Five Guys Burgers and Fries Peterborough — Restaurant in England

Sit down, take off your shoes, and get comfortable. You're in for a long review 😉 Let's start with the basics: the food is expensive... Deceptively expensive. On the menu they say a burger costs 8.95. That's quite expensive for two burger patties, a bun and bacon rashers. But when you pay you notice it is actually almost £11... The reason? They don't disclaim VAT on their prices. That on itself is absurd, but we're just starting.

I ordered a vanilla milk shake. Got mixed feelings on that one. It was definitely very creamy and buttery, which for me is a plus, but somehow very sweet. A little bit too sweet.

Now let's talk about the order: burger and fries. They came thrown in a paper bag, fries scattered in the bag: terrible and non practical presentation.

I ordered a small portion of Cajun fries, and to my surprise, the portion was huge! So positive here. But it was super salty. Like, I-couldn't-finish-it too salty.Two, three times more than your regular pub fries. Also, they were mushy and greasy. They were fresh, though.

Now to the main meal: the burger. Two buns, two skinny patties well done, processed American cheese, some bacon and toppings of my choice wrapped in foil. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. But let's break that down:

The patty: Ahhh, the heart of the burger. All you need is a top quality ground beef and you're set for success. That wasn't the case. While eating I kept thinking where have I ate a similar patty and the answer was simple: at home. It is a very basic burger patty with minimal seasoning and with off-the-shelf ground beef (meet quality: average). The truth is: I had better patties in numerous pubs around the country, but for much cheaper.

The cheese: it was that processed mess Americans love. I refuse to call that cheese myself, but I respect those who enjoy it. With that said, there was nothing wrong with it. It was fine, but half of it got stuck in the foil 😐.

And about the foil: it made the bun soggy.

Overall: it was a disappointing experience. I won't be coming back anytime soon. I would instead recommend burgers from the nearby places: Middleton's, Handmade Burger Co, O'Neals or even McDonald's or Burger King...

Order regular fries if you want more fries than is even slightly necessary. The amount of fries you get is easily enough for a standard size lunch and are prepped in so little time you can get to five guys on your lunch break from your office job and order regular fries and sit there eating these awesome chunks of freshly cooked potato with Cajun spice dipping them in mayonnaise or ketchup and listening to some relaxing music on Spotify while watching the world go by and thinking about all the people who walk past the window and wonder what their days are like and how you hope that person walking real fast gets to where they need to get in time but even if they don't I'm sure it's all good and you don't gotta stress really man cause little moments like this like just watching the world move around you are few and far between but they're important to contextualise your existence helping you to relieve some stress cause when you think about the fact you're a clump of lucky atoms blasting through space on a crusted cooling fireball covered in other atomic clumps like you and that these people you're watching have all the same worries and troubles as you and that no one really knows the answer to anything and everyone's got the same worries and problems sometimes life gets easier and you can focus more on how these fries are good and you've still got time to walk back to the office and stomp in a puddle on the way and smile at someone and so what if you're a little late back off lunch, it's the cosmic reality that it doesn't matter, what's a few seconds anyways. Last time someone said "ooh, long lunch?" I just thought "yeah man, cosmic reality got me stalling" but just said...

Update 23/09/22: Received a response from the business asking me to contact them via the feedback on their website (surprising as I only said the fries were too salty - otherwise a five star review), I did this and heard nothing in response - so conclude their response is simply there as a visible show of them caring, when it would appear the opposite could be the case.

This was the first time we had tried Five Guys, having only fairly recently heard about them. Had the bacon burger with cheese and jalapeño and spicy fies.

The store is very clean and tidy, the staff super friendly, although clearly working to a script, which makes it somewhat disingenuous. Service was very quick indeed and the flavours on the drinks was excellent with combinations you cannot buy in bottles, we tried the caffeine free Coke flavors and they were very good.

The food itself was excellent the only problem was the fries were SUPER salty! I love salty food, but even I struggled with these. I suspect there had been an "accident" with the lid on the salt pot, my wife couldn't eat all of hers.

As a couple this was a good experience, but at just over £30 for two burgers, shared fries and drinks, this would make a family visit very expensive. Probably rule it out for a lot of families these days, where household budgets are being...