Burger Adventure: 2010 - Five Guys Burgers!!!

So it's Sunday and I'm headed down the road to my friends' home, the Largent's, who happen to have a world class chef in the residence. Melanie's cooking up a special 12 hr slow roasted pork roast, carnitas, because... well, that's just what she does. (And those carnitas should be a post in themselves... but I ate it all before I could take pics... oh well, I'll have to ask her to make me some more :-D. )

... the bad news is that it's 2:30 pm and the carnitas won't be ready until after 6pm... :-(.

So what do I see at 29th and Rock? None other than the legendary chain itself.... FIVE GUYS BURGERS!

Ol' Red Checking Out Five Guys Burgers.... LOVE!!!

Now being a burger connoisseur, I've complained long and often to anyone who would listen that Wichita is simply not a burger town. What is missing is the equivalent of San Antonio's Chris Madrid's or really any fresh meat burger joint. Now Five Guy's Burgers is a chain, and I generally as a rule disqualify those right out of hand...but this is not just any chain. We are talking high quality beef, never frozen and 2 patties in a regular hamburger... gotta be close to a half pound of meat per burger!!!!

So I survey the place, and though it has a Johnny Rockets type decor (another top eats chain, check 'em out next time you're stuck in O'Hare!!!), I like what I see. Stacks of sacks of high quality and  blemish free potatoes are in the main dining area to show you that the ingredients here are top notch.

Red and White theme reminiscent of Johnny Rockets

Blemish free potatoes ready to be sliced and fried!

Now I've been reading about Five Guys for a couple to three years already and I saw one in DC in 2008, but didn't get the chance to try it out. For those who are not in the know about Five Guys... it consistently ranks first or second nationally for best burger. President Obama made news when he had to stop for a Five Guys burger...

So here it was, laid before me like destiny calling.

I check out the menu:

Wow, just noticed on the sign that the french fries are cooked in peanut oil! Who does that? Wow, no wonder they were so awesome!!!

So as I was saying .... 2 patties in every burger.... so I go with a regular hamburger, all the way -ahem ahem- with jalapeno's.

As I wait in eager anticipation, the staff works diligently on my order...

Girl on the right, kinda cute... stop by and tell this happy staff Hi!!!

Finally, my order comes out after I wait agonising minutes as I watch the fresh patties grill and sizzle to perfection. Number 39, that's me!!!!


Here's what that looks like:

The fries shown here are only about half the fries they give you on a regular order, the other half is in the brown bag they serve you the meal in...I saved those for later... and 1 burger plus 1 fry order = 1 stuffed bag! A regular order of fries will easily feed 2 and quite frankly so would the burger!

This really is not a good picture to get an idea of the volume of their burgers ... and certainly no indication of the awesome aroma of fresh beef being seared to greasy greatness and served hot off the grill... YUM!!!


Techno geeks like me watch "unboxing" videos of new iPhones, Androids, iPads, etc.... it's just kinda fun to check out the new bling....

Well check out this bling:

The grilled onion and grilled mushroom... all included... so were the jalapenos... I love this place!!!

Okay, time to get down to some grubbing... I'm starving at this point from all the anticipation and taking time to shoots these pics :-). I gather myself and bring up this behemoth for the first bite.... and OMG... it is so AWESOME!!!! There is no comparing high grade fresh beef to frozen. The rest of the ingredients are top notch as well... resulting in one of the best burgers I have ever had. I would rank it about a tie with the Johnny Rocket burger I had while passing through O'Hare. That Johnny Rocket Burger was a double patty as well... something about me wanting two at a time... uhummm... but this is a family blog.... I digress....

Yes, so this burger quickly changes to....

and yes, what you see here is soon also devoured leaving what can only be described as a licked clean piece of wrapper.

Five Guys gets my highest rating for a burger chain... 5 stars out of 5. It is the standard upon which other burger joints really need to measure themselves against.

How do you beat perfection? I don't know, maybe a cold beer to go along with it... LOL! Yeah, maybe so :-)...

A big CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU to the people of FIVE BURGERS who made this experience possible: