Popular new Crawley burger joint offers huge portions and plenty of character

Lets make no bones about it, a Five Guys branch opening in Crawley is a major coup for the town.

The American burger chain has a growing following with dedicated fans flocking to the restaurant despite it being open for just a few days.

Customers at Five Guys have a choice of burgers to which they can add as many free toppings as they would like.

I picked the bacon burger – comprised of two patties and some bacon – and topped it with lettuce, grilled onions, green peppers and ketchup.

I added a portion of regular fries and a vanilla milkshake for good measure.

Too often, burgers are served ‘some assembly required’, with one half of the bun perched on the side of your wooden chopping board – as is the fashion in too many gastropubs.

Thankfully Five Guys takes a no frills approach to dining, swerving the DIY meal and serving the burger ready made in foil with fries in a cup.

Jam-packed full of toppings Five Guys gives you exactly what you want from a burger – there’s no fuss, no folderols just good old fashioned meat and fillings sandwiched in doughy goodness.

Staring at the burger reminded me of Stonehenge. I wasn’t quite sure how they’d managed to build such a magnificent thing but I was very glad they had.

The fries were perfectly fried and served in what I’d call an American-sized portion. If you leave Five Guys hungry then something is amiss because my serving of fries can only be described as a cornucopia of potato-ey goodness.

For pudding I opted for a milkshake. Five Guys says there are 1,000 possible combinations but I decided to keep it simple and go for vanilla, with added whipped cream, naturally.

After the carb heavy main the shake was exactly what I needed. Richer than the cast of Made in Chelsea and nearly as thick, it was the perfect end to my culinary excursion to America.

So the food was excellent, but what of the dining experience as a whole?

Five Guys was a victim of its own success with its first Friday evening after opening seeing the restaurant packed with customers.

On entry there was no clear one way system once you had ordered your food and there didn’t appear to be anyone monitoring the restaurant’s capacity.

The restaurant was understandably popular but social distancing didn’t appear to be being enforced with the dining environment cosy at best.

I had to ask for my table to be wiped after the previous diner had eaten there – I’d expect it to be cleaned between diners in normal times let alone during a pandemic.

Five Guys offers takeaway as well as eat in but there didn’t seem to be much of a plan to segregate those waiting for food from diners seated which left people milling around my table while I ate, again something which would be rather off putting in regular times.

I put my findings to Five Guys and a spokesman issued the following statement: “We have been overwhelmed with the positive response from customers since we opened our new restaurant in Crawley last week.

“We were concerned to hear your visit did not meet with the Covid-secure operations which are in place across all of our stores. The health and safety of our customers and Five Guys Crew is paramount and our restaurants have been adapted to adhere to the ongoing advice from the UK Government and Public Health England.

“We are continuing to review these processes in order to ensure our restaurants operate in a safe and controlled manner.”