Binko wrote:

jmc wrote:i went yesterday, toppings were correct, everything was good. for a place that is known for burgers they really weren't that great, the meat was medium/well done and didn't have a whole lot of flavor and was pretty dry.

I agree that dry is not desirable in a hamburger, but I wouldn't expect this style of fast-food burger, especially with 1/4 pound patties, to be cooked to anything below medium well.

They have a sign over the register that explains "We cook all our meat juicy and well-done," though I don't find the "juicy" descriptor particularly apt.

David Hammond wrote:

Binko wrote:

jmc wrote:i went yesterday, toppings were correct, everything was good. for a place that is known for burgers they really weren't that great, the meat was medium/well done and didn't have a whole lot of flavor and was pretty dry.

I agree that dry is not desirable in a hamburger, but I wouldn't expect this style of fast-food burger, especially with 1/4 pound patties, to be cooked to anything below medium well.

They have a sign over the register that explains "We cook all our meat juicy and well-done," though I don't find the "juicy" descriptor particularly apt.

Which brings me to a question, other than Fuddruckers (which is only pseudo-fast food to me), are there any fast food hamburger chains that cook their meat to anything but well?

" we cook our meat juicy and well done".....

if that isn't the funniest oxymoron I have ever heard I dont know what is.

hoppy2468 wrote:This is a joke, right? Went here last Saturday after a movie at 9pm. We were the only ones in line(I guess people are fast learners). After screwing up our order...we got two bacon cheeseburgers with no bacon(how is that even possible?) they wrapped some bacon in foil and handed it to me. Put said bacon on rapidly cooling burgers and waded into the slop. Now realised that my burger was missing the onions I asked for. Not wanting to have a bunch of raw onions dumped into my hands or something I refrained from further complaining. The burger itself is ok, the bun is terrible, it can't hold up to having much in the way of various condiments on it without falling apart. The condiment choices are good assuming they actually put them on your burger. The fries are good but someone in an earlier post said that they were cajun fries which they are not. Cajun fries should have cajun spices on them, these did not. But then they could have just missed when applying said spices since they clearly couldn't put ordered items on the burgers. I'm guessing that with all the hype on the walls that this is what passes for THE BURGER on the right coast, if so, I really feel sorry for them.

DO NOT GO TO FIVE GUYS.

If in Oak Park, head over to Goldys in Forest Park and get a truly delicious burger, cooked the way you want it and they have never forgotten the bacon or onoins.

Ehem, if I may. Speaking as someone from the "right coast" who was living in Virginia when the very first Five Guys opened, I am personally (and regionally) offended by the comments made by "Hoppy".

I think I have a pretty good idea of what exactly passes for a "good burger", and what does not. In fact, I think that the entire DC metro area has an excellent idea of what passes for a good burger. I also know what to expect at a brand new franchised restaurant that has been operating for less than a week.

What most people seem to forget is the fact that Five Guys has been able to expand across over a dozen states without changing a single thing about their operation. No advertising, no "regional menus", and no B.S. promotions. I wish I could say the same about a single "franchise" that has emerged out of Chicago.

With that said, I will say that I have noticed the slightest drop in quality since I first went to a five guys while I was still in high school, but bear in mind, this is a franchise that now has over 200 locations, and I think the fact that they are still hand cutting fresh potatoes in the back and cooking every single burger to order is something that a lot of other chains could learn from. You don't have to sacrifice quality and ideals to expand your operation.....you just have to serve good, consistent food.

I've never been let down by a Five Guys, including the Oak Park location, and it seems to me that an ill tempered local is appalled at the idea of an out of town franchise coming in with better food than a local staple like Goldys. Go back in 2 months when their operation is smoothed out ....then we'll talk. Oh, and BTW, I'm pretty sure that they won't "dump a bunch of raw onions into your hands". At least they never did at the one back home...

GO TO FIVE GUYS

Five Guys
1115 Lake Street
Oak Park, IL 60301

While it's only a burger (and a chain burger at that), it does seem a bit rash to rule a place out for eternity solely because of mistakes made in the first week of operations at a new outlet. I doubt that many folks around here would take adapt that stance, based on information conveyed in a single post.

Human error is a pretty common part of the foodservice industry, especially at this price point. I think demanding perfection from a chain burger joint is pretty unrealistic, although I will say that the way in which they dealt with the problems (as described here) sounds less than ideal.

=R=

"I am personally (and regionally) offended by the comments made by "Hoppy"."

Sorry to offend you, it wasn't personal however I am offended by your personal attack.

"I think I have a pretty good idea of what exactly passes for a "good burger", and what does not. In fact, I think that the entire DC metro area has an excellent idea of what passes for a good burger."

So no one in all of Chicagoland knows what a "good burger" is?

"it seems to me that an ill tempered local is appalled at the idea of an out of town franchise coming in with better food than a local staple like Goldys."

So now I'm ill tempered because I expressed an opinion and because I expect good food and good service?

If the food is better I'll eat there. Sadly, with Five Guys, this is not the case.

DO NOT GO TO FIVE GUYS

IN FACT, DON'T GO TO ANY OF THE BAD/AVERAGE RESTAURANTS THAT INFECT OAK PARK.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! STAND UP FOR YOU FOOD RIGHTS!

thomasec wrote:What most people seem to forget is the fact that Five Guys has been able to expand across over a dozen states without changing a single thing about their operation. No advertising, no "regional menus", and no B.S. promotions. I wish I could say the same about a single "franchise" that has emerged out of Chicago.

McDonald's, in its current incarnation, was essentially launched as a world wide fast food chain from the Chicago area in 1955.

Please, folks, let's cool it off in here pronto.

Opinions have been expressed clearly and at some point, we will have to agree to disagree.

Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Thanks,

=R=
for the moderators

hoppy2468 wrote:"I am personally (and regionally) offended by the comments made by "Hoppy"."

Sorry to offend you, it wasn't personal however I am offended by your personal attack.

"I think I have a pretty good idea of what exactly passes for a "good burger", and what does not. In fact, I think that the entire DC metro area has an excellent idea of what passes for a good burger."

So no one in all of Chicagoland knows what a "good burger" is?

"it seems to me that an ill tempered local is appalled at the idea of an out of town franchise coming in with better food than a local staple like Goldys."

So now I'm ill tempered because I expressed an opinion and because I expect good food and good service?

If the food is better I'll eat there. Sadly, with Five Guys, this is not the case.

I'm sorry, but this post is so ill-conceived that I have no idea how to respond. I was in no way implying that all of Chicago knows nothing about hamburgers, and the "ill tempered" comment was based on the general tone of your initial post.

Let's just agree to disagree, but I urge you to try Five Guys in a few months when (hopefully) things are running a bit smoother.

I apologize if I came off as harsh...it's just a little hard not to defend something I love from my home town.

Looking forward to checking FG's out soon. Glad to see a good burger chain opening inside the city limits.

I don't really care for the other "pub" style...$10+ for a hamburger... places around town, like Kuma's & The Counter.

Thin pattie 30's style burgers for me , thank you.

Wiseguy wrote:Thin pattie 30's style burgers for me , thank you.

Just a heads-up: the regular at Five Guys is a double patty burger. The "Little Hamburger" is the one patty version, and it's not all that thin.

David Hammond wrote:

Wiseguy wrote:Thin pattie 30's style burgers for me , thank you.

Just a heads-up: the regular at Five Guys is a double patty burger. The "Little Hamburger" is the one patty version, and it's not all that thin.

I noticed that, the regular is a double. I don't mind a pattie that's thick, just not half a pound thick. I'll make those at home so I can screw it up and not pay $10-15....for a hamburger

I found the double to be a good size for the big doughy bun.

David Hammond wrote:Just a heads-up: the regular at Five Guys is a double patty burger. The "Little Hamburger" is the one patty version, and it's not all that thin.

What are we talking about. 1/4 lb patties? 1/3 lb patties???

gp60004 wrote:What are we talking about. 1/4 lb patties? 1/3 lb patties???

I'm guessing 1/4 lb patties, but maybe somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3. A regular burger is a lot of meat.

David Hammond wrote:

gp60004 wrote:What are we talking about. 1/4 lb patties? 1/3 lb patties???

I'm guessing 1/4 lb patties, but maybe somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3. A regular burger is a lot of meat.

It should be about 1/4 lb, from looking at the nutritional info Five Guys has on their site and from a glance on Google. (They don't specifiy patty size on their nutritional chart, but the "little" cheeseburger has about the same calories as a quarter pounder with cheese at McDonald's.)

I pretty much always get the "little" burger. I find it has a better ratio of meat, topping and, bread. You have to keep in mind that, ultimately, this is a fast food burger. You aren't going to get it med-rare and there are a bunch of reasons for that:

Consistency - they operate locations where you are not allowed by law to cook ground meat anything but well done.
Taste - yes taste... I never found a flat top burger with an acceptable level of char that was rare. I'm sure it exists but not often.
Time - doing burgers to different done-ness in a fast food restaurant lunch rush is not practical. I don't personally know of a major chain that does offer choice in this regard.

Given that, I find two well-done patties to overwhelm the bun (which I don't find to be big and doughy at all compared to say, Kuma's) and make the whole thing unwieldy. I would probably order two little burgers (well, I'd order a hot dog if one didn't do it, but I digress...) if I was that hungry.

Stagger wrote:Given that, I find two well-done patties to overwhelm the bun (which I don't find to be big and doughy at all compared to say, Kuma's) and make the whole thing unwieldy.

That is a very good point, and although I think it's cool that they give you a massive quantities of fries (even with the smaller order), I've not been able to eat all of them (and I love fries). Next time, I'm still getting the fries but I'll go with the smaller burger.

David Hammond wrote:

Stagger wrote:Given that, I find two well-done patties to overwhelm the bun (which I don't find to be big and doughy at all compared to say, Kuma's) and make the whole thing unwieldy.

That is a very good point, and although I think it's cool that they give you a massive quantities of fries (even with the smaller order), I've not been able to eat all of them (and I love fries). Next time, I'm still getting the fries but I'll go with the smaller burger.

they give you a lot of fries, but i think there are a few people here, myself included , that are able to down a regular order and burger. the large is something you can split. and my waistline grows...

I just want to concur with what everyone else has said up to now about Five Guys:

Good burger, but needs more seasoning/salt
Get the "little" burger (one patty) unless you are extra hungry
Fries are very good, but make sure they are just out of the fryer (mine were a little bit soggy)
I really like the sweet tea options (Green or Black) from the soda fountain area (or no sugar added if you prefer)

Do you think they will learn to actually salt the hamburger patties, or is it just that "Five Guys" have some sort of sodium stance about seasoning meat? Has anyone tried to ask them to salt their burger while it is being cooked? If they just did that, the burger would move up from good to very good, IMO.

id say i pretty much liked it
was not able to form too great of an opinon because i ran into david hammond
and started talking about bbq and other good stuff and got distracted
that i would say is a good thing
but
when i am the hood looking for a burger no doubt id check it out again
i liked the burger
fries are the real deal
looked very clean and friendly
seems to be to be a good fit with the location
good luck
keep up the good work
while priced a little higher
way better than standard fast food burger fare
i liked the what you see is what you get feel of the place
the seemed to know who they are and what they are trying to do

Drove by the "Lincoln Park" location last night on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner. Construction appears to be progressing quickly with the familiar tiles in place. I would give them a month or so.

AlexG wrote:Drove by the "Lincoln Park" location last night on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner. Construction appears to be progressing quickly with the familiar tiles in place. I would give them a month or so.

Cool, thanks for the heads up!

I had a spare moment for lunch today and seeing that Hot Doug's is closed for Thanksgiving, I decided to try the fries (and burger) at Five Guys. Showed up at prime lunch time, noon on a Saturday. It was pretty packed both with customers as well as workers. (I think it was a 1:1 ratio.)

I am a big fan of the 30's style burger, so I ordered a little cheeseburger with lettuce, pickles, mustard and grilled onions. Also ordered a regular fries and a drink. I missed the giant boxes of peanuts, so I didn't have any of those, but the food arrived soon enough.

Burger: good ratio of patty to burger (which I think is one of the most overlooked parts of the burger.) This thing was cooked well done and like the other posters, I felt there was a significant lack of salt in the meat. The toppings were fine - good quality lettuce, decent mild grilled onions. But the burger just tasted a bit too plain, even with the toppings. Despite the excellent proportions, I must say that I wasn't that blown away. Not a good comparison to In and Out at all, based on this one burger.

Fries: Decent fresh cut fries. Hot and salty. Way better than the flash frozen, but not as good as many of the excellent double fried fries that are available in Chicago (Al's, Joe's in Westchester, WASC, Hot Dougs.)

Overall, I was a bit underwhelmed. A decent burger, but not (in my estimation) destination dining.

If anyone has a peanut allergy DO NOT GO. Fries are cooked in peanut oil and there are peanuts and peanut shells everywhere.

I had a better experience tonight than in their first weeks - could be just because I went later in the day when the grill and oil were hot and well-seasoned, but both burger patty and fries were crispier and more satisfactorily salt-balanced. One odder bonus of 5G over standard fast food is that your car actually smells like steak and potatoes instead of grease and processed cheese* when you get back to it after ducking into Trader Joe's.

*note: my car normally only smells like grease and processed cheese after eating at a fast food place, not as a baseline condition. Although my friend had a car that smelled like rancid A1 steak sauce for about four years.

note to self - must ride in Santander's car sometime.

Just returned from Oak Park's 5 Guys - what a difference simplicity makes. I just topped a single patty with cheese, mayo, mustard, onions, pickles and jalapenos and the experience went from very good to great. The ratio of bun to patty was perfect and the beef was complimented rather than threatened by the toppings. I found myself debating whether I should saunter back up the cashier and order another one. I did not. But I wish I had.

It's officially jumped ahead of the In N Out burger for me.

I was underwhelmed.

I went to Five Guys yesterday, a Saturday, which is a death wish: very packed, lots of little kids, and service was not great.

I ordered a little cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and jalapenos. There were about 9 people ahead of my order in line - not a big deal - but 15 minutes is pushing it for impatient ol' me. When I finally got my burger I realized there wasn't anyplace to sit or stand to eat; I had to wait another 5 minutes for a spot at the counter to open up.

Unbagging the food was a happier event, as it always is. The burger looked like toppings, really - the tomatoes were huge. How was it? Strictly, totally, and undeniably average. The burger was hardly present for me with this combo, and when I did manage to get a mouthful of meat, it was unseasoned and flavorless. Oh and as a bonus, my burger had green peppers on it... which I did not order. And for Pete's sake folks, American cheese? Come on now. They offer about a dozen toppings for free but only one cheese? It really struck a wrong note with me.

It's funny because as I was eating the burger, I had memories of great homemade burgers I'd had over the summer... grilled, melted cheese (American or cheddar), great toasted buns, tasty toppings... this was not that burger. It made me sad. Sad!

Having read things here about the fries being better than the burger I was definitely looking forward to that in contrast. But here too I was underwhelmed. The fries weren't cooked long enough - clearly a side effect of their busy-ness - which is hard to come back from.

In all honesty, Mickey's just up Harlem does just as good a job on the burger. So why am I paying $3.50 for this and another $2 for fries? Exactly.

And sorry, in no conceivable way does this come close to In-N-Out.

(As a post-script to the service problem I had... the guy in front of me in line had two kids and a not-complex order of a hot dog, 2 burgers, and fries. He was at the counter long after I was, quite angry, as his order was screwed up. Ended up eating next to him and his kids and he had to return to the counter two more times due to the wrong toppings. That's incompetence, right there.)

Mickey's
525 N Harlem Av
Oak Park
708-848-3333

I made another stop by today with my Bride, a friend and her kids.

We ordered 4 burgers and a hot dog. The two burgers ordered 'All The Way' were delivered as ordered but the other two 'special orders' were not even close.

Upon returning back to the counter and mentioning the mistake we were told to keep the wrong ones and two others would be prepared fresh right away, which they were.

The crust was better than the first week. The continuing lack of seasoning I remedied with a healthy shot of cajun seasoning and I still wish the fries tasted and looked more like the other outstanding double-fried fries I have come to love at other places. I even made a stop at Parky's this week for a reality check.

I still like Parky's fries a lot better. Speaking about Parky's, I think they use some type of flake salt? When you get the fries they do not seem to have the granules that regular salt would produce. Coming out of the shaker it looked liike some kind of flake.

I did eat one of the 'mistake' burgers with simple toppings and without any cheese. The flavor of the meat was still good

The value at $5 is still pretty good especially of you do not mind a freebie or two for your troubles.

Mickey's - I have always ordered their bargain burger (Big Mickey) and I will have to try a full fledged one sometime soon.

drove out to oak park last week to check this place out. Any joint that cooks hand cut fries gets my respect walking in the door - and the fries were executed well

The burger was good. Not great. Certainly better than every other burger of it's class. (that class being major fast food franchise). I'll be very happy when the location in Chicago opens up.

Funny thing is, what I remember most is the fact that the only decorations in the place are awards, quotes and one liners about their greatness. I mean common, it's a good burger but you don't have to spend 1000 sq feet telling me about it. Minor gripe - more funny then anything else but I wondered if anyone else found it tacky.

I'll be back