Earlier this year, the burgers at quickly growing fast foodatrorium Five Guys made the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s list of most calorie-filled meals in the country. Perhaps that’s why the voters at the Zagat Guide recently chose Five Guys as the best burger in the country.
In a survey of 6,500 fast food fans, Five Guys beat out all other burger chains for top honors, followed by In-N-Out — last year’s winner — in second place. Rounding out the top five were, in order, Wendy’s, Burger King then McDonald’s.
Among full-service chain restaurants, Red Robin reigned supreme. The rest of the top five were Stake ‘n Shake, Cheesecake Factory, Ruby Tuesday and Chili’s.
Of course, what good are burgers without fries? And while Five Guys might be noted for drowning your burger in a sea of fresh-cut french fries, it still wasn’t enough to be out McDonald’s for the fry crown.
The Golden Arches also took home gold medals in Best Value, Best Value Menu, Best Breakfast Sandwiches. And yet Wendy’s was still voted Top Overall and Top Food among “Mega Chain” (over 5,000 location) eateries.
The full results can be found here.
What do you think of these results? How would you have voted?
More From Consumerist
-
Enough People Take Surveys For Us To Know That Five Guys Burgers Are Better Than McDonald's
-
Starbucks & Coinstar Unite To Sell Seattle’s Best Coffee In Kiosks
-
Best Buy Banking On Amy Poehler To Break Its Super Bowl Ad Losing Streak
-
What To Do If You’re Still Getting Calls From “Rachel At Cardholder Services”
-
Is A “Quadriginoctuple Frap” The Priciest Starbucks Drink Ever Ordered Or A Scary Medical Procedure?
A Five Guys recently opened near my house in Cincinnati. As delicious as it may be, we have AT LEAST two other joints that destroy the Five Guys burger in terms of taste.
These two places, mind you, are both sit-down restaurants with a significantly better atmosphere, with burgers and fries that are cheaper than Five Guys.
Five Guys fries are without a doubt better than McD’s fries. You can’t beat fresh cut and with the skin still on.
I don’t trust any list that says that KFC is better than Popeye’s.
I’m lucky enough to have both a Five Guys and an In N Out in my city. Yes, I’m fat. Sometimes though, I don’t care.
Damn it, I wanted to resist Five Guys for lunch today. Now I’m tempted. A little burger with onions, pickles and hot sauce with a regular cajun fries. *drool*
I love me some Five Guys!
EWWWW That place is nasty! I pay two times as much for a burger that tastes like it is cooked on a charcoal grill. I can do that my self for a fraction of the cost. 5 Guys sucks!
Burgers: Five Guys
Fries: Arby’s Curly Fries
Fried Chicken: The Chicken Shack (Evanston, IL) or White Fence Farm
Chicken Sandwiches: Chick-Fil-A
Ha! I’ve only spent about 2 weeks of my life in Illinois, but I have to completely agree that the Evanston Chicken Shack has the best fried chicken xD
Oh good lord, White Fence Farm.
I want a powered sugar-dusted corn fritter right now.
Five Guys burgers are pretty nasty: greasy, and burned to a crisp, usually. They remind me of McDonald’s burgers, which I also think are terrible. I can see that people might like them, though, if they LIKE their meat charred beyond all taste and recognition.
Their fries aren’t very good either. I much prefer places that have thick fries, especially with potato skin on (no clue why there are only a few places that do that: maybe cost?).
5 Guys is way too expensive. For the price you could go to an actual restaurant. Their fries are soggy and disgusting (and wasteful, since they give you enough for a family of 5), the burger is bland, the restaurant has a loud and cramped dining area. I don’t get what people like so much about it. It is like eating in a junior high lunchroom.
I only had In-N-Out once on a trip to Las Vegas many years ago and was not impressed by it either. Just tasted like yet-another-fast-food-burger to me. The locals couldn’t get enough of it, though.
In my opinion the best fast-food burgers are (in no particular order) Hardees, Steak n Shake, Culver’s, Wendy’s. (honorable mention to White Castle, but I don’t consider them real burgers). McDonalds and BK are by far the worst burgers. McD is just disgusting in general, and BK’s microwaved burgers are always a bit odd-tasting.
As far as fries go, in my mind there is no competition: Rally’s fries are the best. Their burgers are blah, and the fill up the cup with ice all the way to the lid, but those incredible fries make up for it. Mmmmm.
Steak n Shake fries are pretty awesome, too, when they are cooked all the way.
Worst fries I would say is a tie between Sonic and Five Guys. Limp, soggy and disgusting. Maybe if they cooked them long enough to actually get crispy they might be good.
I think McDonald’s fries benefit from nostalgia in these kind of surveys, they used to be better in the 70′s/80′s. They are pretty gross most of the time now.
“It is like eating in a junior high lunchroom.” Great explantion.
Another burger joint that no one has mentioned and maybe it’s because it is local to metro detroit, it is White Castles. Anyone familiar with them? Absolutely disgusting. In case you’re not familiar, they are small, square, and cheap and taste like it too. They are HUGE here but I haven’t eaten one of those burgers since 2001 after one night at a bar.
Both of these restaurants are the epitome of American trash food, bad tasting, bad for your health and a cookie cutter image.
Meh,,,been there done that. I wasn’t impressed.
But I did like the atmosphere with the bags of potatoes and boxes of goods sitting in and around the restaurant where I ate. For some reason that reminded me of those old Civil War era pictures of old store fronts, pharmacies, and grocers doing the same thing.
The Burger Joint in the DC area has burgers and fries that are even better than Five Guys. True fact!
What about the Ruby’s Diner chain? Their burgers are so awesome. Melt in your mouth.
isn’t Ruby’s local to SoCal, that is the only place I have ever seen them.
One thing that always annoys me about Five Guys is the way their walls are completely covered in articles, awards, articles about awards, etc. The whole time I’m there, I’m bombarded with the message, “We’re the best, we’re so great, look at all these things that show how great we are!”
I’m sure it won’t be long before they plaster news of this Zagat Guide win all over their walls as well, if they haven’t already. I think Five Guys is pretty good, but I think a shred of humility would be nice.
I like Five Guys’ burgers. Their fries I’ll gladly do without.
Five Guys Burgers & Fries, that’s a mistake I will not make again. Within 45 minutes of forcing down that greasy slop I was running for the toilet, & spent a good portion of the rest of my day feeding the porcelain monster. That was the day I learned my ass can’t handle 5 guys. And it’s way too expensive to boot!
5 Guys burgers suck, things are cooked to the point where it’s on par with any fast food joint. I would pick Burger King over 5 Guys. Now if you want a REALLLY good burger, head on down to Paul’s Burgers by Saint Marks Place. Now THAT is a worth burger, nice big and juicy.
The real crime is that Zagat gave KFC best fried chicken. Everyone and their grandmother knows Popeyes has the best fried chicken.
Regional bias. In-n-out would win if it wasn’t just west coast.
Theres a place called 25 burgers near me and they have the BEST burgers by far of any place around here. That includes Five guys + other places.
I’ve had both and the In-N-Out doubledouble animal style is much better than anything Five Guys has.
Period.
Based on their #3, #4, and #5 picks, I can only assume they only tested five fast-food places in the country.
Ugh. I’ve tried Five Guys more than once after hearing everyone rave about it. I still don’t get it. A small, greasy, mediocre burger on a bun with lousy fries. Wow. Maybe there’s a secret Five Guys that keeps winning all these awards.
A Five Guys opened up near my workplace recently. Unimpressed is all I can think of. The burger wasn’t spectacular and the fries were worse. I wasn’t too thrilled with In-and-Out, either. Maybe both got hyped up too much. Better than McDonalds, for sure, and neither make me crap my pants like Burger King does, but I’d take Wendys over either of them. Steak n’Shake is pretty good, too.
That is unless there’s a Culvers around. Love me some Culvers.
Never heard of Five Guys. Here in Texas, my favorite fast-food burger has to be Whataburger. There’s no contest. They also have the BEST ketchup ever. It’s not that Heinz crap, it’s their own recipe. It’s so addictive too.
Although I have been to In-N-Out in California, and thought it was good too, but it still doesn’t beat Whataburger.
For fries, I’d have to say Carl’s Jr. Their fries are not the shrimpy fries, they’re big cross-cut fries. Delicious.
a Five Guys just opened right across the street from my job. The prices are a TAD steep, but from what I’ve heard it’s worth the price. Probably something good to treat yourself to like once a week or so. I haven’t had it myself, but may try it out this week. They seem to be doing very well at the one nearby and it’s in very commercialized area with lots of restaurants and stores (walmart of course being one of them) and movie theaters so it’ll fit right in.
In n out was robbed! Although ive never had 5 guys. Ill have to keep an eye out for that place.
I would totally vote Five Guys fries at the 1 spot and McDonald’s at the 4. And Wendy’s at the five, because they have something that makes me sick in them.
I really want to know why people like those over priced burgers >
Maybe it’s just that the Five Guys around Boston aren’t very good, but they shouldn’t even be in the same conversation as In-N-Out. As far as chains go they may be better than anything else on the East Coast, but there are plenty of non-chain burger joints that are better.
Zinburger FTW on full service and Fatburger is the best fast food burger of all-time.
Sweet Five Guys Justice.
I was a word of mouth machine when they opened a branch in Avon CT
They even gave me a few shirts to help spread the fantasticalness of their beef.
I’m a runner and a health fanatic who doesn’t eat fast food.
But I love my occasional Five Guys hamburger and fries.
Between my metabolism and cardio exercise, though, I burn that meal off. The same can be had for others if they’d just run a few laps around their block a few times a week instead of picking up the tv remote or xbox controller.
Perhaps it’s just that it’s a new location and hasn’t “hit its stride” but my burger and fries at the Five Guys here in southwest Austin were mediocre at best.
There’s a P-Terry’s across the street that blows it out of the water. Of course, P-Terry’s is an Austin-only chain, but it’s very reminiscent of the west coast’s In-and-Out, which I bear a particular fondness for.
Now I want one. And the fries. I love their fries cause they remind me a bit of Thrasher’s fries in Ocean City. ( Though I think Thrasher’s are tastier )
Best Cheeseburger is from a small local chain in Columbia, SC called RUSH’S. They’re fries are probably the fourth best, next to McD’s, Chic Fil-a, and Arby’s curly fries.
And their shakes are to die for.
I rarely eat fast food anymore, but anytime I find myself in Columbia, SC, I gorge on some Rush’s cheeseburger baskets with vanilla shakes as often as I can.
Five Guy’s fries rule! Nothing comes close. I’m a bigger fan of their grilled hot dogs also.!!!
I won’t lie..I had a burger from Krystal for the 1st time while in the ATL airport and not too bad.
I’m also surprised Hardee’s isn’t up there.
After many horrible experiences at Five Guys (all related to their lack of emphasis on customer service), I’ve decided today to officially dump them.
Bye-bye Five Thighs!