Donkey’s Place Downtown

Oh boy. I’m not sure where to start. Anthony Bourdain called this his favorite cheesesteak. That was on a 2015 episode, so he was most likely comparing it against the classic old school Philly steak joints. Now to be fair, he was eating at the Camden location, not Mount Holly. Does that make a difference? I’m not sure.

It’s a soft, thin Kaiser-style roll absolutely covered in poppyseeds. So, based on the roll alone, this would be a small sandwich. But then on the roll was a thin pile of sliced beef with a single glob of cheese. The roll held up okay, but only because the filling was so dry. It was exactly what you’d expect from a Kaiser roll, somewhat soft in the middle and flaky and dry on the crust, but with too many poppyseeds. The cheese was some sort of white American and seemed to taste okay, but there was nowhere near enough of it and it was not mixed in at all. I didn’t order onions, yet the only thing I could taste, was onions. The overall flavor was something like French onion soup. I can’t comment much on the meat because there was so little of it, and certainly no beefy flavors came through.

The execution was poor, the value was poor. I’m hoping this was a fluke, or maybe it’s because we were not at the original location. I think if this were made well, it would have had its merits as a roast beef sandwich. But this is not a cheesesteak.