Five Guys Burgers and Fries Brighton Marina — Restaurant in England

I'm not sure if this will be a practical or emotional review. I'm fairly sure it won't be helpful though!

The main hook when Five Guys exploded onto the global food scene of hipster smashburgers seemed to be 'Free peanuts (monkey nuts) while you wait and you can throw the shells on the floor and brown bags full of greasy chips. Well, you don't maintain fingers with the elegance of a concert hall pianist fiddling about with nuts all day, and I'm one of those people who can eat a burger and not have to automatically have a side of fries, so I think their two biggest viral selling points meant absolutely nothing to me. If choosing an accompanying side dish, proper onion rings are my top tier go to (not the breaded reformed onion mush ones). I say this because I could not give a monkeys about fries. Not chip shop chunky ones, not skin-on skinny ones, not hand cut, organic, single origin, triple cooked in fresh beef dripping or deep fried in peanut oil blacker than my soul. Not even when they throw 'an extra' scoop into your brown paper bag. We're such suckers for a freebie, 'ooh, I got nice twinkle and a smile with my extra portion' etc. It's just a chopped up potato! Free fries? Don't care! . But burgers? Boy, I didn't know exactly how much I was missing out, leaving my first Five Guys experience until 2025! Sure, I love a good hipster burger. Now, It doesn't even have to be hand ground by emo virgins who don't know any Avril Lavigne lyrics and think it was River Phoenix in Point Break with Keanu, but it kinda does need to be smashed onto a diner-style flatplate, all nice and moist and juicy with some crusty, crinkly, nobbly bits at the edges.

If you're serving a burger in a bun, then I shouldn't need cutlery since the bun is the ideal table-to-mouth burger transportation vehicle. The right size bun for the patty. Resilient enough to hold everything together and not disintegrating into mush halfway through yet soft enough to squish a bit so it all fits in your mouth. Easy right? Well, not really. And not for the cheap, high street and late night fast food prices Britain got used to as standard.

Making slightly smaller patties, but automatically serving doubles is a concept that makes so much sense and benefits both the business and the customer. Twenty years ago you'd have been burned as a witch for suggesting such a thing. Glad we got over that.

a little thing that triggered me the rest of the day was 'free fillings'. They're not free, they'd better be included in the price I just paid for the one main component of that one main food item that you cook in your restaurant that sells one thing. It benefits the business every time a punter forgets to include mayo or slice of tomato. all those 2p blobs of ketchup add up-saves you money over the course of a year. But if I'm paying you over a tenner for a burger I'm about to eat with my hands there needs to be more than meat and cheese inside that bun!

I had a cheeseburger, (I didn't know about the automatic double thing, pleasant surprise), it came with a bun without anyone even mentioning that and for my 'free extra fillings' I chose mustard (English), mayo, pickles (gherkin), fresh onion (meaning raw, not grilled or fried) and lettuce. It cost £11 something and it was absolutely delicious. Having paid the exact same amount in money last week at a different 'hipster burger' chain in town for almost the same cheeseburger (no English mustard) - that came automatically as a single patty in a melty bun. Tasty, for sure, but how can I be satisfied again when a single patty and no English mustard costs me the same as a double patty and a good slather of Colmans? I can't, can I? Well, good. Marina Five Guys is closer than North Street anyway.

Forget about free fries, they're nothing special. Don't pay £6 for a milkshake with bits in, I know a dude with a van and a clown horn. Don't take your kids, they won't appreciate it. Go Pay a Guy (or five) a tenner for a burger, you'll be back quicker than Arnie. So will I so I'll probably...

Having never been to Five Guys before, dismissing it a just another chain franchise probably churning out bland, mass produced rubbish I have to admit to being really, really impressed . We ate at the Brighton marina restaurant on a blazing hot day, during the summer holidays and right in the middle of 'lunchtime'. Even though it wasn't overrun and what modest queue there was infront of us was quickly and efficiently dealt with by the polite, professional and obviously experienced staff. As previously mentioned it was an incredibly hot day and the air conditioning was wonderful inside, made even better and more refreshing by the endless refill soft drinks with ice. The food itself was served to us in what I consider a reasonable time for what is obviously made to order fresh food. The burger I had was fantastic. Tasty, juicy and with a perfect amount of topping(s). The fries, well a breath of fresh air after having been on holiday for a while and eating a never ending stream of ' mechanically recovered reformed potato based starch substitute-esq' in inverted commas, 'chips'. These were wonderful, made with skin on real potato whose origin was advertised by the restaurant entrance, well seasoned and cooked and served in probably the most generous portion I've ever had. A massive thumbs up. As Five Guys are participating in the government eat out scheme it works out an absolute no brained bargain but equally for the meal I had, on the premise that you get what you pay for, I'd happily pay the regular price. When out and about again, I would actively seek out another and would have no second thought about recommending this...

8 people waited at the counter for 10 minutes for the staff to finish her work. We didn't say anything because we saw that she was busy and waited. And when she came to the counter she told us they don’t have a burger bun😂 when we asked her for a hot dog she said they don’t have it either. 😂 🤦‍♀️That all is happend on monday around 8.30-9.00 pm. when I said sarcastically, I think you should close it here, and she said yes with a laugh. While we had been waiting there as a group for so long, she could have at least kindly come and told us that. We have no choice but to get a burger there or one of the other two options. And there can be no more ridiculous policy than a burger place telling us this during our order after we waited for 10 minutes after all its stocks were exhausted on the first day of the week. The problem isn't that you have a burger bun. Even though you know that the people waiting there have no choice but to eat from you, you constantly pass us by looking into our eyes while we are choosing what to eat there, and you tell us this when we are going to place your order after 10...