Burgers I've Eaten - Part 2

Today, the chain, Five Guys. Five Guys has locations throughout the east coast. They have a simple menu of burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, and fries. The fries are made from fresh potatoes and fried Thrashers style in peanut oil. but, this isn't a blog entry about french fries. Let's get to the burgers.

I ate at Five Guys two times last week. Normally, I don't eat that much red meat in a week, but I couldn't resist taking my husband there last weekend to share in the experience of eating this burger.

The burgers at five guys are hand formed patties. Hand formed patties of goodness. They are cooked on a grill until they are well done. There are two options for your burger enjoyment at Five Guys. You can get the little burger with one patty, or the regular burger with two. Personally, I am not a fan of the double decker burger, so both times, I went with the little burger.

This burger is far from "little". The patty is not too thin, not too thick. The burger is grilled until it is juicy and slightly greasy, but not greasy enough that it impacts the bun. The bun stays a bread consistency and doesn't congeal into a gooey, oily mess while you're eating it, another positive aspect of eating this burger. This may have something to do with the buns being grilled before assembling the burger.

The selection of free toppings for the burger is also impressive. Fresh onions, fried onions, pickles, mushrooms, Jalapeno peppers, hot sauce, bbq sauce, A-1 sauce, along with the standards of mayo, ketchup, and mustard. (Although my husband informed me it's rude to smother a perfectly good burger with A-1 sauce. Still, I'm glad the option is there).

For the first burger, I chose ketchup, fried onions, pickles, and cheese. The second burger was adorned with fresh onions, ketchup, cheese, and pickles. I liked the fresh onions better, but had to pick off some of them, because I thought the sheer number of them overwhelmed the taste of the burger. I recently made friends with the pickle, and am now enjoying its tartness on burgers.

Another positive aspect of Five Guys is that it's cheap. Two little cheeseburgers, a large fry, and a drink will run you about twelve bucks. Not bad for a fulfilling Saturday afternoon lunch.

I'm venturing to the west coast this week. Hopefully, I'll return with another exciting installment of "Burgers I've Eaten - West Coast Edition". Until then, happy eating.