I started work in a new part of town a few months ago. A few weeks into the new job one of our interns was approaching the end of his time with us. We planned to go out for lunch together to celebrate and wish him good luck. The location of the meal was left for him to decide and he chose “Five guys” on Boulevard Des Sources here in Montreal. As some of you who have visited this blog may know, I’ve taken to documenting various burger encounters throughout my travels and in this beautiful city of ours. This was going to be a my first visit to Five guys. I was pretty excited about simply trying a new burger place with friends. They had assured me that the burger was reasonable. Nothing amazing yet not bad either.
Here’s a quick picture of the main counter where your order is taken:
After a quick look at the menu and a recommendation from a coworker I settled on the bacon cheeseburger with all the toppings, Cajun fries and a regular glass of pop. We moved down the counter line and noticed they had a large sign indicating the origin of the potatoes. They also had an “open kitchen” so to speak which allowed you to watch the cooks prepare your meal. Finally they also had a crate full of large stacked potato bags. These aren’t necessarily impressive but it added to the atmosphere of the burger joint.
Now let’s move onto the “meal” so to speak. I was looking forward to trying five guys for the first time. I had heard about this place for a little while. We got our bag of fries and burger and proceeded to sit down at our table. If you’ve never been to five guys they basically wrap up your burger, place it into a medium sized paper bag and then fill the bag up to the brim with fries. Sounds promising doesn’t it?
Let’s have a look at the quick pick I snapped of the fries:
Now the fries themselves tasted great with their “Cajun spices”. The one issue I had with them was the fact that they were slightly under cooked for my taste. I’ve stated this in the past but French fries should be crispy as far as I’m concerned. Mushy fries just aren’t very appealing to me. So even though I had a full bag of fries I was somewhat disappointed by the fact almost none of them were crispy.
Now let’s move onto the burger. Have a look at this monstrosity:
I have to be honest and say that as soon as I unwrapped the burger it put me off. I mean look at it, this is exactly what was sitting before me when I unwrapped it. I didn’t “doctor” this photo or the burger and this was taken as soon as we sat down at our table. Having been slightly put off by look of the burger, I didn’t want it to have an impact on my “review” of it. I took my first bite and it tasted like it looked. It was simply a burger that had been slapped together. There was no love put into this meal. The condiments and cheese quickly oozed off the burger and flopped onto the wrapper. I slowly continued to take bites out of the burger when all of a sudden there was a distinctive crunching sound and a flood of taste in my mouth.
You see I had bit the pickle. It was crisp, not too salty and simply tasted “fresh”. I must admit it was probably one of the best pickles I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. I didn’t finish the burger or the fries. I spent the rest of the afternoon fighting an awkward feeling in my stomach. The high light of this whole meal had been the pickle.
In the end the meal cost me 15.25$ I think that’s a reasonable price for a good burger, fries and a drink. However I don’t think it’s a good price when the best item on the menu was a condiment of pickles. I’d also like to point out that we had gone to Five Guys a little prior to the rush hour. There was in my opinion no excuse for mushy fries and a burger that felt like it was slapped together. I’ve since asked a few of my coworkers what they thought of their Five Guys experience. Most of them felt it was only a mediocre experience.
Five guys left me wishing one of them had taken the time to try and make this a burger to remember.
mtl_dokk-aebi
That is how it is supposed to be.