Five Guys Burgers and Fries

A meal at Five Guys is like a one night stand with your ex — you’re left feeling disgusted with yourself, ashamed and slope away afterwards hoping you don’t run into anyone you know.
I’m not much of a burger fan, heck, I’m not much of a fast food fan either; I avoid places such as Burger King, McDonald’s, etc. like the plague, as, not to blow my own trumpet, I look good naked and I’d prefer to keep it that way. Plus the food is shite.
I’ve heard people sing Five Guys’ praises so much, that I decided I’d try it for myself. If people rate it so highly, it must be good, right? Plus I’d had a few too many gin cocktails that afternoon, without any breakfast, so I needed something to sober me up.
I arrived and it was super crowded. This must be a good sign; it’s clearly popular. They also had a placard on the wall declaring where that day’s potatoes came from; another good sign — the produce is fresh, organic and they obviously give a damn about where their ingredients come from.
I got to the counter and was a little shocked that fries and a drink aren’t included with the burger. In total, my order came to almost £17 — outrageous! Nevermind, I thought, I bet it will be amazing. Wrong. It took about 10 minutes for my food to actually be ready and when it was I had to go to another counter entirely to get my drink. What a clunky ordering process.
You can add as many toppings as you’d like to your burger for free, so I went crazy with the pickles and I’m glad I did as, if I hadn’t, the burger would have been completely tasteless. The only thing that saved it was from being dry and flavourless was how greasy it was. Gross.
I immediately regretted buying fries, and now see why they aren’t included. A ‘small’ portion was enormous and by the time I’d finished my burger I didn’t want them. I tried a couple and they were also horrible. You could easily create your own by throwing an entire bag of McCain oven chips onto a plate, emptying a whole pot of Schwarz Cajun spice over the top, then coughing and choking your way through them all. Ugh.
The one redeeming quality of this experience was the peanut butter shake, albeit sickly, it had actual chunks of peanuts in it and was rather nice. I’m not really in any hurry to go back for another though; it’s easily something I could live without.
Now to hop on my exercise bike for two hours and beg my hips for forgiveness.

There always seems to be a queue here, though it has calmed down from the buzz that seemed to come with it. Like the farore an A list Hollywood star brings with when it arrives at Leicester Sq this was one of the most talked about, Instagramed places I think I’d seen when it first opened.
The good thing I found, and I will start with the good is that the drinks machine is like a charlie and chocolate factory treasure trove of drinks. Cherry Vanilla Coke? Yes please. Fun arrives in fizzy form. That is where it excelled.
In terms of the food. Well, it’s expensive. Very expensive. I thought this was supposed to be an American fast food joint. This isn’t at American prices that’s for sure. And none with the fries included. For such a high price id expect it for gourmet burgers but it already got me annoyed but I’d braved the queue this far.
The burger has loads of free toppings you can get and of course this clever device really adds to the burger because it needs it. It does however make this the most messy burger I’ve ever had. Falling all over the place, and breaking the bun at that.
I mean I wanted to like it. Whether it was hyped or not I expected am Americana burger. I suppose I got it. Not in price, but the down and dirty burger it actually is. However, it’s not great and didn’t sing the praises of the meat. It hides behind its toppings that come with it. Shakeshack its main rival makes the meat for of a hero in my opinion much more. Overall the burger scene has exploded in London, so I’ve stayed away from places like this for places like Patty & Bun, Honest or my all time fav, Bleecker St Burger.

If you call this a hamburger then I am Mickey Mouse. Disgusting meat, tasteless buns, moist chips, music too loud and seriously overpriced. Avoid this place!

Over rated. I prefer Shake Shake at Westfield. Always busy, so be prepared to wait for your food. Lots of seating downstairs. Can be loud b’cuz you have to talk over the music. It’s okay but pricey and not quite what it could be.

Nice burger, nice chips, far too many chips though. Great location close to seven dials/​Covent Garden etc.
The milkshake, that was so tasty, had the salted caramel shake, amazing. Quick service, burger was on the scale somewhere between Byron and Patty and Bun.

HEAVEN IN A BROWN PAPER BAG
Esa frase estaba, junto con otras, por todo el lugar. Llegar al lugar, comer maní mientras esperás muy poco para que terminen tu pedido, sentarte con un super vaso de gaseosa con free refill, es la previa a unas hamburguesas que las defino como «exceso». El precio es un poco más caro que cadenas de hamburguesas (Mc, BK), pero mucho más barato que un menú en otros lugares… En promedio se gasta 10 libras. No es necesario aclarar que la calidad es MUCHO mejor que esas cadenas. Es otro tipo de hamburguesas. Incluso la veggie es increíble. Imposible ir una sola vez.

Had heard a lot about this place and was was really looking forward to trying it out since I am a massive burger fan.
The burger was pretty good and the chips were super nice (huge portion, would probably share next time), there’s also a cool drinks machine (and free refills which is cool).
I did really like the burger although it would not be my favourite and I found it pretty expensive for what is essentially a big hamburger and fries.

I had Five Guys in NYC about 4 years ago and I forgot how tasty are their burgers. I got a small (understand regular size) cheese burger and added some of the 15 free toppings you can chose from. The burger was moist, well cooked, and had so much flavors for a «chain» burger. The place is simple, well organized, and the staff friendly. If you want a bomb burger on the go this is THE place.

My boyfriend told me this place was da bomb, and he was right! I feel bad I couldn’t have appreciated it more when he took me (was feeling pretty ill. Worst timing ever!). But despite my illness and being appalling company that night (sorry sweety!) I definitely appreciated the food. The peanutty taste in those beautifully soft burgers were divine, and everything else about them (the size, the cheese, those gorgeous bacon pieces which boggled my mind how they were even made) were beyond on-​point.
They have a drinks machine where you can choose between 100+ soft drinks combinations. This seriously has to be seen to be believed! There were so many things I wanted to try! And had my belly been feeling right I would have. Settled for some tasty Coke & Lime in the end (always was a fave of mine).
Grateful to Five Guys for making my boyf a happy man (he is seriously your fanboy). And really appreciated the burger I had there. His recommendation of your burgers being the best was beyond mere fanboyism though, their amazingness is beyond ambiguity~!

I’m really astonished that five guys has got such great reviews — there is simply nothing that I like about it:
The price: I’d assumed the draw was the price, that even if it’s sub-​quality it’s a cheap and fast eat… However with a basic hamburger at £6.75, and a cheeseburger is £8 (just to note this is on par with Meat Liquor, and the Ari Gold burger at Patty and Bun, which is drool worthy and award winning, is £7.50), and a regular fries being £4 (also to note fries are £3 at Meat Liquor, and £2.75 at Patty and Bun), I can’t believe that it is! I was simply shocked by the cost!
The food quality: The burger was overcooked, and made of cheap quality meat. Soggy bun, and whilst you can choose from a range of toppings for FREE, these are greasy, fatty with the salad feeling limp. The fries were soggy, low quality and too salty… A waste of time and both need to be slathered in sauce, which made me feel unwell. Although sauce is free here… eat all you want!
The choice: Wow, free peanuts — really? Is that what it’s takes to be different? I see very little on the menu here to make this place special or to stand out apart from these. A choice of free toppings might be an appeal — but I prefer my burger constructed, not just a random mesh of ingrediants slopped together.
The restaurant: Full, busy, dirty. You have to queue up for a while to get your burgers and when you finally find a table, it’s usually dirty /​messy because with the sheer numbers that come though this joint, they can’t keep up with the clear up. The place also just feels cheap!
Why bother going here when you could go to a nice burger place — and if you want a cheap one — well why don’t you go for a cheaper option at a nice burger place!
Five times, really, really, really, really, really, not impressed.

When I’m craving a burger I always come to this place. Great burger and free refills is always good.
Only this I will say is that you should try the branch near Oxford Circus first as it isn’t as busy as this one.

The food was good, the crowds and seating was not so good.
Looking for some comfort food on a rainy afternoon, I wandered into Five Guys for a burger and fries. The place was freaking swamped with people. Despite this, I did manage to place my order within a few minutes and got my drink going (Coca-​Cola with cherry flavor).
After getting my order, I had to head downstairs to find a place to sit. The music down there was as loud as a Scottish pub and there were multiple large-​sized families down there with their kids running around and playing while their parents were eating.
For me, the music was so loud that I began to actually get a headache. I enjoyed my food, but because of this, I did eat it rather quickly in order to get myself out of there and back into the rain until I found somewhere else to chill at.
Overall, the food gets the stars here. The ambiance (lack of) and crazy seating downstairs are the weaker points at this Five Guys location.

Some might call me out for visiting a Five Guys while vacationing on another continent. But when I see an American comfort food entity in a foreign country, I get very intrigued.
It was fun visiting a Five Guys in London. It’s not my favorite burger in the states, and it wasn’t my favorite burger in London. But it’s solid. I was en route to dinner at Dishoom and I didn’t want to ruin my appetite, so I opted for the small size burger (sans bun). Got it across the board with toppings and was in-​and-​out in about 8 minutes. It was a perfectly fine snack and tasted like all of my previous trips to Five Guys. Continuity when crossing a body of water is tough, but they did it perfectly.

Après en avoir entendu parlé quelque fois, il était temps pour nous de se faire notre propre opinion et d’aller tester Five Guys, pendant notre séjour à Londres.
Tout d’abord, la carte est très, très, très pauvre. Ici, on boit du gazeux, de l’eau où on né boit pas. Bön, tant pis.
Nous optons pour des burgers classiques et la serveuse, qui avait l’air d’avoir tout sauf passé une bonne journée au vue de son humeur exécrable, nous prie de bien nous dépêcher de lui dire ce qu’on veut mettre dedans. A peine le temps de réfléchir alors que nous né connaissions pas l’enseigne, nous optons pour quelque chose de très simple, sans même avoir le temps de commander des frites tellement on a vite été expédiés.
Les prix restent tout de même corrects mais on a vu mieux.
On nous prie ensuite de bien vouloir attendre sur un côté le temps que notre commande soit prête. Nous n’avons pas attendu mais il était tout de même assez tôt pour manger, nous avions faim à cause de l’avion et de l’heure décalée mais quand nous sommes partis il y avait la queue. Que vous mangiez sur place ou à emporter, on vous emballera vos burgers dans un papier d’alu ignoble, vous fourra le tout dans un sac à papier et basta. Le au revoir et merci sont en option, aussi.
Nous descendons pour manger. La salle du bas à son charme, et les toilettes sont très propres.
Les burgers né paient absolument pas de mine, cependant ils étaient bons.
J’ai lu que les Five Guys des USA étaient d’une autre qualité… A re tester là-​bas alors, car celui-​là, très peu pour moi!

First you start with the free peanuts while queuing and thinking about the burger you gonna get. If you are not too hungry just choose the little size (little burger, little bacon bacon or little cheeseburger with bacon.) which is already a good size burger especially if you add all the topping that you wants! The best in this burger is the bacon. It’s crispy and go so well with the meat. Five guys was my first love with proper burger and I still like this place as their burger for me would always stay some pretty good burgers!

Five guys is a well established chain Burger restaurant with various locations across London. While the food is very quick to be prepared for you so can be considered ‘fast food’, your burger is made to our order so is fresh and very efficient.
You are paying a lot of money for your burger so you are obviously not getting McDonalds quality burgers (nothing against McDonalds, but you pay £1.29 for a basic burger so you get what you pay for)
These burgers at Five guys are thick, juicy, high quality meat and with the added bonus of choosing as many sauces or extras in the burger for ‘free’. Whether you like a simple burger or go crazy with everything on the menu, same price.
The chips are amazing with the skin on, there are peanuts for free and the highlight is the drinks machine. Such a nice feature and with unlimited refills its a perfect complement to the meal.
Definitely check it out, it need not be this location as it is a chain restaurant, but good quality burgers!

There can be quite a line to get in, tip:
Order online on your iphone on your way and skip the line — you can still eat in!
Finally a place in London with grape soda :-)

Hmm, the shine of Five Guys is wearing off for me, I’m afraid!
I have always found the fries too salty, the cajun ones nearly inedibly so.
The service was fine, but the food came out too quickly. All I did was order, leaving my other half upstairs while I went down to get the drink filled and grab a seat. The Freestyle machine crapped out halfway through pouring my cherry Coke, so I had to get the rest of it with just Coke (but it was working when we refilled it). I had barely sat down and my husband came down with the food. Odd, as the hot dogs always take longer than the burgers.
The cheese didn’t even melt on it properly (normally it’s a messy puddle) and the hot dog, while not cold, was not hot. Edible, yes, but without the extra tastiness I had come to expect. I only ate half of it, and a handful of the salt-​encrusted fries, before I called it a day.
That being said, when we left just gone 6, there was a queue waiting to get in, so I’m clearly in the minority.

I like Five Guys. They do good burgers and the drinks machine is mega cool. So I feel annoyed with myself for having to knock a star off for this particular trip.
Here’s why: I’ve been enough times now to know what to expect. I finally broke and got a hotdog this time (I’d tried it before but never had one to myself) and sadly it wasn’t properly hot.
From the looks of things it had only been cooked on one side which was not how is seen them done before — and oddly it was cooked much faster than I’d previously seen. Usually it takes longer than the burgers to cook, but strangely this time it was much faster.
So that killed a point, along with the floor which is always slippery here! It feels like your walking on ice sometimes. But anyway, I think they had an off day, and I’d normally give them a four.

I really loved the burger and the fries. It all looked a bit messy, but thats how a burger at a fast food joint is allowed to look like :)
The taste was amazing and the portion size (especially the fries) was huge.
I went there after the movies around midnight and still there was a line up to the door. I walked by the place during the day when there was pretty heavy raining and the line even went around the corner!
I hope Five Guys will open some joints in Germany any time soon. There is no way I would ever set a foot again in a McD when there is a Five Guys in an acceptable distance :)

If you’ve read any of my other reviews, you’ll know I’m a big meat eater. So when we had 30 mins to kill before heading to another great Unilocal!event at The Covent Garden Hotel, it shouldn’t surprise you that we decided to finally give Five Guys a try.
To start, there was no queue, which I’ve heard is a rarity. 6pm is obviously an unpopular time to get burgers, but it worked for us!
On initial inspection, the burgers seem quite pricey. But if you take full advantage of the number of complimentary toppings available, it isn’t so bad. Laura ordered a standard hamburger with lettuce, tomato and pickle, and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with mushrooms salad and bbq sauce. We also ordered some fries and refillable drink to share. Total bill was about £20.
I really enjoyed my burger. The bacon was crispy and flavoursome and the cheese and bbq sauce were excellent. It wasn’t until I finished mine, and then ate the rest of Laura’s that I realised how unseasoned and flavourless the patties are. They may be pure beef, and yes, there are two of them between the buns, but still, a bit of salt and pepper wouldn’t go a miss.
The fries on the other hand would benefit from less salt. Maybe if you put the fries IN your burger then it would be perfect?!
So salty fries mean you need a drink and this is where Five Guys wins. There were flavours of pop I’d never even tried. Cherry Fanta was amazing!
I’d happily go back again, but it still isn’t the best burger in London!

Après en avoir test 2 a Miami et être tombé amoureux, me voici à Londres pour déguster frites et double (le regular cheese burger) cheese, accompagnés d’un hot dog.
Le meilleur US-​style burger test en Europe pour l’instant.
Viande bien cuite, bon équilibre avec la taille et épaisseur des légumes.
Le papier alu donne le style FG, alors oui le pain est ramolli mais c’est le but. Du coup tout se mélange parfaitement dés la première bouchée.
Les frites sont bonnes, différentes de celles des US mais font toujours frites maisons. Possibilité de les avoir épicées (ce qu’a pris mon pote). Le bacon cheese passé bien aussi (ma copine).
Le hot dog n’est pas mauvais, le fait de fendre et griller la saucisse est conservé. Celle ci est plus épaisse et plus longue (esprit mal placé s’abstenir haha) mais pas forcément meilleur (tjr dans un esprit de comparaison avec les USA).
Les Français en visite à Londres, oubliez le Burger King et allez essayer le Five Guys Burger and Fries !

I’ve heard people raving about Five Guys so as we were in the area looking for a bite to eat and there wasn’t a massive queue, we decided to give it a try.
I was very impressed. There’s free monkey nuts for a start! The burger was a little greasier than I’d like but it was soooo tasty and I’d definitely recommend getting chips — you get loads (we went for large but there were loads more than I imagined), they have their skin on and they’re coated with something delicious — maybe a bit of paprika.
You choose the burger you want — hamburger, cheeseburger, burger with bacon etc then as many of the toppings as you want for no extra charge. You can get a drink for £2.50 which you can refill for free too.
The restaurant has a fun American diner style and we sat downstairs in a really cute little booth.
It’s pretty good value for money and really tasty. Next time you’re in Covent Garden give it a try if you haven’t already!

Rien de spécial malgré la queue immense. Et ça n’a rien à voir comparé au Five Guys aux USA. Il y a tellement d’autres bons burgers sur Londres !