Midtown Lunch

There are many options for a cheese steak in the Financial District: Delis, street meat carts, the Dominic’s Truck on Whitehall St. and the occasional visit from the Phil’s Steaks truck. We’ll also eventually be getting a location of Shorty’s cheese steaks down on Pearl St.

One place we’ve never checked out, but that I’ve always been curious about it Charly’s which is on Trinity Place (at Cedar St.) and caters to every guilty pleasure food you might want, from pizza to burgers to chicken wings. The thing that many of the dudes and construction workers that throng the place, along with students from nearby high schools, at lunch time is a cheese steak. Would it be any better than the deli variety?

You can get many variations on the cheese steak here, with provolone, American, Whiz, peppers, mushrooms, onions or any combination of these things. I went the simple route and got one with American and no additions (they come default with onion) for $7.60.

When I unwrapped the sandwich is was still steaming hot and the cheese was all melty and plentiful. The sandwich was just the right size without being too much of a gut bomb. That being said, some of you may be wanting more meat than was in there, but I think the quality here was a bit better than whatever they use at a street meat cart. Also, since they make so many of them, and people order them all of the time, I’d like to think they’re doing something right.

This wasn’t quite as good as what I had at Phil’s Steaks, but if you don’t want to have to wait in line outside for a cheese steak, Charly’s will do you right. I’d get it to go though, as the couple of stand up tables are thronged with teenagers eating pizza.

Charly’s, 110 Trinity Place (at Cedar), (212) 566-0006