Five Guys - Expensive, Good Burgers and Great Fries!
Written: Apr 04 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Juicy, properly-prepared burgers. Better french fries than I've enjoyed at any other fast-food joint.
Cons: Too expensive (and calorie-laden) for frequent visitation. Wait times can be prohibitive.
The Bottom Line: Probably the best chain burger east of the Mississippi, Five Guys will satisfy the occasional "I'll start my diet tomorrow" lunch treat better than any mega fast-food chain.
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| davidmanning's Full Review: Five Guys Burgers and Fries |
Five Guys Burgers have gained a cultlike reputation for those of us not in the DC area, much like Krispy Kreme until the early 90s, or In-N-Out Burger currently enjoys for those residents not near California (or Nevada or Arizona).
I'm always on the lookout for an excellent cheeseburger in the city, and I've certainly found my share throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. But there's something kinda alluring about a franchised cheeseburger that's worth finding and eating. In-N-Out's got it. And in my opinion, Five Guys has very nearly got it, too.
Oh, but there's that line.
I've been to both Five Guys in Manhattan, and, well, location is everything. The Five Guys that's about 500 feet from my favorite bar in the West Village is never, ever crowded. In fact, the week it opened, I walked in around 5:00 on a Wednesday, and there was one other customer in the place, total. On the other hand, a few months after the Midtown location opened, I decided to go at noon, waited in line for fifteen minutes before ordering, and waited another twenty for my order to come up. This is a far cry from the lines when this location first opened its doors -- how does ninety minutes sound? -- but, well, bring your Blackberry.
The clean, red-and-white checkerboard look is copied from the walls, to the floors, to the menus, to the little signs warning you not to take peanuts (see below) out of the restaurant out of respect for local schoolkids -- the only kids I see up on 55th Street between 5th and 6th are somewhat-lost tourist kids, but okay -- who may have allergies.
A chirpy younger employee stands at the register (of which I've never seen more than one open -- there's no point, since the grill can only move so fast). He or she will happily take your order, ticking off your toppings, and send you off with a number on your receipt.
The Basics
Burgers: The standard cheeseburger is a double cheeseburger. Sure, a single 3ish-ounce patty is available, but wants to order a "little cheeseburger"?
Quite a few people in front of me ordered bacon for their burger -- $1.50 extra on any size burger for what appears to be three wide, crispy slices -- and if for some reason you'd rather not have cheese, you'll save 50 cents.
Burgers are made fresh to order, so you're not going to get those under-a-minute order deliveries of the bigger chains. As the menu says, the burgers are cooked "Juicy and Well Done", so don't expect a beautifully bloody mess on your hands when it does arrive, either.
At $6.25 for the standard, and $4.75 for a little, this better come with something, right? It does.
Toppings: It comes with everything. And by everything, I mean pretty much everything you could ask for on a burger, and probably some things you're better off avoiding. The toppings, most of which are stored on shelves next to the order pick-up area:
French's mustard, ketchup, Admiration mayonnaise, Mt. Olive sliced pickles, Little Sister pickle relish, lettuce, tomato, chopped onions, fried onions, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, grilled mushrooms, Cattlemen's barbecue sauce, A-1 sauce, and Frank's Red Hot sauce. Yes, I had time to write down brands.
The counter person will only assume you want the least offensive of these (ketchup, mayo, mustard, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and grilled onions) if you don't pipe up when you order. I'm not going to respect you any less if you kick things out -- I don't get ketchup or mayonnaise, since the commercial versions of each don't belong on any food, and my love of A-1 and barbecue sauce does not extend to good cheeseburgers -- but seriously, the folks in the (open) kitchen are going to slap a lot of stuff onto that sesame-seed bun. And your sesame seed bun will get soaked.
French Fries: The french fries are cut daily from fresh potatoes, sacks of which reside in the restaurant next to a sign indicating where that day's catch came from. (Thank you, Idaho Falls!) They're deep-fried in peanut oil, too.
The small styrofoam cup of fries, at $2.75, is plenty for one person; I received a large, $4.50 cup on my first ordering experience, but it turned out they just gave me a large at the small price. Nonetheless, ordering the small cup yielded about twice as many fries as fit in the cup when they gave me my order; they just kept shoveling potatoes into my order bag!
Other Stuff: The order line in the midtown location has a couple of barrels full of unshelled peanuts to munch on, but don't toss the shells all over like too many customers did. The West Village location's barrels are more centrally-located, but just as communal.
Apparently the Five Guys hot dog is known to be quite good, too. They do use Vienna Beef dogs, so I could see that being the case. As with any good Vienna Beef purveyor, toppings are heavily encouraged, and you can pretty much make out with a solid Chicago-style dog here. At $3.75 for the non-cheese, non-bacon (but kosher as a result) variety, I'd expect nothing less.
Somehow they find room to do a grilled cheese, too. I can't imagine waiting 30 minutes for one, though.
Cokes and Coke products are $1.95 for a rather large Regular, and $2.25 for the bigger one. Free refills try to justify the cost.
Taste? TASTE!
I've dined in, I've eaten at my desk, I've run the gamut of burger and fry experiences at Five Guys. Several truths can be known:
- The burger will fall apart, but you will use your fingers to pick up every last bit of beef. A thoroughly-grilled set of patties that retain their juiciness -- the grill is tended, but not slaved-over, in order that the life isn't squeezed from the Five Guys specialty. Meaty, tasty, grossly finger-licking good burger.
- Your onions will mainly reside on the foil wrapper, not your belly, but you won't care.
- The fries will not be crispy in any sense of the word, but will taste like potatoes in the best sense of that word. They're not limp, per se, but they are thick and unskinned, so plenty of flavor is retained with the dose of oil they receive.
- You will like the fresh jalapeno slices. If you like a little heat, you want these.
- You will wince when you check your watch after finishing lunch, and will think of an excuse on the way back to work.
Final Thoughts
A well-made burger is a sight to behold. It's even better when you don't pay fine-dining prices to get one. Is the Five Guys burger world-class? Not exactly, but as fast-food, and convenience (for some) go, it's hard to beat out East. Certainly their patties beat the tar out of the mainstream fast-food, even if "those" cheeseburgers are ready in 30 seconds, not minutes.
Considering I've waited nearly an hour at Shake Shack in the past, I can't get on a soapbox about that wait time for fresh food, but if you're on a lunch break, you're going to have to attempt to eat very late, like after 2:30pm most weekdays, if you work in midtown Manhattan.
But trust me, while I spent nine bucks (plus tax) on lunch, and gave over a half-hour of my day to do it, it's worth it on an occasional basis. If you can get enough orders together, you can phone or fax in what you need, and it'll be ready when they say it is. Plenty of office workers had done that while I waited last week, and shopping bag after shopping bag of greasy, tasty goodness sailed out mere minutes after arriving for pickup.
In other towns, I'd imagine that the waits are similar from order to food, but the lines are considerably shorter. So if you're one of those people, I strongly suggest you give Five Guys your fast-food dollars and experience a higher-quality meal.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
davidmanning
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Location: New York City
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