Best Burgers in Old City

The Metropolitan Cafe and Bakery
15 South 3rd Street

Formerly the Metropolitan Bakery on Market between 2nd and Front, the Metropolitan has changed focus and moved around the corner, to 3rd St. just south of Market. Sharing seating space and a kitchen with Farmacia, Metropolitan has expanded its selections from baked goods and coffee to include a variety of eclectic entrees. The one we're most concerned with: The Grilled Angus Cheeseburger. At $9 you might think it's a bit steep, but trust Phillyist: In Old City, that's about par for the course. And if you're going to pay $9 for a burger, you might as well pay for the best.

Metropolitan's burger is delicious. It comes on a good quality bun (like you might expect from a bakery) and with a generous amount of amish cheddar. The patty is thick, juicy, and laced with an unexpected variety of herbs, which is a nice little lagniappe not listed on the menu. The obligatory lettuce, onion, pickles and thick-cut tomato are crispy and fresh. Included in the price are a heap of hot skin-on french fries, which are savoury and pleasantly textured.

Sonny's Famous Steaks
228 Market Street

Sonny's is a cheesesteak joint on Market Street just around the corner from the Five Spot that's popular with tourists and locals both. Yeah, the steaks are good -- but right now we're more interested in the Single. The Single is a square-patty sandwich on an unremarkable bun. It's a good size and it's fried up on the same grill that Sonny's uses for their steaks. You can get the same variety of topping and cheeses that you can get with a cheesesteak, including Cheese Whiz. Mmmm. Whiz. The Single isn't anything fancy, but it's fresh, hot, pleasantly greasy and refreshingly uncomplicated. At $4.50 (extra for cheese), it's a damn sight cheaper than any of the other local options. Now at this price, fries aren't included with the sandwich -- but sometimes you don't want fries, do you?

Campo's
214 Market Street

Campo's is a south-Philly-Italian-style deli, just a few doors down from Sonny's. It's primarily a hoagie counter, though you can get your cheesesteaks, sausage parms and pasta dishes, there too. Service is friendly and reasonably quick. Still, this is a hoagie shop (highly recommended: the Mamma Mia hoagie. Yum!). So why come here for a burger? The Phillyist has a one-word answer for you, friends:

Bacon.

Whether it's a hamburger, chocolate, sex or country music, everything's better with bacon. That's right! For a nominal extra charge, Campo's will garnish your ground-up dead cow with sliced-up dead pig. In all other respects, Campo's $5.00 sandwich is average. There's nothing wrong with it, mind you, but it's not exactly something to write home about. But those two slices of salty, fried heaven take this sandwich to the next level.

Sassafras Cafe
48 South 2nd Street

If the multiple "Best of Philly" signs in the window don't tip you off, take Phillyist's word for it: This might possibly be the Alpha and Omega of hamburgers in Old City. Sassafras offers you the option of beef, lamb, buffalo or ostrich with a variety of savoury toppings. You can either go with one of their delicious sauces or with your own, more traditional burger constructions. The beef is high-grade, juicy and ample. The buffalo is lean, and just gamy enough to make it worth the extra buck or two. The lamb is tender and delicate, and the ostrich is, well, ostrich. Who knew that a six-foot bird could taste so good? And the onions. Oh god, the onions. No thin, wussy strips of lame onion here, oh no. If you order your burger with friend onions, you'll get thick, sweet, juicy chunks of pungent perfection. For the onions alone, you have to try this burger.

Starting at $8.95 for the beef model, and going up in price the more exotic the meat gets, the Sassafras burger isn't cheap, but it does come with a generous helping of tasty fries, and quite frankly it's worth every penny.

Image Credit: Iowa Beef Industry Council