Five Guys v Shake Shack - restaurant review

Two of the States’ upmarket fast-food joints have hit town, to serious fanfare and promising quality patties. Andrew Neather decides which of them has the best bite
Bun law: bacon and cheese burgers rule at Shake Shack (Picture: Rebecca Reid)
Rebecca Reid
Andrew Neather19 August 2014

It could be a sign that the burger craze has finally jumped the shark or it could just mean more posh fast-food options for the Chancellor: either way, the Americans have decided to grab a slice of London’s dirty-food action. Last week saw the arrival here of two of the leading upmarket US burger chains, Shake Shack and Five Guys, opening a few hundred metres apart in Covent Garden.

Both chains have grown rapidly from modest beginnings Stateside to take on the burger industry’s behemoths, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. Both pride themselves on quality beef and other ingredients. And as George Osborne’s much-mocked snack from Byron last month suggested, there is a ready market.

Quality burgers may be bourgeois but food bloggers’ near-terminal excitement over the Shake Shack/Five Guys openings suggest that such Americana is still hip as well as a guilty pleasure.

The huge initial queues at both had subsided to a mere 10- to 15-minute wait by Monday lunchtime. Outside Five Guys, perky American greeters hand out and explain menus — “You’re in for a treat!” — though in truth there’s not much to elucidate. You can get a burger with or without cheese and bacon, with a huge range of toppings and sauces; fries (spicy Cajun-style if you wish); some token cheese sandwiches — and that, for the moment, is it.

The interior is brutally sparse, relieved only by sacks of potatoes in the middle of the floor and Fifties-style red-and-white check trim. You can sit down to eat, though you wouldn’t want to linger — but then this is unashamedly fast food. Service is indeed speedy: seven minutes, every burger cooked to order. It’s an impressive if exhausting military operation to watch.

Yet the burgers are underwhelming. They’re tastier than McDonald’s but a bit squidgy, with the bun too soft and the whole thing muddled by the profusion of toppings. Worse, the skin-on chips are far too soft and floury: you can cook crisper home fries than this, though few would choose to make them quite so salty.

The competition: Five Guys (Picture: Rebecca Reid)
Rebecca Reid

Down the road, Shake Shack presents a slicker, less self-consciously minimalist operation to the tourist masses. Here the menu is augmented by hot dogs and “frozen custard” — tubs of gloopy cream whirled up with sauces such as peanut butter and chocolate toffee. There’s also a longer drinks list, including some decent beers.

And the menu’s main event? Reportedly made with buns flown in from the US, it’s a better burger than at Five Guys, though still squishier and less robust than at top foodie burger joints. The toppings are simpler but tangier and cleaner.

The crinkle-cut fries are satisfyingly crispy, just a bit too corporately uniform. Though on a broiling July day, with a beer, the outdoor tables are about as inviting as it’s possible to imagine a fast-food joint being.

Whatever the food bloggers say, these American outposts will probably be wildly successful. But I don’t think Byron or Honest Burgers have much to worry about yet.

Five Guys, 1-3 Long Acre, WC2 (020 7240 2057, fiveguys.co.uk).

Shake Shack, 24 Market Building, Covent Garden piazza, WC2 (020 3598 1360, shakeshack.com).

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