Stepping out of Canberra for the first time in a few weeks, we decided to test out a real American burger.
Recently Five Guys has set foot in Australia and have began to open a few stores in Sydney. The store we went to was the Five Guys on George Street. Nestled away down a short walk way, you step foot into what feels like a New York Subway station. The store is lined with white subway tiles, with a massive Five Guys written across the wall. Hanging on the walls is Five Guys memorabilia and newspaper articles stating how good these burgers are in New York and America.
Ordering here is very different to most burger shops you'd be used to. You get to pick either a single or double cheeseburger, then the rest is up to you. There are probably 15 different toppings you can choose from which are all "free", very much like subway. We went with pickles, raw onion (obviously), grilled peppers, ketchup & mustard, the standard cheeseburger with a little something different because why not. From memory the price for the double alone was around $24, given it was lunch time and had been a long day already we added chips and a drink, bringing the total to $33.......
The burger itself was one of the better fast food burgers I've eaten. The inside ingredients were exactly what you would want, they tasted fresh and it all worked. The beef was nice and thick and juicy and the cheese held well on the pattie. It was like maccas or hungry jacks but on steroids in terms of flavour and quality. For me the bun just didn't do it. Im now used to enjoying a very nice milk or potato bun and these just came across as a mass produced sugary bun, much like a maccas bun. It was really the only let down of the meal.
Now let's get onto the HIGHLIGHT of this whole dining experience. The chips. The chips at Five Guys are AMAZING. When you bite into these you get a perfect amount of crunch without being over cooked and dry inside, and the salt is absolutely on point. On top of this, you also get a cup full of chips, plus what seemed to be whatever they could fit in the bag, there was chips everywhere and I wasn't mad about it. I believe this is a pretty common practice at Five Guys in America, and I want everywhere to start doing it.
All in all, if you're looking for an American Burger experience then I would recommend giving Five Guys a try, it has that American vibe about it and I think they have bought workers out from the States to work in the stores to add to that experience, everyone had an accent that served or cleaned up around us.
However - be prepared to pay for it! The whole meal cost us $33 for 1 burger, fries & a re-fillable cup. That I was not expecting. Probably $10 more than I would like to pay for the same experience and meal. But that didn't seem to discourage people as the line when we left was out the door!
Five Guys Sydney - 8.3/10
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