Five Guys Burgers and Fries

I’ve loved Five Guys since one opened up in my hometown back on the west coast, and this one is no different. Affordable and hits the spot. I love how you can choose so many toppings/​condiments on your burger. I normally get my burger with mushrooms & caramelized onions. Delicious! You can’t go wrong with that. Oh, and you can choose between regular or cajun fries. They don’t have the greatest cajun fries ever, but they’re a nice fix.

2 stars because it’s still a 5 guys. But barely. The staff is nice enough but service is pretty terrible. Waited then was told they were out of bacon. Then waited some more and was told they were out of something else… Then waited and was asked what I had wanted on my burger???
I was half expecting them to hand me a veggie burger when they finally gave it to me.

I think that this is the cheapest Five Guys I’ve seen in a long time.
Across locations I have not seen a ton of differential in food quality. Every Five Guys I’ve been to has had identically excellent burgers. What I have noticed is for some reason, the more urbanized locations will have more variance in fry quality for some reason, whereas the really suburban shopping-​plaza ones will have consistently perfect fries. Case in point: the Five Guys in the Oakland neighborhood in Pittsburgh would have perfect burgers but soggy and seemingly undercooked fries regardless of whether you ate them immediately in the restaurant or took them to go and ate later.
But that’s not in BK, so I will save the analysis of the Pittsburgh location for a review of the Pittsburgh location.
I lived in Park Slope for a couple months while apartment hunting in more affordable reaches of BK, and this Five Guys was my go-​to cheap dinner spot. What kept surprising me is that this location is cheaper than any location I have seen in a while, including locations in supposed low-​cost areas like Pittsburgh and the South.
Compared to other Five Guys, the burgers and fries are about as good as the other locations. Fries seemed consistently crisp, moreso than any other urbanized location I’ve been to. The Coca-​Cola freestyle fountain is always fun, but the sodas have quite a different taste than a traditional fountain — I am assuming this is because everything seems to come out one spout. This is not a fault of the restaurant though, and the fun of choosing the flavor and syrups makes up for any change of flavor. The only thing that surprises me is how empty the place is – I am used to Five Guys that fill up a lot more and have far longer lines!

It’s Five Guys.
It’s always good.
I come here for the epic soda machine.
I (not so) secretly walk out with a gallon jug filled with Vanilla Coke Zero.

What a great hamburger!!! The most home like burger I’ve had. Off computerized type drink machines where, if you want, you can drink a raspberry lime Coke zero for example. Friendly staff and the service is incredible. Clean… just amazing. If I have one complaint it’s that you have to buy fries separately and the small order looks huge. I wouldn’t tell you to drive here from another borough but if you’re in Brooklyn near Park Slope or Prospect Heights look this place up.

Fresh, yummy tasty burgers! I love this place, convenient location too. The Five Guys style fries are kind of bad… go with Cajun-​style, they taste way better! And the portion size for the fries is pretty big — 2 people can split it comfortably.

When you’re tried and getting off the train on your way home this place will serve you up a tasty old fashion burger stacked two high with proper fries.
Free toppings for the burgers and peanuts while you wait.
A big big step up from other fast food.

This particular location was soooo quiet when we walked in last Saturday afternoon. So the order time was so quick… and the wait for food was too. And by the end of the meal the place had filled up a bit so we weren’t the only ones in the place– which felt a little awkward in the beginning.
The burger was pretty darn good. I was able to load it up with the items I wanted and it was actually cooked how I like (even though they didn’t ask how I’d like it cooked. Is that normal, by the way, or did they just not ask me?) While the Shake Shack still makes my favorite burger in the city this place will take the «hungry-​for-​a-​good-​burger-​with-​all-​the-​fixings-​and-​no-​where-​near-​a-​shake shack-but-there’s-a-five guys-​down-​the-​block» spot. The main reason for this is the fact that the burger looks like a burger my neighbor would slap on their grill. Bonus points to the list of free toppings they offer!
The only thing I just don’t care for at Five Guys is the fries. They’re not that good, at least in my opinion. Some were mushy, some were crunchy, some were dark brown (?) and most were really small. In our whole cup we had about 4 full sized French fries. What’s up with that?
Oh and even though they offer up free peanuts while you wait for your burgers– there wasn’t a single peanut shell on the floor. One of the Manhattan locations I’ve been to was covered in peanut shells. Not exactly appealing when you are walking in for lunch. Props to this BK location for keeping the place clean!

The little happy stationery store that once occupied this space is now a Five Guys. Here are some of the things that I learned during my first experience at this franchise:
— It’s simple: burgers, fries, and hot dogs
— Free toppings, with the exception of cheese and bacon
— No combo pricing (burger/​drink/​fries priced separately)
— Free peanuts while you wait
— A choice of 4 iced teas makes me happy
— 1 burger = two patties
— They didn’t ask me how I wanted it cooked… hmmm…was I wrong for expecting that?