Five Guys — Restaurant in Encinitas

Born and Raised here in Southern California, In N Out has been around for as long as I can remember, but as I got older I became a foodie. My tastes matured, my palate more refined. Traveling across the county really gives you a sense of hometown pride in your culture and food. I liked burgers here and there and INO will always hold a special place in my heart, but when you've had places like Shake Shack, Hodad's, Crazee Burger, The Counter and Five Guys your loyalties wane. It's nothing personal, but each 1 of those places does something better than the rest or has something to offer that the others just don't measure up to. Without getting into too much detail on the comparisons let's get into the specifics.

Menu is fairly easy, large, bright. Some are turned off by the potato bags, and peanuts and they really do take up a lot of space, but ordering is easy and paying is easy. The place is small, I think they would have done better with a stand alone. I've come to love the openness of INO and not being able to see into the back is strange as I still consider this fast food without the drive through. I found the bathrooms a little lacking, but the soda fountains excellent. All kinds of modern and has hard to find things. Pibb Zero is the 1 thing I've never found anywhere else.

Tip: the fries should be shared by 2-3 people, it's a lot, they are meaty and I prefer Cajun(although light on the Cajun). And when you eat tear into the bag, it's meant to be used like a plate.

The order comes timely and I go with everything, a side of BBQ regular hamburger (lil one's are single patty, regular is 2). Mushrooms and onions are great, lettuce could be larger (I'm not a fan of the shredded kind), 3 tomatoes and like 5 pickles. That's a lot, condiments and toppings are free. This is where I feel they are very unique. The meat doesn't feel quite as formed, mashed, regardless of freshness. They felt more handmade. I like how they don't all look the same.

Come here being a fan of burgers, not to compare to INO as the similarities are there, but comparatively there are many more...

Five Guys burgers rate high on my list for fresh grilled burgers. The menu is simple, no unnecessary frills- burgers and dogs here- but nobody beats the Guys condiments and toppings. One patty or 2? Your choice. Want grilled onions? Get 'em. Add grilled mushrooms? Yep, add those too. Relish? Pickles? Jalepeños? Yes, yes, and hot yes. Of course, you could just have mustard and ketchup and mayo, if you're into that sort of thing. BTW, my opinion? The hot dogs aren't a very good value. 'nuff said on that. Have a little boat of roasted in-the-shell peanuts while you wait for your chocolate milkshake and skin-on French-fried potatoes. Dee-lish. They have those cool 300-in-one soda dispensers, so your beverage choices kick the socks off most of the competition. I'm not sure about 300 different sodas, but let me just say there's something for almost every taste coming out of this machine. Five Guys is worth an extra drive, so bypass the fast food places when you need a...

First time to Five Guys... Did not have a good experience.

I purchased a Bacon Cheese Dog with mustard and onions. The hot dog is small and reportedly beef, sliced in half (don't know why), the cheese is a basic yellow/wax type cheese which was cold, and the bacon was diced but ok. With tax, it was just under $10. I recommend going to the store and getting a pack of beef dogs and buns for the same price (probably fit the onion into that budget as well).

Additionally, I asked the employee to avoid using a bag because I would eat in the restaurant, but he put the dog in the bag anyway. Then he promptly grabbed roughly 12-15 napkins and added that to the bag. I saved the extra napkins, but jeez, let's not waste so...