Five Guys Burgers and Fries Norwich — Restaurant in Norwich

I love a burger and have now tried Five Guys twice. I was disappointed After my first visit, but awarded them 3 stars. I wanted to give them a second try, but found their offering to unfortunately be consistent and have dropped my rating to 2 stars.

The quality of the ingredients is a bit better than standard fast food offerings, like McDonalds or Burger King. However, the cost is 3 to 4 times the price of McDonalds (consistent, but a bit bland) or Burger King (prone to inconsistency in delivery & service, and grubby restaurants, but tasty burgers). This would be tolerable, but the Five Guys burgers are immensely bland. They lack seasoning or any beefy flavour - they have no sear on the outside. The bacon is crispy, but this appears to be achieved by deep frying (it has a suitably uniform colour) which gives the bacon a scorched flavour. It is also unsmoked - a lost opportunity to make it tastier. The portions of fries are generous, but I would rather pay half the price for half the quantity (the generosity is probably a cynical technique to sell you more than you'd want to inflate prices). The fries are also a bit over-seasoned.

The premium price gives the impression that this should be a faultless, high quality and above all delicious offering, yet it falls significantly short of this. It isn't bad, but better can be had for significantly less. For my first visit I spent £22.25 for a burger, fries and a milkshake, which is frankly obscene! I visited with my wife the second time, we had a bacon cheeseburger each and shared a small fries, which came to £25.85. We...

Firstly let's talk about the staff: absolute champions, you have a feeling like they're all friends out of work they are just popping orders between them and it's all smiles and buzz. What a great team.

You'd be hard pressed to find a better burger but let's be very clear the fries and shakes are something Five Guys does not do well at all.

With prices at a premium, you'd expect a premium product and, whilst their burgers are more than up to the cut, these other crucial combos fall well short of their competitors.

Remember how KFC fries used to be? Well they are how five guys fries are now and no amount of 'this is where our potatoes come from' boards on the wall is gonna change the fact they arent what they should be. They are like the Skoda in the 1980s of fries.

Remember there was that whole bit in Tarantinos 'Pulp Fiction' about Mia Wallace ordering a $5 shake? Well this shake is £5.75 and its gonna be struggling in a tasters choice against a £1.29 Frijj. Really don't bother.

But the burgers. Well it's fair to say this is the main event at five guys and they are absolute streets ahead of any chain competition here. Even the small burger is wildly good and brimming with fillings.

If you're just after the sandwich, then this is an excellent place to grab a burger and, at £13, you can be reassured your money will be well spent. Big on price, but big on flavour it is one of the best burgers on the...

First (and probably last) visit with a friend who'd been raving about the place for a fair while now. We happened to find ourselves in the area together and decided to go for a nice bite to eat.

First impression - Quite liked the 50's diner style decor which is pretty much in keeping with a burger joint. The let down was that it looked as if it'd been neglected since the 50's. It just generally looked tired and in need of refreshment. Bins inside the dining area were full and overflowing too, which didn't help create a positive experience.

Food ordered and the price was a bit shocking, but expectations high due to my friend's description of the food being outstanding. Service was polite and fairly quick, with the food coming out in around 10 minutes. For the price, I'd have expected a table service pretty much anywhere.

After all the expectation, the food was distinctly average. Nothing at all special about the fries. The burger was fine, but again didn't really stand out from any burgers I've had elsewhere at much less cost. The best part was the milkshake. Overall, not worth the money. The reason it is three stars is because of the speed of service and politeness of the staff, otherwise it'd would...