Cheese David's 起司大衛

Profile

Cheese David's is a philly cheese steak joint in the heart of Ximen Ding. They serve up a pretty tasty Cheese Whiz style cheese steak using prime top sirloin cuts marinated in their own special sauce. They also have other different sub sandwiches and they also serve hamburgers. You can also order yourself a root beer float here as well. This place is a haven for those who miss a nice greasy cheesy steak sandwich. The menu is economical and shouldn't cost you over 300 NT for a decent meal. The classic cheese steak set with cheese fries upgrade is only 225 NT. This is definitely a unique eatery in this city.

Address:  臺北市昆明街102號
                 No. 102, KūnMíng St, Wanhua District Taipei City, Taiwan 108 
Map:

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Phone #: 02-2311-1800

Business Hours: 11:30~ 22:00
Website: N/A
Price Range:   $$

Accepts Credit Cards: no

Attire: casual

Good for kids: yes

Take out: yes
Waiter Service: no
Outdoor seating:  no
Alcohol: no

Rating

Food Quality: 4 out of 5
Decor:  3.5 out of 5
Service: 3 out of 5
Overall: 3.5 out of 5
Recommendation: Best Philly Cheesesteak in Taiwan

Review

 The interior is very fast food. The tables are all 2 seaters which can be configured to bigger or smaller tables. They have a nice window view looking out to the street, which is a good option for solo customers to stare out from. The restrooms are clean and well stocked. The design seemed to be a faux outdoor cafe feel, and it is a casual and chill place to eat. There are no waiters here so you order your food downstairs and then bring it up yourself and bust it just like at a McDonalds. They run their operation just like a fast food joint.

 They have one simple menu with a few items. Click on the picture to see a larger image of the menu. I came for the cheese steak, and so I got the cheese steak set. If you are into cheese whiz, then you will definitely enjoy the cheese fries upgrade and the cheese steak itself. Sadly they don't offer sliced cheeses, but that would probably hike up the prices since cheese is like gold in Taiwan.

 The Cheese steak set comes with the entree, fries (i upgraded to cheese fries), and a drink. I kind of regret not ordering the root beer float, but I think it would have been too rich and wouldn't quench my thirst or wash down all the grease efficiently. The fries are thick and crispy. It held its crunch well for a long time even while soaked in a layer of cheese. The cheese upgrade is only 30 NT so I went for it. Since, you can't really tell what the sandwhich is like from this shot I needed to close in on this beauty.

There it is. It is greasy, cheesy, doughy, and delightfully yummy. What surprised me the most about this cheese steak was how good the bread was. Typically taiwanese buns and sandwhich breads are this flimsy puffy bread which looks big at first glance, but when you actually pick it up it deflates into its thin skimpy self. Those buns usually don't  do the trick for holding all the ingredients together. Subway probably picked up on  this phenomenon, but they over compensated by making their breads way too dense and sort of stale in Taiwan. I think the Subway in Taiwan can learn a thing or two from Cheese David's and use their substantial, but soft rolls. Their bread was so pillowy and yet held an unforgiving amount of cheese and grease without breaking apart. It was the perfect backbone for this sandwich.

The quality of the meat is detectable in an instant. The meat they use isn't some low quality meat like that Sababa pulls on their customers. There was a decent marbling and has the right amount of toughness to it for a satisfying chew. The grilled onions and cheese blended well with their specially marinated beef slices and with the pillowy bread together made each bite wonderful. These are good cheese whiz steaks. It's just misleading to call them philly cheese steaks because then all the locals will think the cheese steak norm is to use cheese whiz when really its probably just that the owner feels its more cheap and marketable than using expensive cheese slices. I would come back and try their other subway sandwich items because I really think their bread is an impressive bread. Subway bread is so hard and crunchy here that I haven't gone back since. Cheese David's bread can pwn if they tried to compete with subway. The bread here is kind of like the bread at Jersey Mike's in texture. I recommend this place for all who miss cheese steaks or just want a sub sandwich. There is plenty of entertainment around this area so why not stop for a bite here when your loitering the streets of Ximen?