Five Guys

The most immediately relevant question: are these burgers worth a 45 minute... a 60 minute... an hour and a half wait, as some poor bastards subjected themselves to last Thursday and Friday—aka Five Guys Day 1 and Five Guys Day 2—at lunch?

Um... no.

But then, I wouldn't wait that long for my food/a table anywhere in town.*

That said, my grilled-ground-beef-loving daughters and I made the pilgrimage today (take note: Sunday) at around 12:30, waited maybe 10 minutes total from getting on the order line to unwrapping the goods at our table, and all agreed that the Five Guy burger—especially, no surprise, with bacon—is definitely an instant Top 5 contender for best in the city.

Here's the basic takeaway:
• Get bacon. The crunch nicely compensates for the somewhat mushy patties. In fact, pile on the toppings... they're free, and they won't overwhelm the big, flavorful, doubled-up burgers.
• Nice buns, Five Guys: soft; understand their place in the burger hierarchy; functional.
• The cheese dog is good—crispy casing, well-spiced—but unnecessary.
• The Cajun Fries are totally the way to go. We liked the texture and appreciated the freshness of our "Five Guys Style" spuds, but the spiced-up Cajun version was much, much better.
• Go for dinner (they're open until 10pm), or weekend lunch. This is an excellent, inexpensive pre-/post MoMA, Broadway, City Center, etc, option.

Five Guys is located on 55th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The woman who took my order was smiley and helpful; the manager friendly and on top of things. When I returned to the counter with Co's bacon-less Little Bacon Cheeseburger, they offered to cook me a whole new one, but were also happy, at my request, to just give me some strips, which we put on the patty at the table.


* Why?
1. Always plenty of other great non-ridiculous-wait options.
2. Get way too grumpy and impatient when hungry to put myself and my loved ones through such an experience.
3. Totally willing to eat off-peak and avoid the insanity.