When the Murrell brother’s were given the advice “start a business or go to college,” the little burger joint they initially established, quickly witnessed astonishing success. After 20 years of hard work and success, the chain now has over 1,000 restaurants nationwide with an astonishing 1,500 units in progress.
One of the 1,500 units that were in progress found a new home in Cabot Circus Bristol on Monday the 17th of November. With over ‘150,000 possible ways to order a burger at five guys,’ I was keen to be 1/150,000th of this incredible statistic. Being renowned for having no freezers in there restaurants and all the produce being fresh, I was excited to try out their highly acclaimed fresh rolls of ‘stamped prime beef.’
When I arrived at 5pm I was initially quite shocked that it wasn’t manically busy on opening day, everything seemed to be well under control. I was greeted by a very friendly worker and handed a cup full of money nuts to snack on whilst I queued. The environment was initially very strange as it had a fast food dynamic but the prices displayed above the tills suggested otherwise. The menu consisted simply of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, sandwiches and fries. After taking around 10 minutes to decide what I wanted I opted for the little burger, medium fries with cajun topping and a soft drink. In my burger I took advantage of the free toppings and had: lettuce, mustard, ketchup, fried onions, mushrooms, jalapenos and gherkins. I naturally went to take a seat but was soon informed that I had to wait to be handed my brown paper bag full of food. I found the burger really tasty, the beef was excellent quality and despite the toppings refusing to stay inside of it, I really enjoyed it. The fries had a lovely spicy kick and you could tell they were made from good quality potatoes. The soft drink option was incredibly fun as I could opt to put all kinds of sickly syrups into my Coke.
One of my friend’s orders was processed incorrectly and as a result paid for two portions of fries, the manager was very helpful and not only refunded the additional fries but the ones she had intentionally ordered too. The small burger was £5.50, regular fries £4.00 and £2.50 for a soft drink, making my total meal price £12. I’d definitely go back again but Five Guys wouldn’t exactly be an option for me for ‘casual dining.’ The prices were all a bit too expensive for what is essentially a burger and chips. So is it five stars for five guys? I’d say almost, but not quite as I felt the food was slightly overpriced.
By Charlotte Elliott
i would agree with everything written here, five guys is definitely an experience!