Your First Look at the Steak & Crepes Cart

Untitled

I don’t know about you, but Cheesesteaks and Crepes aren’t the most obvious combination to me. In fact, it seems a little weird. To be honest, when Brian reported on the new Steak & Crepes cart hitting midtown a little while back, it seemed a little goofy.Then the cart showed up in front of my office on 46th Street last week and curiosity got the better of me.

Untitled

The cheesesteak menu has many of the familiar options I’ve seen at classic steak joints like Carl’s with the addition of the decidedly non-traditional falafel hoagie. Below that, you’ve got options for sweet crepes. Standard fillings like caramel, chocolate, nutella and bananas are joined by a s’mores crepe, which sounds a little awesome.

Untitled

After more than a decade of regular trips to Philadelphia, I have eaten more than a few cheesesteaks. I’m no expert, but I know there aren’t many places to get good, genuine steaks in Midtown.

I can’t begin to count the number of terrible ‘cheesesteaks’ that are slung around midtown from generic delis and street meat carts and fast food joints, so what makes these guys any different? I mean, they sell a hoagie with falafel in it. How authentic can it be?

These guys are claiming their bona fides with bread shipped up from Philadelphia. They get points for that, but how’s the steak?

Untitled

I ordered a cheesesteak with whiz and onions with some sweet and hot peppers for a little spice. While I waited I watched some of the prep and noticed that unlike a traditional steak joint, the beef wasn’t being cooked from thinly sliced, raw steak, but rather they had pre-cooked the beef and were finishing it off on the griddle. This gave me a little bit of pause, but it may be DOH related or it may be done to expedite service in a small cart. Either way, they lost a point in my mind for that.

Something else that struck me was that I didn’t see where they made the crepes. It’s a tight space and there were three guys in there, so it’s possible that I just couldn’t see it, but I really hope that they aren’t making sweet crepes on the same griddle used to make my steak. That’d be really weird.

Untitled

Regardless of my concerns, the cheesesteak was an impressive beast. The whiz and grease permeated the spaces between the meat and peppers and onions. The sweetness of the caramelized onions and the surprising heat of the peppers balanced very well and the bread was the perfect balance of crusty and chewy.

This was the first real cheesesteak I’ve had in New York in at least a year, and I’m very happy to have them in the neighborhood.

Steak & Crepes, Follow them on Twitter for location (although they were on 46th last Weds and didn’t tweet it.)

4 Comments

  • Hey, what time did you go to the truck? Just speculating here but if the meat was cooked just a few minutes before you got there, it probably wouldn’t have made any discernible difference other than that little subconscious jab at your expectations (something something something freshness and cleanliness).

    I’d probably be more worried showing up at 3pm for the leathery leftovers.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar
  • I went yesterday at 47th and park. It was okay. Nowhere near the quality cheesesteak you get at Carls cheesesteak. I had the everything steak. I would go here again, but it was nothing special. I did like the french fries though, they were very crispy.

Leave a Reply

You must log in or register to post a comment.