the price. I definitely recommend that if you are in the mood for a good Philly you try this truck out.

Some of the best Cheesesteaks I’ve had in Manhattan. Get the «wiz» and enjoy a good sandwich!

I was walking around during lunch time and saw a line of food trucks at 55^th and 7^th Ave. Carl’s Steaks caught my attention since I haven’t had a good Philly Cheesesteak since, well, in Philly! What convinced me to try it was the menu option. They have a variety of options (steak, cheesesteak, chicken steak, etc) and then you get to choose the kind of cheese and whether to put onions or not. I decided on the 6″ cheesesteak, no onions, and with cheese whiz. The order was quick and then there’s a list of sauces which I only went for good ol’ ketchup. I am pretty impressed with it. It was pretty close to what I had in Philly. The bread was soft enough but also sturdy enough to hold the sauce and juices. The steak was pretty flavorful although I think I’ve had more flavorful meat in Philly.
This is pretty close to what I had in Philly so I would definitely give this another try. They also have fries loaded with a variety of things. If I had a bigger appetite or I could share with someone, I would try the fries as well.

TL;DR — If you think $ 10 for a bland 10 inch cheesesteak, a 25 minute wait, and a persistent stomachache is a good deal, go for it. Otherwise, pass on this like we wish we did.
Got a cheesesteak with provolone and onions at this truck on Governor’s Island around 5:30PM. Price point was pretty bloated, but we were hungry and they had posters plastered all over the truck boasting that their great flavor was comparable to cheesesteaks in Philly. Even though hoped this would be a quick bite and there was only one person waiting before us for food, we didn’t get our food until almost 6PM.
There were two guys working the truck. One guy was just cutting bread the whole time even though it was the end of the day. Sawing methodically at hunks of bread like at a zombie, despite hungry customers waiting for food to be made. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we saw the guy who handled our money using the {same} grimy gloves as he was wearing earlier {finally} start making our food.
…
So normally when I’m hungry, things taste better than usual, but even in my hungry state I found the cheesesteak flavorless and without any type of depth. The bread was not warm and kind of hard and old tasting. Two of us shared the sandwich and an hour in both of us had confirmed we had undeniable stomach pains. Whee. Perfect end to a relaxing Saturday.

The only time I eat «cheese whiz» is when it’s in a Philly cheese steak. Carl’s whiz 6 inch cheesesteak was amazing, better than most that I’ve had in Philly. Carl’s food truck came all the way to Dumbo, Brooklyn today (yay!)
(I’d imagine the food truck is a much shorter line than Yankee stadium if you catch the truck.)
You MUST get the cheese whiz though, and grilled onions. Don’t be afraid of the cheese whiz, trust me! If you really can’t then provolone is another good choice, but it’s not as empty and juicy as getting the whiz.
Really soft delicious hoagie bread and juicy beef. I’ve had Philly cheesesteaks that had dry thin sliced beef before but Carl’s was really flavorful and not skimping. 6 inch was a great size for lunch.
Thank you Carl’s for bringing These cheesesteaks to New York City, now I don’t have to travel all the way to Philly!

The Cheesesteaks here are actually pretty good. They still don’t really hold a candle to the real thing though.
I stumbled upon this truck parked at South Street Seaport, mostly serving the people settling in for the free outdoor movie showings. The line wasn’t very long but we waited an incredibly frustratingly long time for our single cheesesteak and onion rings.
Why would your order Onion Rings ($ 4) do you ask? Because they were out of fries. This was especially unfortunate, because these onion rings were particularly bad. There were four or five of these massive things sitting in a brown paper bag. Before the grease ate through the entire bag, I opened it up to find the big brown rings of batter with tiny slivers of onions somewhere deep inside. I took one bite and was pretty much done with them.
On to the Cheesesteak ($ 6.50 for the smaller 6 inch size), things were much better. I went with White American Cheese (as opposed to Whiz) and added the onions (free of charge), and left it at that (kept it classic without choosing any of the add-​ons at 75 cents each). It did actually have quite a delicious flavor, and was reminiscent of the taste you get in Philly, if not as good. The bread was a major problem as it was way too soft, but not soft in the good chewy way that the bread usually is.
If the line is short and you aren’t a Cheesesteak snob, by all means give this place a shot, as they make a pretty tasty sandwich at a decent price.