Sherri M.
Yelp
As a serious burger lover, I'd been putting off FIve Guys for a while after reading a lot of mediocre reviews from reliable sources, but my coworkers have been raving about Five Guys for so long, I finally bit the bullet for lunch today. Yelp's "Meh, I've experienced better" 2 stars sums up my experience perfectly.
Lemme break it down:
Service = great, friendly, fast. free peanuts while you wait which is cool but not quite as fun when you can't throw the shells on the floor like all other peanut-serving establishments I've been to.
The Burger = Meh. I got the "small bacon cheeseburger" aka a single tiny and mostly tasteless patty with cheese (a cold slice of American) and a few skimpy pieces of overcooked bacon. I added lettuce (a few shredded pieces), tomato (two fresh slices which together were bigger than the meat patty), grilled onions (a couple tiny pieces, maybe?), and mustard (more than any person ever needs between two buns). I probably should've added A-1 or hot sauce to spice it up, and maybe another sauce would have deterred them from using so much mustard. It tasted like a mustard sandwich and, while I love mustard, this is not a good thing.
I do not understand what draws people to this burger. Is it the unlimited free toppings? Mind you, cheese and bacon are not included on the free toppings list, and the things that are - sauce, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, onions, tomato, etc. - are always offered free anywhere, at least in my experience. And applied poorly on top of mediocre meat, no thanks.
Fries = Pretty good, greasy, and plentiful. Nothing that special.
Total for 2 burgers (one regular, one small), 1 order of fries, and 2 regular sodas = $25. Not worth it. It was still a burger, I would eat here again if my life depended on it, but there are way too many other better burgers in NYC to keep Five Guys on my list.