Where I live, here in Sacramento, we've got a number of places that offer good burgers. What is close to my actual home, however, is limited. Here, we have an In-N-Out. Other than that, if we want a burger that's nearby, we've got Carl's Jr., McDonald's, and Jack-In-the-Box. If we don't want a fast food burger, we've got a BJ's and a Chili's. Otherwise, we have to venture much farther away from home.
So really, near our home, we have an In-N-Out.
Now, we have a second choice, and it's the east coast staple, Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
I was excited to try it. According to my wife, this place was supposed to be all the rave on the east coast. Later, while reading reviews online, I found out that this is the burger place that President Obama likes. Not that that had anything to do with my want to try the place, but that's an indicator of how famous this place is on the other side of the country.
Before I continue, I should probably divulge to you my criteria for rating burgers. Firstly, it's gotta be good. That's a given. What's a good burger? Well, the meat must be tender and it must taste like meat. Normally, I don't want it to taste like anything other than meat, though there are sometimes exceptions: I've made chipotle burgers; my dad likes to put onion soup mix in his. So yes, I make exceptions for burger patties with some variety, but more often than not, I want a well-seasoned (not to be confused with over-seasoned) hamburger patty that tastes like beef.
Then, there's the bread. Is the bread stale? Is it cheap? Does it goes well with the patty and the fixings? Is it generic, cheap-tasting bread that is absolutely the opposite of the great things I'm tasting inside?
Construction: my rule of sandwich construction is that if you put it in a sandwich, you should be able eat it with the sandwich. In other words, I don't want all my fixings to fall out.
Then, last but not least, there's value. What am I paying for the burger, and is it worth it? For instance, is the $9.00 I'm paying for a restaurant burger worth the dry, tasteless burger I received?
Now, then. On to Five Guys.
It's a very good-tasting burger. Their regular burgers are double-patty burgers. Want a single patty? You'll have to order the little burger. I got a cheeseburger with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickle. The wife and I shared an order of small fries; originally, we ordered a large, but we were told it would feed three-to-four people, and the small would be good enough for two. So, two it was. And there were, indeed, a lot of fries.
Burgers and dogs come foil-wrapped. When I opened my burger, it was hot and ready to go, until I realized that there were no onions. This, coupled with the fact that our friend, who'd accompanied us, didn't get cheese on his bacon cheese dog, was not a good first impression. At the counter, I got the onions for my burger but they were roughly diced, not sliced as they did not offer sliced onions. This led to a violation of my sandwich rule: as I ate, onions fell from my burger repeatedly. Annoying, since I wanted to eat them with my burger, not pick them up and reinsert them; not pick them up and eat them separately.
Enough about the onions. How was the burger? Very good. To be honest, it reminded me of a very good homemade burger you'd get at a family gathering. Except this one came wrapped in foil, like at a fair.
Which leads me to my wife and our respective opinions of the bun. She didn't like it, thinking that it was too soft for the burger, thus making it too thin as she held it. I didn't mind the bun. I had read that many people thought it was too soft or to doughy, but I didn't mind it as its softness complemented the texture of everything else; with the melted cheese, it was quite a gooey burger. The resulting thinness of the bun also put more of an emphasis on the patties and the fixings.
Tip: If you want to retain the fullness and firmness of your bun, don't wrap your hot burger in foil. All it does is the steam the bun. If that's what you want, then great. But, some people will complain about the result.
As for the meat, Five Guys like juicy and well done. To me this is a contradiction because well done basically means to overcook the meat until it's drier than Stephen Wright's humor. I can tell you that the burger seemed juicy, but it certainly wasn't overflowing with juices. The melted cheese and slathered mayo certainly helped, but it wasn't the juiciest thing I'd ever eaten. I wonder if there was high fat content in the meat to help retain some juices while cooking it to well done. Speaking of well done, as you might expect, the meat had a firm, mealy texture due to it's dryness. But, the patties did taste like meat. Not really well-seasoned meat, but then, perhaps it didn't need it what with all the other stuff on the burger. However, without all the fixings, including cheese, I wonder just how dry and season-less it would be.
The fries? What I want in a French fry is a fresh, clean, crispy outside and a hot, mealy inside. I personally don't like fries that are too thick because potatoes, by themselves, are pretty bland. The remedy for this, of course, is a dipping sauce. However, this being a burger-stand style place, the only dipping sauce for the fries was ketchup. No thanks. The fries weren't bad. Considering the fries on their own terms, they were thicker than shoe-strings but thinner than steak fries, well-seasoned and tasted alright, but they weren't consistently crispy - in fact, most were soft - and in the end weren't anything special.
My cheeseburger was $5.69, and the small fries were $2.39. I personally thought the burger was worth $5.00, and while this was only a $0.69 difference, to me that $0.69 brings me closer to paying $6.00; it was like the burger was trying to stretch its value. It was certainly good, and I would return to eat here again, but coming that close to $6.00 is pushing it. As for the fries, it seemed as if we were paying for quantity, not quality. While the fries were not bad, they weren't anything special. The volume alone makes the price worth it, I just wish the fries stayed crispy and had a bit of a cleaner taste.
So, the results?
 | The east coast is dominating the west coast burger scene. Deal with it. |
 | Let's see... this place or a good ol' Sacramento staple... what to choose, what to choose... |
 | Gooooooooooooooooood. Very good. |
 | Meh. did I just walk into a McDonald's? |
 | Hey, look, they're selling burgers they found in the trash! Yum! |
I give Five Guys Burgers and Fries 3.5 stars. The burger was very good, but, though I've only eaten here once, it didn't impress me enough to make it one of my first choices in Sacramento. It's certainly a choice, however. In fact, it's a serious consideration, especially so close to home. I personally would skip the fries next time, however, and save the money. Perhaps my subsequent visits will have the burger win me over more. Time will tell. But yes, I will return.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries
4630 Natomas Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95835
(916) 419-4109
No comments:
Post a Comment