Liberty Cheesesteak Company

Properly authentic philly cheese sandwich & cheese fry. Apparently they bake their own bread.

Food is OK but I can’t understand the big deal. They specialise in making a beef and cheese sandwich and seem to think it’s the best food in London (I overheard the most pretentious conversation the person running it was having). It’s not even the best in Spitalfields. The cheese is just weird, it’s a liquid. It runs everywhere and the bread is sweet. I worked in the US for a month or so and thought I’d seen the last of that when I i left. Apparently not.

My backup plan has always been to open a cheesesteak place in London. It’s the perfect comfort food. Thinly sliced ribeye, cheese and grilled onions on a sub roll. I figured I had at least a few years before anyone got it right. But this place has pretty much nailed it. The only thing is that s whole sub is too big and half is too small. When I grew up in philly, I’d always be able to finish a steak at Genos and then one at Pats. And sometimes even some fried clams from Sams. I could barely finish this one. I did but I was in a food coma for hours. It’s in spitalfields market now.

I had a cheesesteak from Liberty Cheesesteak Co. while visiting London at Field Day Festival. I have to say this was a great cheesesteak. In fact, I kept thinking while I was eating that it was better then any cheesesteak option I could have in San Francisco. The roll was perfect, the meat well seasoned, not too salty, and nice amount of cheese wiz. The large was very filling. I noticed that London has jumped on the burrito movement since my last visit a couple years ago and has some good options now. A proper cheesesteak is hard to find so definitely take advantage Londoners.

Mmmmmmmmmmm gooooooooood
One less reason to go back home when you can bring home to London. Wiz onions and steak on a american style bread roll. Omg omg. Thank you thank you and thank you. jP and crew can’t wait to see you again.

As an American ex-​pat, I’m usually pretty up on all things American in London. A taste of home is always welcome, and as I spend hours and hours watching Food Network, it’s often on my mind.
So I was quite surprised when I saw Liberty Cheesesteak in the listing of places at the Unilocal Red event. Immediately I started Googling and found out that a) they looked like some tasty cheesesteaks and b) that I wasn’t going to be able to try it until at the Unilocal event.
My other half was able to try it out though before the event and was suitably impressed. I was so excited to try and eagerly went for my cheesesteak taster and thought, meh. It’s fine but a bit dry or something. My husband though insisted it was just because of the making-​ahead-​bulk-​nature of trying to feed eleventy million hungry Unilocalers at once and that it was better fresh.
So today I hopped on a bus at lunchtime to go to the Mayfair Market at Brown Hart Gardens. Never had been there before and I was impressed with the location — up a flight of stairs, but loads and loads of seating and generally relaxed, with a handful of food choices.
Of course for me there was no choice, just meeeeaaaattttt. I found the tiny stand and determined that no one was queuing to order, and eagerly placed my order for a half with onions and cheese whiz. There were about 10 orders ahead of me but the line cleared quickly and I soon had my sandwich. There was a small mix up and I ended up with a whole instead of a half. Such mistakes are fine by me!
I was rewarded for my persistence. The meat was well seasoned with a nice peppery taste, and the Italian roll soft but chewy in a nice way. The onions were soft but not sweet, and the whiz was savoury and salty and unhealthy tasting, just like I wanted.
2 tiny niggles were that I had a couple of pieces of meat that could have been trimmed a bit better — but I’m a complete fuss pot and no one else would probably notice. And I would have liked more cheese. But I always want more cheese, and I’m sure if I asked for heavy on the cheese next time that I wouldn’t be denied.
Definitely better than the cheesesteak I had in Philadelphia from Geno’s.
Now to just figure out how to follow them around and be a cheesesteak groupie without seeming like a weirdo…

First an admission — I’ve been briefly to Philly and tried a cheesesteak from one of the original vendors… and I didn’t like it much. I was way too picky over my food back then and I think I got a bad bit of steak in the first mouthful and the cheese wizz was so runny that it was going everywhere. I literally dumped the thing in a bin.
But that was five years ago and I’ve turned into a grown up since. ;)
I was excited to try out this place and managed to miss them last time they were at Victoria because I was away on a work trip. This time I was not — and I wasn’t disappointed either.
It has to be one of the tastiest things I’ve ever had from a food truck, along with the theatre of watching the food prep as well. It’s not cheap at £8 for a whole one, but well worth it. The meat was perfectly cooked and seasoned and the roll didn’t go all soggy on the way back to the office as I feared it might. I opted for provolone cheese (I’m not over my cheese wizz issues yet) and despite the epic ness of the rest of the roll, it cut through and stood on its own.
I’m going to the Red party at Unilocal tomorrow night as well — I shall be aiming to have another. This not only kicked the butt of the steak and cheese at Subway, but was so good that it’s on an entirely different level all together. I want to goto there.