Who says you can’t go out to eat when you’re broke? Lately we’ve been pretty low on funds, but we had a few bucks, and decided to hit up some “fast food.” Since we are going into this food adventure unbiased and unfiltered, I can admit to you that Five Guys Burgers & Fries, (if you can forgive the cheesy rhyme,) has one of the fastest and most delicious burgers you’ll sink your teeth in to.
The store has an interesting look and feel. Everything is simple – red and white with blocks of solid paint. It all has a “necessary” feel to it. Not like a McDonalds or BK that displays giant photos of artistically rendered burgers and happy dancing characters. Around 5Guys town, you’ll see home-printed sheets of burger reviews. Urban spoon printouts and magazine clippings.
But, to be honest the smell does all the advertising they need. You step in to a line divided by sacks of potatoes – yes real, fresh potatoes. We spotted the fry-guy grabbing a bag of potatoes and stalking off to the kitchen to fry them up in pure peanut oil.
The ordering process is simple. There are only a few things on the menu. Burger, little burger. Hot dog. Soda. Fries. The fries were about as expensive as the burger, but we noticed an entire family eating out of one cup of fries. They tumbled out of it and were easily enough to fill up everyone.
Man biscuit got a burger, and I got a little burger. With the amount of fries I planned to consume, I would need the extra room. The burgers have two tiers of toppings. The basic tier, with ketchup, mustard, onions, etc, was orderable by requesting everything. The second tier (at no extra charge,) had special stuff, like grilled mushrooms and jalepenos. I ordered a Little Bacon Burger (a single-patty burger with strips of bacon on it,) and added grilled mushrooms, mayo, tomatoes, hot sauce and grilled onions. Sounds good, right? Well..I won’t lie…it was.
We waited just a few minutes and the cook popped his head out of the kitchen with a steaming paper bag in his hand and a big smile. I greedily snatched the bag and ran off to our corner table like Golem with the ring.
We opened the bag and steaming delicious aromas drifted out. The fries were huge and mealy. They were incredibly hot at first bite, so we waited on digging in while unwrapping our conveniently numbered burgers. The numbers (1 & 2) matched the description of toppings on the receipt to prevent confusion. I marveled at the idea. Why hadn’t anyone thought of this before?
I unwrapped my burger like a child unwrapping a gift on Christmas day – and Santa delivered. Bacon tumbled out of my burger. Instinct drove me to snatch it up and eat it. Crispy! Bacony! But wait…there’s more. The patty was succulent and perfectly cooked, dripping with juice and mayo in that perfect combo of messy and awesome. I ate it as slowly as I could to savor every bite. The missing bacon from my first attack didn’t take away from the whole sandwich – there was plenty more bacon where that came from.
I crunched my way through half of my burger and zeroed in on the fries. They were heaven. We asked for them Cajun style and they were zesty, but not overwhelmed with spices. They tumbled from the cup which overflowed with amazing crispy fries. They too, were perfectly cooked.
No complaints. No negatives, a truly perfect experience.