PJ's Steaks
2/173 Boundary St, West End
Value: Good
Quality: Good
Atmosphere: Adequate
Uniqueness: Recommended
I don’t tend to go to West End much at the moment, so I
noticed PJ's only the other day. I was initially surprised to see a cheesesteak
place in Brisbane, but on reflection I was surprised I hadn’t seen one sooner.
Brisbane has seen a boom of American diner-style venues in the last couple of
years, with Blue Smoke then Carolina Kitchen and now PJ's. Brisbane has got
Yankee fever, and while this is definitely not a bad thing (I love American
comfort food as much as the next man if not more so), its certainly an
interesting phenomenon. Despite the New York Giants banner hanging in the
window, PJ's steak house offers one of the more (in)famous of American regional
comfort food specialties, the legendary Philadelphia cheesesteak. This, and
variations on the same base, are all they offer.
PJ's appears to be run by three or four Americans, and
they’re pretty sociable and easygoing, at least as far as I can tell. When it
comes to atmosphere, PJ's is nothing special; it's basically a grill inside a
hole in the wall. This adds some charm considering what they sell, but it’s
mostly utilitarian in the same sense of all casual food joints. The staff make
PJ's a pleasant place to be with a positive attitude and a promptness not often
seen in casual fast food chains. The fact that they sell beer may help with
that, including some American beers that aren’t merely piss-coloured water.
Brooklyn Lager is particularly good.
A cheesesteak is almost exactly what it sounds like. It's
shredded steak covered in melted cheese (unfortunately not Cheez Whiz) in a
long roll. Add some condiments generally, mustard and ketchup( I prefer the
term tomato sauce or t-sauce but context allows some Americanisms) and voilà you’ve got yourself a monster (in a good way)
of a lunch. It's very tasty, but how can melted cheese and steak not be tasty?
It must be said that, while delicious, the food here tends to be quite greasy
as comfort food tends to be. Regardless of any criticism, PJ's serves a great
sandwich that epitomises all that is good about American food, and I recommend
you get one soon.
Pj’s Steaks is open 11am-10pm
The Original Cheesesteaks we ordered cost $9.90 and they go
up to about $15 Beers start about $6 and go up to $9
They don’t have a website currently however they do have a
facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/PJs-Steaks