A Taste of the Midwest in South Philly

While the emphasis of this blog is on cheesesteaks, I’ve also made my fondness for the sort of smashed burgers that used to primarily be prevalent in the Midwest known here on several occasions. Thankfully, they are now easier to find all over the country and an increasing number of spots in the Philly region offer them. 

One burger joint that specializes in them and that opened in 2025 is Smash’d, which is located in deep South Philadelphia, not that far from the city’s stadium and arena complex. After being impressed by the online photos of their burgers, I headed over there for lunch recently.

While appearing to do mostly takeout and delivery business, they also have a couple tables and a small counter with stools for those wishing to eat on sight. I grabbed one of the tables after placing my order.

The outside signage at Smash’d promotes them as specializing in burgers and milkshakes. While I normally love shakes, it was too cold that day for me to get one. But in addition to their great looking smashed burgers, the photos of their cheesesteak egg rolls also grabbed my attention, and I requested an order of those with my burger. 

Although I’d normally get a double cheeseburger at a place that smashes their patties thin, the egg rolls appeared to be hefty in those photos, so I went for a single burger with cheese, raw onions and pickles, but requested it without the special sauce that it normally comes with. I prefer ketchup and mustard on burgers and each table had squeeze bottles of them for self service. 

My order was brought out to me after a relatively short wait and I immediately noticed the crusty exterior and nearly paper-thin flappy edges on the hamburger. That’s exactly what the best smashed burgers I’ve had during my travels in the Midwest have looked like.

There were a pair of cheesesteak egg rolls, each cut in half so that the meat and cheese were exposed. 

The smashed burger was nicely seasoned and had a very good beefy flavor. It also had a bit of juiciness in spite of the patty being so thin. 

Eating it transported me to roadfood heaven. It was such a pleasure to enjoy a wonderful specimen of what a smashed hamburger should be without having to leave the Philly area to do so. 

In spite of how great the burger was, it was a close call as to what was the highlight of my lunch. While I’ve only had a handful of cheesesteak egg rolls since they’ve become popular in recent years, those at Smash’d were unquestionably the best of the lot. 

They featured the kind of old-school egg roll crust that I look for at Chinese restaurants and packed an abundance of finely chopped ribeye with Cooper Sharp cheese mixed in beautifully throughout. A small container of spicy siracha ketchup was included for dipping.

I wound up eating one and taking the other home to enjoy at dinner time.

I can’t recommend Smash’d highly enough. It would be a great place to stop off for a pre-game meal for anyone attending a Phillies, Eagles, Sixers or Flyers game. And I’ll unquestionably be back there for more lunches in the future. I intend to try a double cheeseburger along with one of their milkshakes when the weather warms up a bit.