Whenever I walk past Five Guys in Leicester city centre there never seem to be many customers inside. They're often outnumbered by the - presumably very bored - staff in the kitchen.
This doesn't really surprise me as the price of the burgers is pretty high and whoever designed the interior seems to have been inspired by the look of their favourite public toilet.
And if you're going to pay a tenner for a burger you don't want to be hanging around at the counter for five minutes waiting for them to make it. That's okay for a £2.69 double cheeseburger from McDonald's but not an £11.35 cheeseburger.
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But it was one of the few burger places I hadn't already reviewed and I really fancied a burger, so I hopped on the Deliveroo app to see what treats I could find. One nice thing I noticed about the app when ordering was that Five Guys didn't try to charge extra for every ingredient, like some restaurants.
Although I'd already decided to pay £11.35 for a cheeseburger, rather than £9.95 for a regular burger - not a low price to pay for what appeared to be pretty cheap cheese.
In terms of extras, there wasn't much available beyond burgers, veggie burgers and chips. I had the choice of regular or Cajun fries, in various sizes. I went for regular fries in a regular size (£5.65) and I looked for a drink to order.
I hesitated getting a milkshake because of the stupid paper straws these days but I eventually opted for an Oreo Cookie Pieces shake, just to see how the straw coped. With all the Deliveroo fees the whole meal came to £26.46.
I was pretty hungry and my hopes were high when my Deliveroo cyclist arrived outside. Opening up the bag, the sizeable burger was buried under a spadeful of chips. So many chips - but they were so delicious.
The burger only just fit in my mouth and it was tasty and juicy. I'd ordered it with grilled onions, mushrooms and relish but that didn't seem to be enough to provide much flavour diversity - it just tasted of beef and onions, really.
Ultimately, the burger was nice but definitely not the best I've had in Leicester. It was also not great value considering I could have bought four McDonald's double cheeseburgers for less than £11.35.
The chips were great, though. I don't know if it's what they're cooked in or the quality of the raw potatoes but they have a lot of flavour. Despite getting a ridiculous amount, I managed to eat them all and the whole meal was gone in half an hour.
The milkshake was also delicious, although the paper straw got jettisoned less than a quarter of the way through and I switched to a spoon. They had kindly packed two straws, presumably expecting the first one to make it at least halfway through before buckling. Wishful thinking.
In conclusion, they make a very decent burger and the chips and shakes are great. But if you're going to order a pricey takeaway there are better options available.
And if you want to sit in a city centre restaurant and eat a £10 burger there are much nicer places a few minutes' walk away from Five Guys in the High Street, like Boo on Gallowtree Gate or Crafty Burger in St Martin's Square.
But if you have agoraphobia and really just want to get away from the crowds, it's ideal.
Our rating: 3/5
Official food hygiene rating: 5/5
Five Guys did not know we would be doing a review and we paid for our food.
