What we could live without: No beer. Cajun flavored fries that fried our tongues into submission and general numbness. Seemingly no restroom. :(
Burger scale: A
Price range: $ out of $$$$
Payment method: cash, all major credit cards
In our 14 plus months of checking out the burgers about town, there have only been two restaurants where our members have unanimously agreed on the quality of the burger. That list now totals three as we welcome the addition of Five Guys.
Back in the good ol' days when yours truly lived in Washington DC, Five Guys was a father and sons burger joint located in Old Town Alexandria. We were so smitten with the Five Guys burgers, we used to make the drive from DC to the 'burbs of Virginia to get a little something something from our five fave dudes. Lucky for us, the restaurant is now a rapidly expanding franchise with locations in midtown and downtown Manhattan as well as Queens, Brooklyn and upstate NY. We no longer have to travel as far as VA for a burger-date with our five fave men.
Five Guys in NYC manages to retain the same charm as the original Five Guys -- which is about as much charm as our grandma's bathroom. The place is covered in red and white bathroom tile and furnished with plain wood tables and chairs prerequisite to all fast-food restaurants.
If it weren't for the open kitchen behind the counter where we can see our burgers being prepared (the key is one press with the spatula), the stacks of potatoes that line one wall, the chalkboard sign that tells us where today's potatoes are from (Boise Idaho), the barrels of peanuts in the middle of the dining area and the stack of small metal buckets that allow us to help ourselves to buckets of peanuts while waiting for our burger, we could swear we were in our grandma's really really ugly bathroom circa 1988. And we mean really ugly.
Yet, despite the ambiance (lack thereof), we love Five Guys.
Our 3+ oz. foil-wrapped burgers come juicy yet well done and with as many toppings as we wish (only bacon costs more). The fries are hand-cut and come in a brown paper bag. The burgers were so fantastic, we didn't speak to each other for a good 20 minutes once we got our burgers. We were too busy eating.
We'll definitely be seeing more of Five Guys, and we think you ought to too.
For more pictures (and to see yours truly's flip top head maneuver), click on the album below:
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| Burgers at Five Guys |
