Hey everyone, this is Jeff filling an as a guest contributor tonight. (Who would have thought my dog would get a guest spot on the blog before I did?)
So, some time ago I read an article in the OC Register about this east coast burger joint that was coming out to California and they “claimed” to be the answer to In-N-Out. A pretty tall order if you ask me (and pretty much anyone else from CA). But, when a new kid shows up talkin smack like this you have to check it out. So off we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner.
This was the first time I have eaten at Five Guys but not the first time I have tried. The first Five Guys to open in CA was in Orange not too far from my office so at lunch I headed off to give it a try. I showed up at 11:10 in the morning and the line was out the door. Definitely a good sign, but since I only have an hour for lunch it wasn’t going to be that day. The second time was when I stumbled across the Mira Loma location, the one closest to my house, and again the line was out the door. Now I was interested. I was thinking In-N-Out might be in some serious trouble! That was until tonight. We (the wifey and I) decided to give it a try for dinner and I was anticipating the same line of people out the door. When we got there at about 6pm there were people but no line.(hmmmm?) The second thing I noticed was the obnoxiously loud music and the yelling from behind the counter, we almost couldn’t hear the girl taking our order. I got the regular cheeseburger (which is a double) and Dione got the little burger (which is a single) and we shared an order of fries and a drink.
Above is what came out of the kitchen… the burgers where wadded up in foil like a burger baseball and were quite bland. The fresh cut fries were decent but a little greasy. All things being equal Five guys does use all fresh ingredients like In-N-Out but I can’t get past the lack of seasoning and the packaging. You can get more options at Five Guys, but being able to add mushrooms or A-1 doesn’t really make up for the shortcomings. And then there was the price. One double cheeseburger, one regular cheeseburger, one order of fries and one Coke rang up at a hefty 16 dollars! At In-N-Out you can get two double doubles, two orders of fries and two drinks for around 12 bucks and that leaves you with 4 extra dollars for a shake or a stop at Golden Spoon! Call us Homers but In-N-Out has nothing to worry about! At one point I leaned over and asked Dione if we still thought In-N-Out was better and she looked at me as if I suddenly became a special needs child! (I cant say the R word on the blog)
In the pantheon of great great burgers I will come clean and Admit that In-N-Out isn't the best but for the value and the service it ranks as a favorite. Five Guys is somewhere between the Carls Jr Six dollar burger and the Jack in the Box jumbo jack.
Oh and then we went car shopping! No purchases yet but keep checking back for an update!
