I’m late to the party on this one, but now that Five Guys has landed in Silly Con Valley, it is finally possible to achieve a proper head to head comparison. I say late because others have already hit this up in other blogs, so this will probably be more impressionistic than a one to one breakdown.
First things first: the venue. The key factor for me is that Five Guys has no drive-thru. If you have to park and go in, you’ve given away half the title of “fast food” for better or worse. That among other things will lead to the real comparison later.
The burger itself: both go with a standard two patties and two slices of cheese, but Five Guys offers a much wider array of toppings with things like jalapeños and bacon. In n Out sticks with basically the same offerings they’ve had since the late 1940s. The standard 2×2 In n Out configuration is smaller in aggregate than the Five Guys equivalent, but not wildly so.
One place the Bible is not literally accurate is in the matter of feeding the five thousand. I am convinced that rather than mucking about with loaves and fishes, Our Lord fed the multitudes with one small fry from Five Guys. It is a preposterous serving size and basically unmanageable for a single person. The fries themselves are a thick skin-on cut that basically begs for barbecue sauce and seasoned salt. In n Out’s fries are the more traditional fast food type, and are in fact widely regarded in the Valley as the Achilles heel of the menu – because the potatoes are fresh and not frozen, the frying process results in a different texture and taste that largely depends on whether potatoes are in season. In n Out fries are much more suitable for layering onto one’s burger, though, which is important if you are Mike CASSSSSidy.
Five Guys has no milkshakes, which might be important to some, but their array of fountain beverages includes Coke Zero, which is my current indispensable propellant. In fact, that’s a whole separate post, about how the frack is Zero not a standard Coke offering after four bloody years.
Service was fine both places. In n Out is the diamond encrusted platinum standard for fast food service worldwide, but it’s not like Five Guys was being run by baboons or anything; quite the contrary, they aptly handled a line that was literally out the door on the day we went by.
Oh yes, price: a 2×2 type burger, with regular fries and large Coke, cost a hair under half at In n Out what it costs at Five Guys.
My conclusion, which I have repeated elsewhere, is this: for whatever reason, the greater 650/408 area is home to a number of charbroiled burger establishments. Clarke’s in Mountain View is the pinnacle of those, but establishments like Kirk’s and Jeffery’s also have a loyal following, and chains like Burger Joint and The Counter have moved in as well. I is my opinion that Five Guys is a much more direct competitor for places like that rather than for In n Out, in terms of offerings and price point alike. I’m not sure anything will ever pull me off Clarke’s as “this is where God goes for a burger” but I think Five Guys will definitely carve out a niche and light a fire under everybody else, as it may be the first fast food chain since In n Out to achieve the level of national buzz that makes people say “when is it coming here??”
Damn, now I’m hungry. And I didn’t drive, I’ll be damned…