New Pizza and Steak Shop Earns High Marks

As I’ve alluded to periodically, I keep a list of steak shops, pizzerias and other restaurants that I plan on visiting and posting about at some future point. One of the places that’s been on that list for a fairly long time is Gentili’s Pizza and Steaks of Exton, Pennsylvania. Exton is a bit of a hike from me and it had been tough to motivate myself to take the drive over there. 

Thankfully, my procrastination paid off in the form of Gentili’s opening a second location only ten minutes from my home earlier this month. That provided the necessary motivation, and I stopped off there to sample a cheesesteak a couple days after they opened. The new spot is in a shopping center on Baltimore Pike in Springfield, Pennsylvania. 

While I wasn’t planning on having pizza during this first visit, one of Gentili’s selling points is that they offer it by the slice in addition to whole pies. And I’m always on the lookout for a good slice shop. 

The menu features both round and square pizzas – although they only had round pies on display for slices – as well as cheesesteaks, hoagies and an interesting array of other sandwiches, salads and appetizers. 

After snapping a few interior photos, I sauntered up to the counter to order a steak with fried onions. It came with Cooper Sharp cheese on a seeded roll by default. 

To my surprise, the man who took my order and seemed to be the manager or owner, offered me a free slice of pizza in addition to my sandwich. I tried to beg off by saying I didn’t have the appetite for both a steak and pizza in one sitting and would return soon to try the pizza. But he persisted and I gratefully accepted his offer. I’m not sure if this was something they’re doing for everyone who orders a cheesesteak while they’re new and trying to promote their product or if he perhaps saw me snapping photos and assumed I’d be doing some promoting of my own. 

In either case, when I took a close up look at the slice that was brought out to where I was seated, I was very happy that I had relented. 

It was a fairly classic looking New York style slice that had a crust with a nice crunch and packed a lot of flavor. The sauce was excellent and it likely had Parmesan or Romano cheese on it in addition to Mozzarella. 

My first impression of the cheesesteak was also extremely positive. It appeared to be a very well proportioned sandwich, with close to my ideal amount of meat – about 12 ounces – and the cheese and onions were mixed in with the meat beautifully throughout.

The roll was excellent. It was firm with a crusty exterior and soft inside, just the way I like it. I asked the manager who supplies their rolls, but he would only say they get them from a bakery in South Jersey. Liscio’s, which may be the most widely used bread bakery by area steak shops and is based in Jersey, generally makes softer and less crusty rolls than this one. So I’m pretty sure it wasn’t from them. 

There were only two minor issues that I had with the steak. There was just slightly more cheese than I prefer, and while the meat was seasoned, a little more salt and pepper would have elevated it to an even higher level. 

Nonetheless, this is one of the three best steaks I’ve had in Delaware County – along with the ones from Johnny’s Pizza and Gazzo’s – and will likely land on my top 20 list the next time I update it.

I couldn’t be much happier to have such a high quality pizzeria and steak shop so close to home and will be back there before long.