It's a great restaurant. A couple of weeks ago I ate at Five Guys with my wife and the boys. And yesterday on the way to Las Vegas we stopped in Corona, where a brand-new Five Guys just opened off the I-15:
The place was packed. You can help yourself to some peanuts (on the counter) while you're waiting:
I had the single-patty cheeseburger "all the way" (with everything), which includes lettuce, mushrooms, onions, pickles, and tomatoes.
The food's more like home-made compared to In-and-Out, and so far the quality has been excellent. The french-fries are cooked in peanut oil, which gives them a different look and flavor. I could eat Five Guys regularly. The only problem is the price. A small, single-patty cheeseburger, small fries and a coke runs almost $9.50. That's about $4 more than In-and-Out. Both are good, but the restaurants are pretty different actually. Five Guys has no drive-through service, which is a disadvantage IMHO. And while Five Guys is delicious, In-and-Out remains the industry standard for service, speed, and quality. And unlike Five Guys, In-and-Out doesn't come on like it's got a lot to prove (restaurant reviews aren't splattered across the walls at In-and-Out). The rivalry could become a Coke-Pepsi, Hertz-Avis kind of thing. And it all might boil down to location. And personal preference, too, which for a lot of people will mean affordability.
Check it out, by all means!
I'll have some blogging from Vegas later.