Clown Car Burger Buns at 500°

500°, Center City’s newest burger spot, has been open for barely over a month now. Burgers, fries, shakes, and soda is all you will find on the menu. At least this makes things easier for decision-phobes. The combo deals combine all of the menu ideas, making things even easier. For my first trip it had to be the 500° signature burger, why bother getting anything else?

The 500° burger comes with fresh lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, bacon, and special house sauce packed into a brioche bun. The burger patty is small but thick, with a substantial char but with meat that was a touch dry. I don’t know why the bun is so little, all of the toppings are busting out of it clown car style. I would advise to order it cooked less than you would typically, a medium burger seemed more medium well and a medium rare burger was very medium. I also found myself wishing their house sauce was more robust.

The fries come as regular, spicy, or truffle. At the same price ($2.50) there was no reason not to ritz it up and get the truffled. The hand cut fries have a fun mix of differently sized fries. The fries were doused in pungent truffle oil. I could even seen the truffle flavor as being too much for some.

I also tried the black and white shake, which was definitely more black than white. I like that they keep it local and use Bassett’s ice cream.  I left realizing that normally when demolishing a burger, half an order of fries, and half a shake, I would be completely stuffed and uncomfortable, while after this meal I was not. So- depending on your goal, this could really be a good thing or the opposite of good.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

  • Speedy Gonzalez service
  • They open the windows up, so expect a nice breeze and a great opportunity for people watching
  • With only a few menu options, making a choice is easy

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

  • The bill adds up with all the additions, and you may wind up being less stuffed than you would hope

500°,  1504 Sansom St (@ 15th St.), 215-568-5000

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8 Comments

  • The shape of that burger is really strange… but truffle fries sound amazing!

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I was not at all impressed with this. Burger ordered medium-rare, almost rare inside. While it was still fairly tasty, I had to wait for it and nothing was hot. It sure didn’t look like a 5.5 oz patty to me, more like a slightly-bigger slider. Ordered cheddar, got swiss. Ordered spicy fries, mine were barely warm and overdone to the point of those hard potato sticks you get in a can. And I got a soft drink rather than the shake and still paid $11. Sorry, back to Five Guys.

  • @mary, that is so weird that your burger was undercooked and mine was overcooked. Also, we had zero wait whatsoever. Guess they have their off days.

  • Walked by this place, seemed a lot more snazzy than any burger joint really needs to be. I’ll try it, but both your and Mary’s comments make me wary.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Clown Car Burger…nice way of putting it. Liked it but yea, wish the bun was a bit bigger.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I got this as drunk food one night stumbling home from Fox and Hound. The truffle fries were, like you said, a bit strong for me. I also thought the burger was dry, I like it bloody bloody. I think when I went it had only been open for a few days.

  • I’ve been a few times over the past year, but today I had the humpty dumpty burger. It was killer – burger with fried egg, extra crispy hash brown, braised bacon, and arugula. It was superb.

  • @tor sounds awesome! they have definitely updated the menu since I have been there

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