Five Guys - Burgers and Fries

You may be asking yourself why is a guy who doesn't eat meat reviewing a burger place; good question, but I have heard about Five Guys for a while and now that they have come to our area I thought I would give them a try so I headed over to their new location at 1237 SOM Center Road in Mayfield Heights. This is part of the new strip mall just North of Eastgate. Five Guys is a snappy set up decorated in white and red tiles with some black accents. A pretty good sized place offers seating at both regular and high tables and a counter along the wall. You enter past piled up bags of potatoes waiting to be made into fries, grab some peanuts in the shells to eat while your order is being made, saunter up to the counter and order from a fairly simple menu. Five Guys offers burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, fries and drinks. That is it, no chicken, fish, happy meals or even milkshakes. Now that does not mean there is no variety as there are plenty of toppings that you can add (bacon and cheese are extra, all of the other toppings are included) from basics like ketchup, tomato and lettuce to the more interesting like grilled onions, mushrooms and jalapenos. I ordered a grilled cheese with grilled onions, mushrooms, green peppers and jalapenos ($2.49) and a regular order of fries ($2.39). While I was waiting for the order to be made I settled in and started eating the very tasty peanuts. About 5 minutes later my number was called and I picked up my order, all of which are served in a bag whether it is to go or for eat in. The grilled cheese was nicely done with the bun grilled nicely and a good portion of the veggies making for a very tasty treat. I especially want to mention the jalapenos which were crisp, fresh and very spicy, helping to take the sandwich up a notch. The fries were very good and the portion size was huge, a regular is suppose to fill a small cup, yet mine seemed to be at least double what I would have expected. The fries are fresh cut and then fried in peanut oil, the result is a very good fry with a nice crisp outside and a well cooked inside, the peanut oil adds a little extra flavor to compliment the good potato taste. Five Guys is decorated with quotes from the many favorable reviews they have gotten around the country; not suprising when they do such a good job and keep their approach basic and focused. I arrived about 1:30pm on a Saturday and the place was very busy and stayed that way; clearly Five Guys is catching on in Cleveland. I admire Five Guys, they have taken an approach of keeping things basic and using quality products to produce very good food at a reasonable price. They do not make excuses, cooking in peanut oil and serving bulk peanuts, they warn if you are allergic you need to stay away. They have not tried to expand their menu or make it overly complicated and they are succeeding with this approach. Go see what you think, they currently have locations in Mayfield Heights, Southpark and Great Northern.