when I was in Florida last year I had Five Guys burgers a number of times, and every time it was fantastic. I just cannot praise them enough for making a fast food* burger with texture and flavour.
That * up there is important, because unlike McDonalds or Burger King, every order is cooked fresh no matter how simple it is. there's nothing waiting for you on a hot shelf, you have to wait. And in reality, waiting 7 minutes for something that really looks like the picture isn't that much of a hardship is it?
While I was there, I said to the guys while I waited how much I wished there was one in the UK and it'd be a long disappointing time before I was back to Florida or anywhere on the East coast to get another. I joked that if I could get a franchise for over here, I would. Don't I feel stupid now...
A few months ago however, Five Guys opened a branch in Covent Garden in London, queues went round the block and all seemed well and very similar to the states. But its London, and not only that, an annoying bit to get to for just a burger, so I resigned myself to having to wait until I happened to be there to get a fix.
So imagine my surprise when I saw this in Reading, all of about 20 minutes from home:
After being away for a few weeks I was in Reading again last week, and sure enough:
This time, with an opening date. September 3rd. (Go on, look at the date today, i'll wait).
Yes. That is today (well, yesterday now). I'm sure some people went in at Stupid O'Clock to be there first, but I am not one of those people.
I got there mid afternoon and it was reasonably quiet at the counter. Behind the counter they'd obviously thrown people at it to keep everything going smoothly.
Service was quick and pretty much identical to when I was in Florida, probably in aprt due to a number of guys from the US being there keeping it running the same way.
Two things are of note here. Firstly, the drinks machine is incredible. Aside from there being 17 different options on the main page, half of them then had another page of flavours and types.
Fanta and Diet Fanta plus their Still variants each had 7 options, the Cokes also had half a dozen types as well, including raspberry which works SO well. Seriously, this stuff needs to be bottled and sold here. Those 8 drinks alone make up nearly 50 options.
The other thing which is also great and exactly what I'd hoped they'd keep is the liberal portions of fries. We ordered two regular and one small fries and this is what we got.
Not bad at all, obviously potato shaped, decent thickness chips overflowing the cup. Whats awesome however is that when they make up portions of fries, instead of having portions sitting around for more customers, they'll give you the extras so they don't go to waste and just chuck them in the bag. Good for you (more food for your money) and good for them (happy customers, and less wastage). So in out bag, this is what we had in addition to the cups.
Obviously they go through a lot of potatoes, there were plenty of 25kg bags proudly labelled with their origin in Yorkshire. The name of the farm was on the walls too, but I've forgotten which one it was (sorry whoever's farm that was).
Finally, as a fringe benefit, the extra fries we took home reheated better than just about any I've had from a fast food or restaurant in the past. Not floury or soggy, they were just really good fries, even after a second heating.
All in all, it's not the cheapest burger around, McDonalds and Burger King have them beaten on that, but the burger is MUCH better than anything they do. I mean, I love a Big Tasty or an XL BDC, but this is just better on every level. Whats more is it actually looks like you expect a burger to, not a crushed mess in a box, more an explosion of stuff loosely held by a bun.
Yes i'm enthusiastic about this, and no i'm not ashamed. I expected to wait a lot longer than 11 months for another one of these burgers and to have to travel a lot further than 10 miles. It might be the death of me, but it'll be a hell of a way to go.
TL;DR, GO HAVE A BURGER AT FIVE GUYS.
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