Just for your information:

I was sort of hungry today around 2:30 PM driving down Clark St. Remembering a pleasant experience at 5 Guys there on Clark st. one year ago, I stopped, parked, and once inside ordered a simple one patty single hamburger with just grilled onions. I did not order fries because I noticed that there were 5 frying baskets full of already cut potatoes waiting idle to be plunged into their respective fryers. Not a good sign at 2:30 in the afternoon.

There were no other customers but it took 10 minutes to get my order delivered.
The man in charge would go back and forth to the back room, check, vary vaguely my burger from time to time and disappear again.
At one point, thinking I was about to get the finished product I told him I changed my mind and wanted some lettuce and tomato.
He showed me that he was adding these 2 components and disappeared again.
The hamburger they served me was completely non-edible: totally overcooked, dry, not any trace of moisture left, the piece of iceberg lettuce was wilted, the tiny slice of tomato barely escaped the freezing stage... the bun was cold and dry.
A total disaster and probably one of the worst burgers I had in my whole life.
No need to say I will never stopped by 5 Guys again.

Was at five guys in Schaumburg today at 12:30pm and it was dead empty. I asked for my fries well done where my companion asked for hers regular. Both orders were dumped into the same bag. When I asked which was which they shrugged and told me that both were relatively crispy. Neither were. Burgers were ok but way overcooked compared to how they were a few months ago.

It's amazing how quickly they went downhill. Reminds me of Krispy Kreme.

Tortfeasor wrote:
It's amazing how quickly they went downhill. Reminds me of Krispy Kreme.

Remember when Chipotle first opened in Chicago, and for about 3 months you could get a plus quality $5 chicken burrito? The meat was better, the tortillas were being fresh-made right before your eyes. The the price went up, the content went DOWN. Same thing with 5 Guys. It is turning into Burger King with a longer wait. The honeymoon is over, 5 Guys. Source better meat, stop salting everything to death, and realize that to most people, fries are just fries. You need to put a small fries on a dollar menu. Nobody wants to pay $15 for a $5 meal.

I'm starting to feel vindicated.

As somebody who had been to Five Guys in DC and Northern Virginia before this barrage of expansion over many years of business travel to that region... it's not as good in the newer locations, including the new Bolingbrook location. If I had to speculate, it would be that they are giving franchisees some latitude in their sourcing of meat and bread to stay within the $5 price in areas with higher rents and labor costs, while holding firm on the potatoes.

Rapid expansion is rarely a good thing. Some chains, such as Panera, can survive it by continuously fine-tuning their menu and their business processes. Others like Subway get by based on their relative lack of physical operating costs. But other one-note places like Krispy Kreme have nowhere to adjust.

I seriously have a hard time believing that people honestly think that the burgers at Portillo's are better than Five Guys. To me, this seems like a case of restaurant and/or city-loyalty above all else.

From what I can tell, the meat at Portillo's comes frozen and pre-formed. Then it is fed through an automatic "grill", and plopped on a bun.

Every single burger made at five guys is hand formed, never frozen, and individually cooked. Sure, this means a bit more inconsistency than a place like Portillo's, but IMO, the burgers come out tasting about ten times better when they're done right (which I believe they are the majority of the time).

And don't even get me started on the fries.....

I agree with everything thomasec said. I don't think Five Guys is that great, but it's light years ahead of *most* of the beef-burger-gyros joint hamburgers in this city.

I honestly feel that Portillo's burger is better than 5G, which is a place I've never really appreciated. Never had one in Chicago, but have in DC, NY, FL and recently South Bend, where the burger was particularly no big whoop. The tragedy was my proximity to Schoop's and various tavern/roadhouse and drive in burger shrines in NWIN and SWMI. I don't think Portillo's are *great*, either. But when someone insists on Portillo's, I get the burger. Damnation by faint praise. Many a backyard BBQ are proof that hand formed =/= good. In my experience I find the 5G burger to be remarkably bland and greasy at the same time. Not something you see everyday. I refuse to order a bunch of free crap to drown out the burger, too. Of course it's multiples better than McD's and the ilk, but I never got how it creeps into the universal In N Out meme.

FWIW, there's a banner posted outside the Chicago Ridge Mall for a 5G opening in November.

alain40 wrote:Just for your information:

I was sort of hungry today around 2:30 PM driving down Clark St. Remembering a pleasant experience at 5 Guys there on Clark st. one year ago, I stopped, parked, and once inside ordered a simple one patty single hamburger with just grilled onions. I did not order fries because I noticed that there were 5 frying baskets full of already cut potatoes waiting idle to be plunged into their respective fryers. Not a good sign at 2:30 in the afternoon.

There were no other customers but it took 10 minutes to get my order delivered.
The man in charge would go back and forth to the back room, check, vary vaguely my burger from time to time and disappear again.
At one point, thinking I was about to get the finished product I told him I changed my mind and wanted some lettuce and tomato.
He showed me that he was adding these 2 components and disappeared again.
The hamburger they served me was completely non-edible: totally overcooked, dry, not any trace of moisture left, the piece of iceberg lettuce was wilted, the tiny slice of tomato barely escaped the freezing stage... the bun was cold and dry.
A total disaster and probably one of the worst burgers I had in my whole life.
No need to say I will never stopped by 5 Guys again.

I visited them in Oak Park last week and I did notice one change from the opening month, there was less yelling on the behalf of the staff (THROUGH THE DOOR!) and yelling out the orders to the grill. It is a bright room and this used to be very annoying and My Bride vowed never to return over this.

Also the amount of staff behind the counter was reduced from 9 to about 6. It was very crowded back there before.

The food was about the same. The burgers cooked well (not dry but far from juicy), an overabundance of fries, toppings fresh. No problems with the accuracy of the orders (we both ordered complex toppings). The food was delivered in a reasonable amount of time.

The person at the register was completely baffled on how to handle my request of a sprinkle of Cajun seasoning on my burger.

Still far from my favorite place to go for a burger but it appears they have worked out some of the kinks.

I did not order fries because I noticed that there were 5 frying baskets full of already cut potatoes waiting idle to be plunged into their respective fryers. Not a good sign at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Why is this bad?

They double-fry the fries, any place that does that will have them sitting waiting for the second fry.

By the way, reflecting back on the title of this thread I much prefer Fatburger to Five Guys.

Juicier, tastes better and it is bigger.

Five Guys cannot touch a Double King with Chili and Cheese and an Egg on it.

Panther in the Den wrote:
Juicier, tastes better and it is bigger.

Five Guys cannot touch a Double King with Chili and Cheese and an Egg on it.

thats a fine looking burger John, that would be a big step up from that really bad, flavorless burger I had @ 5 Guys.

iceberg lettuce chunks FTL though

Mike G,

My impression remains that these cut potatoes had not been yet plunged into any first frying bath when I saw them waiting in their baskets. Besides why would they cut so many potatoes at 2:30 in the afternoon when there were only 3 customers already eating in the restaurant and nobody ordering anything at the cash register?

Chitown B wrote:iceberg lettuce chunks FTL though

Aye. Nothing worse than a chunky green. I had a "grilled radicchio" salad earlier this week in northern MN that was composed of only the bits of salad I'd throw away - the lower ribs of romaine, and the little discs or nubs at the bottom of the radicchio. It was basically indigestible, like eating a bowl full of apple cores.

In any case, I would have killed for a Five Guys burger that night.

My impression remains that these cut potatoes had not been yet plunged into any first frying bath when I saw them waiting in their baskets.

Of course, in this day and age of chemicals one never knows, but if they hadn't been fried, I'm pretty sure they would have turned gray sitting there. So if they still looked like potatoes, they'd been fried. Also, you need a cooling off period between the first fry and the second (otherwise it's not really double-frying if they never cool down from the fry) and so if they were waiting to be served to a customer, they pretty much had to have been fried once already.

You were there, I wasn't, but based on standard practices (and Five Guys claims to try to do things in a pretty old-fashioned natural way; I wouldn't be making such claims about Burger King, say), that's my interpretation of what those fries were doing there.

Mike G wrote:

My impression remains that these cut potatoes had not been yet plunged into any first frying bath when I saw them waiting in their baskets.

Of course, in this day and age of chemicals one never knows, but if they hadn't been fried, I'm pretty sure they would have turned gray sitting there. So if they still looked like potatoes, they'd been fried. Also, you need a cooling off period between the first fry and the second (otherwise it's not really double-frying if they never cool down from the fry) and so if they were waiting to be served to a customer, they pretty much had to have been fried once already.

You were there, I wasn't, but based on standard practices (and Five Guys claims to try to do things in a pretty old-fashioned natural way; I wouldn't be making such claims about Burger King, say), that's my interpretation of what those fries were doing there.

and I think, in general, that fries that have been through a proper "blanching" are not easily distinguishable from raw fries.

One thing I'd add about the 5 baskets of fries. Their portions are huge,thus a basket of fries probably doesn't go as far as other restaurants.

Ate at the 5 Guys location in Park Ridge tonight, really liked it, moist and good flavor. Did not like the Cajun Fries though, too much fake "sprinkle" of seasonings. Overwhelming!

diane ck wrote:Ate at the 5 Guys location in Park Ridge tonight, really liked it, moist and good flavor. Did not like the Cajun Fries though, too much fake "sprinkle" of seasonings. Overwhelming!

You can get a regular fries and cajun seasoning on the side, then you can add as much or as little as you want.

+1 for portillo's over 5 guys. been to 5G twice, both times left wondering what the hype was about. though much like my love/hate relationship with Subway, I could see myself going there again.

i'm in the north burbs and aside from the libertyville location, they're also going to have one in vernon hills (the old ben and jerry's) and gurnee (near gurnee mills, but not in the mall).

i've never seen any company expand this fast... from zero to what, 15+ in a couple years? personally i don't think it's sustainable. though the newspapers must love it, assuming they get royalties from five guys reprinting their glowing reviews for each store.

I have to say I'm another vote for Portillo's over 5 Guys.
I tried both last week and while neither is in the tier1 category Portillo's was clearly the winner of this particular bout.

I noticed that at the Clark street location, a "little" single-patty hamburger is now $4.19. I thought it was an outrage when they increased it to $3.89--- and this is the second price increase in 2010. There is only an .80 difference now between little and regular burgers---so what is the point of that? This entry level kiddie burger is pricier than any premium burger at McDonalds. It reminds me of the Jimmy Johns scam. 5 years ago, a basic Jimmy Johns sub was so cheap, you could justify the purchase even as a low end item. These days, their basic small sub is approaching the $5 mark, which buys you a footlong at Subway. I think Jimmy Johns is worse than Subway; maybe, the very worst chain food value today. Is their strategy that if they charge a premium price for their baloney sandwiches, people will think it is better than Subway? Does 5 Guys really imagine that people will like their food better than, say, Wendy's as a direct result of paying twice as much? Does forcing me to buy no less than 3 servings of french fries intend to persuade me that I love their fries 3 times as much? The whole marketing strategy is to assume people are idiots, and to fatten them up so they can consume more 5 Guys. Is this what is meant by "growing the market"?

Marco wrote:I think Jimmy Johns is worse than Subway

Distinction without a difference comes to mind.

Marco wrote:The whole marketing strategy is to assume people are idiots, and to fatten them up so they can consume more 5 Guys.

[citation needed]

hmm... i prefer 5guys to Portillos, but i prefer Kuma's to both

MBK wrote:hmm... i prefer 5guys to Portillos, but i prefer Kuma's to both

AMEN!

MBK wrote:hmm... i prefer 5guys to Portillos, but i prefer Kuma's to both

Eh, apples and oranges. I prefer In-N-Out to all three. Or Top Notch, for local and independent. (I'm not a big fan of big, fat pub-burgers. If that makes me a heathen, so be it. If I want a half-pound or more of meat, I'll just have the meat and skip the extraneous crap.) However, I will not deny the appeal of Kuma's.

And the difference between Subway and Jimmy John's is the smell of Subway triggers some sort of instinctive retching response from the lizard portion of my brain, while Jimmy John's doesn't. So JJ's by default. Plus, dammit, I prefer their bread, pillowy white fluff and all.

Khaopaat wrote:

Marco wrote:The whole marketing strategy is to assume people are idiots, and to fatten them up so they can consume more 5 Guys.

[citation needed]

Since when does an opinion require citationality? And you use Wikipedia as a kind of universally applicable manual of style, when it really only refers to suggestions for posting on its pages. Not on a forum of opinions about local food.

In some cultures a big burp counts as an academically responsible citation of food opinion.