Recently voted as ‘America’s favourite burger chain’, business is booming at Five Guys Burger & Fries. With rumours of the much-loved US chain looking to expand to the UK in the near future, we had to see for ourselves just what all of the fuss was about and decided to stop by one rainy afternoon in New York City.
When you walk into Five Guys, the first thing you’ll notice is the minimalistic, plain decor. Five Guys resembles an old school American Diner – plain tables, red and white colours and an old school ticketing system. When you walk up to the counter, you’ll choose your burger, add any sides and extra toppings, pay for the food and collect your ticket. You’ll then walk down to the collection point, where you’ll get to see the chefs freshly prepare your food from scratch – there’s no pre-packed frozen burgers here! Your food is then wrapped and your order number called out. Then you simply take your food and go find a place to sit down. Simple, quick and hassle-free.
Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger
On to the burger itself – all of Five Guys’ burgers come wrapped in a foil wrapper and the sight of the cheese sticking to the sides as you peel it away will make your mouth water. The foil wrapper almost helps to steam the cheese on the burger, giving it a gloopy consistency that was absolutely fantastic. Five Guys offer unlimited free toppings on your burger and we decided to go with mayo, lettuce, tomato, mustard, relish. and ketchup. Along with all of those toppings was two delicious well done patties, perfectly cooked bacon along with the cheese, all sandwiched between a lightly toasted seeded bun.
The Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger
Messy!
What I loved about Five Guys was that it was simple. Just a no-nonsense, very messy, well made burger. The patties themselves are well seasoned and absolutely delicious. I’d normally never order a burger well done, but it works well here. The meat is so fresh, so well seasoned and it’s clear that a lot of thought goes into the placement of each topping on the burger that everything compliments the rich flavour of the beef extremely well. The American cheese melts nicely over the patty and the crispy bacon and the relish provide a fantastic, sweet crunchy texture to top off the burger. The large shreds of mayo-soaked iceberg lettuce also provide a nice mellow finish following the extremely rich flavour of the beef patty. Nothing feels out of place and it doesn’t at all feel thrown together, like most fast food burgers do. Despite being cooked well done, Five Guys achieve a deep, flavoursome, juicy patty and the toppings marry together with the beef to create a very wholesome, satisfying flavour. As mentioned, the burgers are Five Guys are messy. Very messy. Be prepared for the cheese and burger juices to run all over your hands as you eat and for the rest of the toppings to spill out of the sides. The bun that we had even started to break apart a little bit towards the end, but the whole thing tasted so good that we just didn’t care.
Our burger was served with a HUGE portion of Five Guys Cajun fries and when we say huge, we really mean it. The food is served in large brown paper bags and it was so heavy that we thought it was going to burst before we even got it to our table – that’s how heavy it was. I have no idea how any one person can finish a portion of Five Guys fries on their own. We shared one portion of fries and struggled between two people. It’s clear that you are getting value for your money here.
Five Guys may not serve up the best looking burgers, but when they taste as good as they do, you won’t even pay much attention to the presentation. The bun could have been a little more toasted, simply to avoid whole thing falling apart towards the end; however, in terms of fast food you’ll be hard pushed to find better than this. The wide range of free toppings and various options available mean that there are endless ways to enjoy your food. Fresh, high quality burgers, incredibly tasty fries, huge portions and quick and easy service make Five Guys a winner. As we left, the only thing I was left wondering was just how the other big fast food chains are still in business with such high quality establishments like Five Guys and Shake Shack becoming more and more popular every day?
If Five Guys do indeed expand to the United Kingdom as rumours suggest, we’d bet that they will be a sure-fire hit with burger enthusiasts across the country.
Five Guys Burgers & Fries
Price: $6 – $8
SUMMARY
+ Blows away any of the fast food burger chains we have in the UK!
+ Free unlimited toppings
+ Made from scratch, right infront of you
+ High quality ingredients provide a full flavour
– Very messy
Have you tried this burger? Did you love it? If so, let us know!
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Five Guys Burgers & Fries
252 W 42nd Street
New York City
New York
10036
Phone: (212) 708-7414
Website: http://www.parkermeridien.com/eat4.php
