Five Guys Burgers and Fries (Or: I am jealous of Utrecht)

Marco had the good luck of being in Utrecht recently, although he wouldn’t describe it as good luck because he was there for work. But he did have the good luck to be able to visit the recently opened Five Guys Burgers and Fries. This American fast food restaurant opened its first location in Arlington, Virginia back in 1986. You can read more about the history of Five Guys.

I think for me the appeal is the simple menu. They mainly sell burgers and fries (duh) with a few hotdogs and sandwiches on the side. Of course they need to have a grilled cheese (tosti) to cater to the Dutch crowd.

Here is the menu in English:

(Did you see that in the milkshakes section they encourage you to add bacon to any shake?)

And here is the menu in Dutch:

It might be an interesting experience to compare the English and Dutch variants. For instance, in English it is just “dogs” where it is spelled out in Dutch: “hotdogs”.

Some interesting tidbits:

• while waiting for your food you can get free peanuts in the shell
• all toppings are free (more accurately, the toppings are built into the standard price)
• their cajun style fries are beyond delicious. Spicy though. Just ask my folks!
• Marco confirmed there is also a coke freestyle machine. It’s basically a coke vending machine with 100+ choices. Mix and match however you want. Marco’s mom can attest to my love of diet cherry Dr. Pepper when we visited the D.C. area. See the blog post (with picture of said coke machine).

Hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer for our own Five Guys to open here in The Hague – they are working on the location as we speak! It will be a few doors down from KFC, near the Centrum tram/bus stop.

Oh, and one last thing: near the Five Guys in Utrecht there is also a Wagamama’s (Asian restaurant which first opened in London) and a Dunkin’ Donuts. They are also working on opening a TGIF’s on April 23. That is another American restaurant, although it is sit-down service. Crazy!