Stephanie Spear 
Something we love to do in Northern Virginia is talk about what is the best, or worst, in a certain category, usually food. Best pizza, best bagels, it’s all a hot topic here. With so many transplants in the area, there are plenty of people with opinions about what’s better ‘back home.’ Ashburn resident Chris Fleming isn’t a Philadelphia native, but he’s a lifelong aficionado of the classic cheesesteak. Over the course of 2025, Chris tried 36 of the top-rated cheesesteaks in Northern Virginia and crowned one the winner, according to him. Read on for more about the Northern Virginia Cheesesteak tour.
About Chris + Cheesesteaks
Chris Fleming is a longtime Ashburn resident and grew up in Northern Virginia. Chris’s first experience with cheesesteaks was when he was working the grill at Pizza Tugos in Ocean City, Maryland. Then, the cheesesteaks were part of his collegiate experience. “There was a place called Cubbies in Greenville, North Carolina, and it had a bunch of locations in the early 90’s when I was in college. The cheesesteaks were incredible,” he said. “I would take a detour 45 minutes each way to get these cheesesteaks for years.”
He moved to the West Coast and worked in several restaurants there, and always wanted to put a cheesesteak on the menu. “I’d call it a California cheesesteak,” he said. “It had lettuce, tomato, and mayo. It was more of a steak and cheese hoagie.”
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Over the years, Chris had cheesesteaks in mind and would try different varieties any chance he got. “About 15 years ago, some friends and I went to a bunch of concerts in a row, and I took a detour to try a place I read about in North Carolina,” he said. “That was probably the first version of the Cheesesteak Tour.”
He made his way back to the East Coast, still thinking about cheesesteaks. He even took the opportunity to live in Philadelphia for a year, and says he tried 30-40 local takes on the classic. “I wasn’t ranking them or anything, but I did start to understand what made for a really good cheesesteak,” Chris said. “And I learned the importance of the bread. That’s a nod to everybody from Philly, but because if your bread’s not right, it’s not going to work out.”
Now back in Northern Virginia, Chris said he’s always on the lookout for the next great cheesesteak. “I started keeping track of what was recommended on Reddit,” he said. “If a place was mentioned more than twice, I would pay attention.” Over the course of 2025, Chris tried 36 of the most frequently mentioned and highest-rated cheesesteaks per the platform’s commenters.
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“Most people from Philly will tell you, I’m not eating a cheese steak in Northern Virginia because you don’t have a legit cheese steak. That’s all there is to it, right? But the thing is, I’m going to eat cheese steaks no matter what. So I want to know where the good ones are, where the best we have to offer,” Chris said. “Maybe none of them would be legitimate Philadelphia cheese sticks, but I’m still going to eat them. I want the best one I can get.”
Chris planned his weekends around trying the cheesesteaks, sometimes spending up to five hours a day in the car, getting around Northern Virginia. His most ambitious day had five stops. Two turned out to be misses: food trucks that weren’t open during their posted hours. “I realized this would take forever if I just went one spot at a time,” he said. “So I started doubling up, which meant I was driving all over the place on the weekends.”
The Rankings
Chris said he feels qualified to rank Northern Virginia cheesesteaks, but would not rank Philadelphia cheesesteaks. “I considered whether the Northern Virginia cheesesteak could be served seriously in Philadelphia to rank the highest ones,” he said. He also had a standard definition for what a cheesesteak was, versus a steak and cheese sandwich. “The meat is ideally rib-eye, and then it’s cooked with onions on the grill,” he said. He emphasized the importance of the meat and onion mixture, as it forms the base for the essential melted cheese layer.
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In terms of evaluating the sandwiches, Chris had three factors. The number one factor is the bread, which Chris says is what makes the Philly cheesesteaks so special. The second factor is the taste of the meat, cheese, and onion mix. Chris said that over his quest, he observed many restaurants putting Cooper Sharp cheese on the sandwiches instead of the traditional provolone or White American cheese.
The most important factor, which became the deciding factor between the two top choices, is what Chris calls ‘the drip’ – that magic mixture of the cheese, meat, and onions. “You know if the mix is right, it looks right. If you squeeze it and you get the right juice, you’re good,” Chris said.
“I came to the realization that if you have a ton of meat and cheese in there, it’s more likely to drip. If you don’t have a, perhaps excessive, amount of meat and cheese, maybe it won’t. So whether it drips or not, not the most important thing ever. But that is what put number one over number two was the drip.”
Chris’ final top five:
1. Celebrity Delly (Falls Church) 5 stars
2. Capo Deli (Tysons, Alexandria) 4.9 stars
3. Grazie Grazie (Ballston) 4.8 stars
4. Solo NY Pizza (Leesburg) 4.7 stars
5. Giovanni’s (Leesburg) 4.6 stars
Celebrity Delly, according to Chris’s review: “The roll was far & away the best I’ve had in NOVA. Rumor has it, the bread was inspired by John’s Roast Pork on the south side of Philly. The taste was excellent, and that drip was perfection. I was literally dipping the drip. So much meat it was hard to pick up at first. Rested the bottom of it on the plate & got to work.”
He said he went back and forth between the top two, and despite listing Celebrity Delly as the top pick, he could have had Capo Deli at the top. “It was really hard,” he said. “Typically, I’d only eat half of the sandwich at the restaurant and then the rest later, but Capo had two sandwiches, and I ate both of them in their entirety. They were too good. I kept going back and forth between the two sandwiches. One is called Steak me Home Tonight that comes on a sesame roll and has caramelized onions, and the other is the original cheesesteak.”
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All in all, Chris said that it was fun and exhausting to try all the cheesesteaks. “It took up a lot of time on the weekends,” he said. His friends have joked that he should do a similar ranking for some of his other favorite foods, such as meatball subs or crab rangoons. Chris said that despite now having a top-rated spot to go to for a cheesesteak, he is still excited to try new recommendations. “I still love cheesesteaks,” he said.
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