Five Guys at Grand Parkway Marketplace

We've been to another Five Guys that was further away, and liked it enough that I wanted to try this one closer to home.  I stopped in on a busy but not too busy Saturday.

Five Guys has something of a cult following, and some fairly high profile investors including Phil Mickelson.  The decor of Five Guys is pretty spare, all white with exposed ductwork painted fire engine red.  It actually fits pretty well with the Grand Parkway Marketplace atmosphere.  All the restaurants put their potatoes and fry oil out in the dining area for "decoration".  So the vibe is that of a really spare, inexpensive diner but in all other ways they want to be a gourmet hamburger place.  The menu is quite simple--burgers, hot dogs, fries, milkshakes.  You wait a bit for your food because they cook it when you order, and good hamburgers take a little time to cook, but you can eat the free peanuts for an appetizer.  You always get your food in a bag, whether you eat it there or not.

I had a bacon cheeseburger with cajun spice fries, and a drink from the Freestyle machine.  The burger itself was quite good--the bacon was very crisp and broken so that when you bite into the burger it didn't fall out.  It's a tasty burger that eats relatively neatly.  Very satisfying.

Five Guys makes a big deal out of cooking their fries in peanut oil.  This means they have a different flavor from vegetable oil fries, but they will never be crisp.  I like crisp fries so for me they are not such a big deal.  The Cajun style fries are the regular fries seasoned with Cajun spice--to me it tasted like Tony Chachere's.  Kind of a lot of seasoning, it was pretty overwhelming.  A presentation note: I ordered the "little" fries for $3.29.  They are put in the bag with a tiny cup and a lot of fries--about 2/3 of them stayed in the bag.  Generous but it struck me as a little silly.  You could definitely share even a small order.

I would have liked to try the milkshakes, many rave about them--but when I was there the restaurant was out of both spoons and straws!  No way to get the milkshake out of the cup if you're eating there.  So I would say the service was polite but apologetic.  At least the Freestyle machine was working properly, which is not a given.

Some people complain about the prices, but I think they are in line for a gourmet burger.  My burger was $8.99 but they have smaller versions that are not quite as expensive.  It's not a fast food place.  Overall I liked it fine except for lack of preparedness, and would probably give them another chance.

My Yelp Review