CHEESESTEAKS • 5 min read
What Does ‘Philly Style’ Mean?
Two po’boys on the menu say it, and it is a method rather than an ingredient — the same one that makes a cheesesteak.
Philly style means the meat was sliced thin and chopped on the flat top, the way a cheesesteak filling is, rather than served as a whole fillet. Two po’boys use it — the Blackened Herb Chicken and the Chicken Bacon Club — and both eat more like a cheesesteak than like their neighbours.
Two sandwiches on our po’boy menu are described as “served sliced philly style”, and it is the one phrase on the menu that regularly gets read as a mistake. It is not. It means the filling was prepared the way a cheesesteak filling is prepared — sliced thin and chopped on the flat top — and then put into a po’boy instead.
It is worth understanding, because it changes what those sandwiches are.
What the phrase actually means
A Philly cheesesteak is defined less by its ingredients than by a method. The meat is sliced thin, cooked fast on a hot flat top, and chopped as it cooks so that it folds together with the cheese into one continuous filling rather than sitting in slices.
“Philly style” borrows that method. The meat — chicken, in both cases on our menu — is sliced and chopped on the same griddle in the same way, then dressed and served as a po’boy. Same technique, different sandwich around it.
Where it appears
- Blackened Herb Chicken Po’boy — served sliced philly style, dressed with lettuce, tomato, mayo and pickles
- Chicken Bacon Club Po’boy — served sliced philly style with bacon and American cheese, dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickles and ranch
- Philly Steak Roll — on the appetizer menu, two to a portion: the same filling wrapped and fried
The blackened herb chicken is also L1 on the weekday lunch menu, at 7 inches, with a side and a drink.
Why it matters when you order
Because it tells you the texture before you get there. A po’boy with a whole fried fillet in it eats in layers: bread, then coating, then fish. A philly-style po’boy eats the way a cheesesteak does — the filling is uniform and every bite is broadly the same.
That has consequences:
- It holds dressing better, because there is no flat fillet for the salad to slide off
- It stays hot longer, because chopped filling holds heat better than a thin fillet does
- It is easier to eat, since nothing has to be bitten through in one piece
- It travels better than a fried-fillet po’boy, which softens
Philly style is not a Philly
Worth being clear, because the names sit a few lines apart on the same menu. A philly-style po’boy is not a cheesesteak, and two things separate them.
| Philly-style po’boy | Philly cheesesteak | |
|---|---|---|
| Meat | Chicken | Ribeye, or chicken by choice |
| Bread | Po’boy bread | Amoroso roll |
| Cheese | Only on the bacon club | Always — seven to choose from |
| Dressed | Yes, as standard | No |
| Served | Cold salad on hot filling | Hot the whole way through |
The dressing is the real difference. A cheesesteak has nothing cold in it; a po’boy has lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and pickles as standard. Take a philly-style filling and dress it, and you have a sandwich that eats like neither one exactly — which is rather the appeal.
The full picture on the sandwich itself is in what makes a cheesesteak, and the nine builds are in the nine Phillys compared.
Why thin slicing is the whole trick
It is not showmanship. Thin slicing does two things at once: it lets the meat cook through in seconds rather than minutes, so it never has time to dry out, and it creates far more surface area in contact with the hot griddle, which is where the browning and most of the flavour comes from.
The cut matters as much as the thickness. Ribeye works on the Philly side because it has fat running through it that renders on the griddle — the marbling that makes beef tender is the same thing that coats everything else in the sandwich. Chicken has almost none of it, which is why philly-style chicken is drier and cleaner tasting, and why the bacon club adds bacon and ranch to make up the difference.
Why it turns up on chicken rather than beef
A fair question, since the method comes from a beef sandwich. Both philly-style items on our po’boy menu are chicken, and there is a reason beyond variety.
Chicken breast is the cut most likely to dry out, and it is exactly the cut that benefits most from being sliced thin and cooked fast. A whole chicken fillet in a sandwich has to be cooked through, which takes long enough to cost it moisture. Sliced and chopped on a hot griddle, the same chicken is done in seconds and never gets the chance.
Beef does not need the rescue in the same way, which is why the beef version of this technique became a sandwich in its own right rather than a preparation note on somebody else’s.
Which of the two to order
- Blackened Herb Chicken — the cleaner of the two, with the seasoning doing the work. On the lunch menu as L1
- Chicken Bacon Club — bacon, American cheese and ranch, so a much richer sandwich. Closer to a cheesesteak in weight
- Either at 7 inches is a full lunch; both come in a 12-inch
Ordering a philly-style po’boy to take away? It survives the journey better than any fried-fillet po’boy will, but ask for the dressing on the side anyway. Cold salad on hot chopped filling is a great sandwich and a poor twenty-minute passenger.
The short version
“Philly style” is a method, not an ingredient: sliced thin and chopped on the flat top, the way a cheesesteak filling is. Two po’boys use it, both with chicken, and both eat more like a cheesesteak than like the fried-fillet sandwiches next to them. They are on the po’boy menu.
Two po’boys, one method
Blackened herb chicken and the chicken bacon club, both sliced philly style.
Frequently asked questions
What does ‘philly style’ mean on a menu?
That the meat was sliced thin and chopped on the flat top, the way a cheesesteak filling is prepared, rather than served as a whole fillet.
Which sandwiches are philly style?
The Blackened Herb Chicken po’boy and the Chicken Bacon Club po’boy. The Philly Steak Roll on the appetizer menu uses the same filling.
Is a philly-style po’boy the same as a cheesesteak?
No. It uses the same method but different bread, chicken rather than ribeye, and it comes dressed with cold salad, which a cheesesteak never is.
Why is the meat sliced so thin?
So it cooks through in seconds without drying out, and so more of it touches the hot griddle, which is where the browning and flavour come from.
Does philly style come with cheese?
Only the Chicken Bacon Club, which has American cheese. The Blackened Herb Chicken does not.
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