Step into Five Guys in Glasgow and place your order at the till before the assembly line of workers put together your burgers, hot dogs, shakes and fries. While you wait, gaze around at the white and red clad dining room and you’ll soon notice that every available space on the walls is occupied by a ringing endorsement of the food you are about to be served in a brown paper bag.
“Quality ingredients and attention to detail are Five Guys’ secrets” says DC North magazine in Washington DC. The Readers Choice Awards of Colorado magazine hailed their “simple focus on quality food”. Even the bathrooms are plastered with coverage from “Best of” lists from California to New York. It’s like the customer is already absorbing positive vibes by osmosis before they’ve even unwrapped their first burger.
Let’s be clear: Five Guys is fresh, fast food deluxe. This is a step up, far beyond what you would expect from the golden arches or any of the other American chains currently operating in the city.
It’s the classic All-American burger with melted cheese and burger patties that have been cooked on a hot plate. They really do know their burgers.
However, this is not the kickass, super-charged, beguiling variety that can compete with some of our homegrown burger champions like Big Lebowski’s or Bread Meats Bread.
This would seem to put Glasgowist at odds with some of the highest circulation city magazines in America, but so be it. Time Out London called Five Guys the perfect burger. We’ve had better.
That’s not to say that Five Guys is not worthy of your attention. Quick bite on way to the train? Five Guys. Casual dinner with your mate before a night in the town? Five Guys. It’s raining when it should be sunny so you want a dirty big burger to cheer yourself up? Those guys again.
Their burgers are consistently delicious and Five Guys do have a place in the pantheon of Great Glasgow Burgers, they are just not top of the tree.
Now, one of the fun parts of ordering here is that you can customise your burger with up to 15 different toppings. Order ‘all the way’ for their signature toppings, then you can freestyle with other options. It looks like this…
All the way: MAYO LETTUCE PICKLES TOMATOES GRILLED ONIONS GRILLED MUSHROOMS KETCHUP MUSTARD
Other toppings: RELISH ONIONS JALAPENO PEPPERS GREEN PEPPERS HP SAUCE BAR-B-Q SAUCE HOT SAUCE
A quick note on their fries – these are hand cut in the restaurant from fresh potatoes every day and they tell you which farm they came from, which is a nice touch. They are then cooked in peanut oil which really does make all the difference. For a city that takes chips so seriously, we should be really following the American’s lead on this one.
