I used to love them. It was the only place where I might succomb to the primal urge for ground meat.
Last time I did so I was horrified at the nasty, greyish slab of blubber served to me on a damp slice of smooshed flour. Even the fries weren’t the wonderful golden brown I remember.
Yuck! Thank you Five Guys, you have freed me from the tyranny of my bi-annual craving for your hamburgers.
Terrible-greasy and bland…plus, they have sacks of potatoes sitting on the floor, in the diniong area. Frankly, not as good as McDonalds, and more expensive.
I give them 3-4 years.
I used to live a couple blocks away from the original. Haven’t been to one in a long time, should stop by one of the newer locations in Arlington one of these days to see how they’re doing.
One just opened up a block from my house. I’ve gone there a few times because it’s convenient, but they just aren’t that great. Not bad, but not great. The first weekend they were open, there was a massive line, but now it’s half full during the lunch rush.
If you link to that, we should go ahead and link to the songifiedversion.
Ah, yes, I missed this. I’m pretty much the same. I love fire and grilling and barbecuing, but the best burgers for my tastes are flattop-grilled ones for the reasons you mentioned. When I make burgers for myself, it’s home ground beef short ribs, packed lightly, formed into thin (1/4 or less) patties, and cooked on a hot cast iron pan.
There’s actually a pretty good reverse engineering of an In N Out burger here, for those interested. I use that as a blueprint. I’ve tried it grilled, but it’s not the same. Gotta be griddled on a flat top for me.
I considered it, but the lack of appreciation for Five Guys in this thread made me think it wasn’t worthwhile. My judgment was clouded – thank you for doing the Lord’s work.
Five Guys has been around since 1986. They expanded out of the DC area in 2003, and have been doing pretty well, having grown to over a thousand locations so I doubt they’ll only last for 3-4 years longer. The main strike against them, in my opinion, is their pricing, but there’s been a number of burger places that have opened up with a similar price point, so I think the market will support those prices.
Yeah, they’re pretty yummy, but I’d feel a lot more comfortable with the value if they were a couple of bucks cheaper. That said, it’s the fact that it’s an automatic 2000 calorie lunch if I walk in their door that keeps me from heading there more than a couple of times a year.
I recently had In-N-Out burger for the first time, and it was pretty good, but it wasn’t nearly the experience that my Californian co-worker and our many message board posters here had led me to expect. I’d say that the Five Guys burgers are of similar quality, but FG has much better fries, and overall if I’m going to have the treat I’d prefer a trip to Five Guys.
There’s a Five Guys around here. Expensive burgers that aren’t significantly better than other fast food outlets. I eat fast food for conistency and convenience, so there’s nothing special they add to that. Currently I don’t know anywhere around here that makes a burger as well as I do. Their’s all end up mushy and tasteless, or so full of filler I wonder if there’s any meat in them at all. I’ll just stick to McDonalds and Wendys for fast food. There’s more of them, I know what to expect.
I have issues with their fries. They are often soggy and burned. I don’t know why they can’t twice fry them. It takes a bit more prep, but once they’re blanched, they can just be popped back into the fat as they’re ordered.
For my money, Killer Burger here in Portland/Vancouver is the shizzle. Fresh patties, cooked when you order, bacon and cheese on every version, and fries cooked to perfection when you order. It’s what Five Guys wishes it could be.
Tried them about a month ago, because of all the hype.
I’m not a burger afficiando, very rarely eat them. I bought lunch for me and my three guys on the job.
First: Holy shit. Ordering their “regular” sized burgers and a couple of fries resulted in about ten pounds of food and over $30.00 for four. And, collectively, we couldn’t get through all of that food for lunch.
That said (not being a burger afficiando) I thought the burgers were head and shoulders better than the standard fast food fare. Decent bun, fresh-tasting ingredients, OK burger meat. Except half the size would have worked just fine for me. I wanted to take a nap after slogging through that thing.
The cajun fries were very good, although Arby’s curly fries are right up there too, at a fraction of the price.
Yeah, this is what I was going to say. We have been to a couple of outlets in the NorCal region as we travel around and they are just OK. The first time I visited, I did not know the ordering lingo and just ordered what I thought was a regular burger, but when I got it it had two patties on it, and I could not finish it. Plus the massive heaping of fries - I walked away bloated and knew I had eaten too much even with food thrown away (and I am a normal sized guy). I think they figure they can charge more and fill you up with the overdose of the cheap fries.
IMHO, this chain is the next Krispy Kreme - expanding way too fast with sub-par quality and easily bettered by the local competition.
Also IMHO, perhaps it is the impact of the recession, but there seems to be a wave of expansions of various burger places, including 5 Guys, Smashburger, In-in-Out, and The Habit in CA, and other local burger joints. How many of these places do we need? Also, Cupcake places seem to be a recession business as well, but that is another thread.
That’s the thing. If I go to Five Guys, it’s either with my wife, and we split the normal burger or I go by myself and get the “little cheeseburger,” which is still 550 calories. I can’t bring myself to order the fries, because I know I’ll do my best to eat through them all.
I would kill for an In N Out in Chicago. Not only for the quality, but their quality of price. IIRC, a double double was something like $3.20 when I last had one in Phoenix a few weeks ago. Insane. And they have employees that actually seem like they want to help you and enjoy working there. (And they apparently do, as In N Out, from what I’ve heard, pays very well for a fast food job. I often wonder how they manage to make money.)
They opened in the San Fernando Valley about a year ago now.
I can’t stand them.
But my GF really likes them. Possibly because she cannot tolerate ‘rare’ or ‘medium rare’ of ‘still tastes like meat’ burgers. Her beef has to charred.
I can take them or leave them, but my Wife loves Five Guys for one reason - they treat her severe gluten allergy with respect. The cashier tells the manager, who makes sure the kitchen changes gloves before handling her order, and doesn’t let her food touch the normal prep counter. In 'N Out does the same, but the nearest one is a couple of states away. So if my wife has a hankering for burgers and fries, it’s pretty much Five Guys or Red Robin around here.
Whebn I went, it seemed to (uninitiated) me that the choices were “regular” burger and something that was, I thought, child-sized. I chose regular burgers, not realizing how absolutely huge they were, because I was ordering for me and three fairly large men. If there’s a next time, I’ll choose the “little” single burger.
I don’t know if they do the fries at every store like this: I ordered two large cajun fries. They made the burgers, put them into a paper sack the size of a grocery bag, then poured in several pounds (no exaggeration) of fries into the sack on top of everything.
Macomb Township MI store on Hall Rd, if that’s at all relevant.
That is the thing I like about In-in-Out - the portions are reasonable as are the prices. The burger and fries is just enough without overdoing it. At 5 Guys it seems they are loading you up with a mountain of fries so people think it is a good value because they are stuffed.
And, what chiroptera said - I thought the “little burger” was the one for kids. Big mistake.
They do it everywhere - it’s part of the schtick - and they dump the “extra” fries on top of a “small” as well.