I love Five Guys. Plain and simple.
From start to finish, going to Five Guys is something I love every single time. Let's start at the very beginning.
You walk in the door, and are greeted loudly and with a smile by the people behind the counter. Like they're actually happy to see you there. Cool.
Okay, so then, you walk up to the counter to order, and are face to face with the menu. What is on this menu? Burgers and fries. I think they have a hot dog and a grilled cheese too, but I don't know why.
Now, by "burgers" I mean just that. They have small and regular (relative terms to be sure, as the small is a single patty and large is double), with or without bacon, with or without cheese. That's it. No grilled chicken burger, no fish burger, no teriyaki burger, no deep fried squid burger, no salads, no baked potato, no pie, no other stupid crap like that. Just burgers.
But then I look closer and see "Oh, I can add a ton of stuff to it for free!". Stuff like A-1, grilled onions, mushrooms, pickles, jalapenos and more (including ketchup, mayo and mustard of course). And that, in my opinion, is how it should be. If you don't ask for it on your burger, they don't put it on your burger. Why? Because it's YOUR burger. Awesome.
Burger ordered, now what? FRIES! Thick, fresh, delicious fries. Regular or cajun... Helpful hint, if it's just you or one other person, just get the regular size fries, not the large. They load them up on you. I like the cajun fries (and this is the ONLY place I've ever said that about). Sweet, fries ordered.
Now here's the tricky part. It will NOT be in your hand in 2-3 minutes. It just won't. It'll take about 10 minutes probably. And it's not because they are slow. It is because they are FRESH! I know, in this McWorld we live in where everything is microwaved soy crap, it's hard to believe. But it's true. The fries are cut fresh, you can even see on their sign where the potatoes are from that week. The burger patties are made fresh every morning. The buns are made fresh every day. FRESH! And this is exactly why they are now the second largest burger chain in the world. Not because of advertising, not gimmicks, not mascots. Just damn fine burgers and fries, that taste so awesome you will tell others about them.
Side note: Another thing I love about Five Guys is just what I mentioned. Little to no advertising, aside from word of mouth. Brilliant move. Spend a little more to make a great product, and the advertising just happens, instead of skimping and serving bad product but spending billions on advertising. Kudos, Five Guys.
Okay, so it's going to take a little while to get my food, what do I do? Well, I'll grab a soda (they have freakin' Mello Yello there too!) and some peanuts. Wait... WHAT!? Yep, peanuts, free, all you want while you wait. Alright! Let's sit back and jam out to the classic rock / oldies station. Is that Roy Orbison I hear!? You bet it is!
By the way grab some ketchup or Fry Sauce (in Utah) or even some malt vinegar for your fries while you are at it too.
Food is here! Well, okay, they call your number and you go to get it, and they ask if they can get you anything else. Should be standard in all places, but it's not. So, it's time to eat.
Now, I won't even begin to try to describe the burger and all of its glory, you will just have to see for yourself.
However, there are a couple things I would like to see slightly different. Possibly turn the music down just a little. It's kind of loud even if it is awesome. And malts. My god, if anything would just perfect and take the experience up to a whole new level, it would be a malt. That's it. Change anything else and I would probably cry.
And for those people who complain about how unhealthy it is, I remind you of this: They are called 'Five Guys Burgers and Fries', not 'Five Guys Salads and Bulgar Wheat'. They also do not even attempt, in the most remote fashion imaginable, to be pretend to be anything close to healthy. They flat out admit they aren't. If you eat there every day, yes, you WILL become a fatass unless you spend the other 23 hours of that day working out, and you have no one to blame but yourself for being too stupid to figure that out.
Now, the biggest problem I have with writing this particular review... I want freakin' Five Guys now! read more