Five Guys - Milton Keynes

I've been blogging now for three years and during that time, I've been invited to exactly zero restaurant openings, special occasions or in fact any kind of review related restaurant event. By a happy coincidence then, when Five Guys opened their latest premises today I wasn't invited to that either. However, as a die hard fan of eating, I inserted myself in their outlet anyway regardless of whether they wanted me to or not. 

We all know that Five Guys do good burgers, but can they bring their magic to MK, and more to the point, should they?

Well, by the time that I managed to shut down the laptop and jump in the car to make it over to the Xscape building it was dreary, miserable and generally unpleasant. Undeterred, we splashed through puddles to see the queue snaking out of the front doors. 

Inside though was a sea of red shirts swarming through the kitchen in an amazing display of synchronised burger flipping, building and serving. The effect was impressively slick and the team members showed no sign of first day nerves so back slaps all round for that. 

The menu is, of course the same but I noticed the addition of shakes that either are a recent addition or something I completely missed the first time around. While the allure of a good shake is hard to resist, at just under £5 a pop, I wasn't feeling flush enough this close to the end of the month, so instead I played it safe with the return of my favourite vanilla cherry Sprite dispenser. The burgers themselves were excellently played, I had ketchup, pickles, peppers and hot sauce which turned out to be a great combo. This time, the burgers were cooked well done as advertised and the chips came in a portion size that would keep Fat Bob from Fatty Town happy. Speaking of the chips, these were significantly better than the Leicester Square ones I'd sampled previously, these were crisp on the outside and fluffy inside with a salty crunch that impressed me. 

It was the noise that really surprised me though, it blasted out a few decibels above comfortable and by the time that I got there, the staff who were shouting out order numbers were a bit croaky having done it for the whole day. It certainly didn't make for a easy dining experience either which is a shame because if I'm dropping eight quid on a cheese burger, then I don't want to feel like I'm being pushed out of the building too quickly.

But that's really just a teething problem and is easily fixed. The end result is that I'm happy to see Five Guys bringing something new and premium* to MK, and this is just another example of London sitting up and taking notice that MK is starting to really make a mark.

Welcome to the neighbourhood Guys.

www.fiveguys.co.uk
@fiveguysuk  


*and by premium I mean it, three burgers, two kids burgers, one regular fries, one small fries and a couple of drinks came in at £47, not exactly small change.