Ever since I hoped they'd open in the UK. Just a few months later I find that they are doing, under the simpler name of "Five Guys".
Five Guys started out as a father and his 4 sons (thus Five Guys) in Virginia, USA, as his sons didn't want to go to college. They quickly became the fastest expanding company within the USA serving 100% ground beef burgers with a choice of unlimited free toppings, and fresh fries.
Five Guys have been in the media over the years for famously declining to deliver to President Obama, who then had to go down and collect his order himself.
Also because of a certain, very popular, funny video review on Youtube by Dayumdrops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGkHRa64sDY
Having expanded throughout the USA and Canada, I suppose it was only a matter of time before they ventured into the UK.
In July 2013 they opened their first restaurant in the UK, in Covent Garden. I'd visited that restaurant while I was in London not long after it opened, but longed for a restaurant around Manchester.
My prayers were soon answered when they opened an outlet in the Trafford Centre. They then continued to expand throughout the UK and continue to open new restaurants almost monthly.
Their most recent restaurant is located in Ashton-Under-Lyne. This being as close as one will get to my front door, I headed down there on opening day to feature Five Guys in the Meat Memoirs.
 |
| Five Guys Ashton-Under-Lyne |
Five Guys is in essence, a fast food restaurant. There's no avoiding that fact.
Inside it's a combination of reds and whites with their trademark tiled walls with 5 rows of red tiles (to represent the Five Guys). The walls are covered in quotations taken from reviews and newspapers describing Five Guys as "heaven in a brown paper bag," and "the best burger you've eaten in your whole life." We'll be the judge of that though....
 |
| "The best burger you've ever eaten in your whole life" |
The queue system is formed from fresh sacks of potatoes and the odd box of peanuts which are free to try. This is worth noting for those with a peanut allergy. The restaurant locations have peanuts open to pick up while you queue, this isn't the case in their shopping center locations.
 |
| Queue system formed from sacks of fresh potatoes |
 |
| Free Peanuts while you wait |
After queuing, when you reach the till, you place an order using the menu overhead.
 |
| Five Guys Menu |
There's the option of burgers or little burger. Little burgers are single burgers, while "normal" burgers are all double patties. The price varies on whether you opt for the little burgers or normal ones, and then whether you opt for cheeseburger, bacon burger, or the most expensive bacon cheeseburgers.
There are also similar combinations of hot dogs. Or for the vegetarians, there's a veggie sandwich option.
There is then a list of 15 additional toppings and sauces which you can pick from at no additional cost so you can have as few or as many as you like.
To accompany the burger, you can order a side of fries. Fries are ordered in "small," "medium," or "large" portions. A large portion is designed to feed 4 people, a small portion is suitable for a person eating alone. These are available in normal or coated with cajuan spices.
Then for a drink you have the choice of water or lager. Or some of the Five Guys stores, like Ashton, are now offering milkshakes with 10 different flavours to choose from and all of which you can mix together no extra cost. You can also add bacon to your milkshake if you wish for no added cost! As this was the first Five Guys store we'd been to offering milkshakes, we would be trying one of these.
Or, you can choose to be given an empty Coca-Cola cup to take to the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines as many times as you like. We'll get to these machines soon....
I placed my order. There are a few options you can't see on the menu overhead, but are available if you ask. You can be given an extra patty for an additional £2. If you wish you can order extra bacon and/or extra cheese to your burger/sandwich/hot dog for free also.
I therefore ordered a bacon cheeseburger (£8.75), with an extra patty (+£2.00) and topped it with, extra bacon, extra cheese, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms and Bar-B-Q sauce.
I accompanied this with a side of medium fries (£4.00) to share with my partner, and a milkshake (£4.75).
For the milkshake I combined chocolate, Oreo and bacon. I wanted to see how they included bacon in a milkshake so had to throw that in there.
To say this probably should have been a chocolate overload it wasn't too bad. The milkshake was thick with large chunks of Oreo and bacon to be found throughout, although they did settle at the bottom after a while. The chocolate flavour wasn't too overpowering and the addition of bacon pieces worked a lot better than I thought it would. The bacon adds a savory hit every now and again to compliment the sweet milkshake flavours.
While my partner accompanied her order with a Coca-Cola drink from the Freestyle machines.
After placing your order you're given a receipt and wait at the other end of the counter for your order number to be called. The preparation area is totally open so you can see your burger being created while you wait.
Or you can go fill your drinks cup while you wait. This will quickly pass the time when you discover the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines!
These machines have a touch screen face, and contain over 100 different Coca-Cola products, for you to choose from, and mix together until your heart's content.
You'll often find people standing here just trying all the different flavours of drinks that you can't find elsewhere.
 |
| Coca Cole Freestyle Machine |
We couldn't list all the drinks here but to give you some idea, if you choose "Coca-Cola" you're then taken to another screen to choose 7 different flavours of Coca-Cola. This is then the case for Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Fanta... etc. etc.
 |
| Different Coca-Cola products to choose from |
 |
| Different Flavours of Coca-Cola |
And you can return to the Freestyle machine as many times as you like as long as you keep the cup!
 |
| Five Guys Milkshake (£4.75) and refillable Coca-Cola Freestyle cup (£2.50) |
By the time you've finished playing with the Freestyle drinks machine your order will probably be ready.
When you go to collect it you'll be handed your brown, un-branded paper bag (which won't be folded over as Five Guys believe the burger and fries should be allowed to breathe).
 |
| Brown Paper Bag of mystery |
Opening the bag you may wonder where your burger is and why you've been given a bag of fries. Five Guys add an additional portion of fries to your bag to accompany the sized cup portion you may be expecting. This is why you they recommend you order a small portion for one person. Beneath the fries though you'll see a foil wrapped package containing your burger.
 |
| Inside the grease soaked paper bag |
The potatoes are never frozen and are shipped in and cut in store, then cooked in 100% peanut oil. This gives them a different taste to the fries you find anywhere else. Although, for those, like me, who aren't a fan of peanuts, rest assured, the peanut oil gives no taste of peanut to the fries. Instead it gives a less greasy sweeter taste to them.
 |
| Fresh potatoes - cut daily |
We ordered a side of the cajuan spices to mix them up a bit. This spice adds a slight kick to the fries if you prefer a bit of a spicier hit to your fries.
After sampling the fries it was time to dig out the burger.
 |
| Foil Wrapped Burger |
The foil wrapping has to be pried away from the burger as the melted cheese clings onto it. As you unwrap the foil, some of the toppings fall away as they're finally released.
Although the foil keeps the burger as hot as possible, it does squash it quite a bit meaning it isn't that aesthetically pleasing.
 |
| Bacon Cheeseburger (£8.75) plus extra patty (+£2.00). Toppings (free) - Extra cheese, extra bacon, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, Bar-B-Q sauce |
Taking a bite of the fallen piece of bacon before biting into the burger, the bacon is some of the crispiest I've had on a burger, without it being overcooked. Really gives a great crunch.
But now, on to the burger.
The first bite reveals a soft juicy burger which perhaps didn't need the extra cheese slices.
The ground meat patties are clearly better than those you normally find in fast food restaurants, but obviously they're not sized like some of the chuck steak patties you'd find in other restaurant burgers. They taste great though! The burger overall has a slight sweet flavour to it, although I'm not sure if this comes from the patties, the bread, or the toppings.
 |
| 3 patties coated in soft melted cheese slices with onions and mushrooms |
The bread buns are obviously fresh but this doesn't really help them out as they aren't able to contain the burger contents without falling apart. The fact that they come out of the foil wrapping a bit squashed, and locked in with all the moisture probably doesn't help.
The onions and mushrooms were cut in large chunks and provided great backup flavours. While the portion of Bar-B-Q sauce was subtle enough to add an extra flavour without drowning out the taste of the meat, cheese, bacon and bread.
After finishing your burger I guarantee you'll have a few fries you've missed at the bottom of your paper bag, so go looking in there!
 |
| Fries remaining at the bottom of the bag |
Conclusion
Five Guys is clearly pushing its expansion throughout the UK with no less than 28 restaurants now available throughout the UK, and more coming. They always seem to be busy. Perhaps because many people haven't heard of them and want to give them a try, or may be everyone thinks similar to me, that this is one of the better fast food meals out there.
The burgers taste fantastic, much better than you'd expect at any other fast food restaurant, and the fries are like no others!
The use of fresh, unfrozen ingredients helps create a much better meal.
However, all this comes at a price, which I personally think is the part that's going to put people off. A meal consisting of a bacon cheese burger, medium fries and a refillable drink will set you back over £15.00. I shouldn't compare it to the USA Five Guys, but the same meal over there cost me little over £10, which I thought was worth it, while the extra £5-£6 is a very premium price for fast food. There again, you could argue that this is premium fast food. When you can pick up a bigger steak patty in a broiche bun with fries at a sit down restaurant elsewhere for the same price though, you start to consider if Five Guys carries too high a premium price.
I admit it's better than any other fast food available in the UK though, and when you consider some meals at the likes of Burger King may cost you in the region of £9, the extra five or six pounds for Five Guys for a better, fresher meal becomes more justifiable...just.
Personally, Five Guys brings a flashback to having a great time in the USA. I enjoy the taste and easily consider it the best tasting fast food in the UK, and so I will definitely be back to Five Guys.
However, I can understand why some people would be put off by the price before they even place their order.
If the burger and fries are too pricey though, I'd recommend popping in just to try the Coca-Cola Freestyle drinks machines. I think I've only seen these in one other establishment in the UK, and for a refillable drink with almost every Coca-cola product ever created available, £2.50 isn't too bad!
Meat Rating: 4/10 as much as I love it, the price kills it.
Money for Meat: Paid in Full
No comments :
Post a Comment