In-N-Out versus Five Guys

We recently ate at our first Five Guys burger place and we have to say it reminded us a lot of the In-N-Out burger places that we have eaten at. In-N-Out started out in a single location in Baldwin Park CA in the 40's and instantly became a hit. The owners were reluctant to expand because they wanted to ensure a quality product. The first 200 locations were all within a days drive of the headquarters. As they get close to 250 locations that restriction has eased a little and locations are currently planned in Texas.

Five Guys started out 40 years later in Washington DC and has a more aggressive expansion plan and is already at over 600 locations. To us diehard In-N-Out fans our first impression was that Five Guys copied a lot from In-N-Out. Both offer a very limited menu with only fresh hamburger that is never frozen. Both offer fresh cut french fries. While you could see the potato station at In-N-Out the sacks for fresh potatoes were evident at Five Guys. Five Guys does offer free toppings and that includes all the toppings they offer from the usual suspects to jalapenos and A-1 sauce. Five Guys also offers hot dogs.

In-N-Out offers both inside and outside seating while Five Guys only offered inside seating at the location we ate at. We have to give the nod to In-N-Out as far as seating goes. The entire inside of Five Guys was sound reflecting material which made for a very noisy dining experience. When there were more people behind the counter than customers it was still incredibly noisy with music that really was not that loud. As the place filled the noise became unbearable and we finished our meal with another couple and then went outside so we could finish our conversation.

OK enough already for the minutia how was the burger and fries? Five Guys offers a very good burger but in our opinion In-N-Out is better. Bob felt strongly that In-N-Out was better and Jo was on the fence (BTW Jo feels that the burgers at Culvers may be even better). Not sure if it is the bun, which is better at In-N-Out, or the meat or the cheese but In-N-Out was still better. Five Guys has a lot of posters stating best burger in a lot of locations but if you pay close attention most if not all these places do not have an In-N-Out to compete with. As far as the fries goes we are not sure which one is better than the other. For those interested the best fries we have had is at Sneads BBQ in Belton MO which is a suburb of Kansas City.

We are talking that since we will be wintering in the Phoenix area and both franchises have locations there that we will do a lunch one place and supper the same day so we can really give a good evaluation. This is purely for scientific reasons only :-)

Till next time,

Bob and Jo