Oceania Burger Special

Five Guys incarnating on terra australis

What is the secret to a great hamburger?

According to those who make great burgers, the answer seems to be simple: By focusing on quality ingredients and ensuring consistent quality.

Five Guys has firmly established itself as a veritable heavyweight on the firmament of North American burger chains and would be a known quantity to readers in the new world. 

Needless to say, I was intrigued when word around the campfire had that they were going to materialize on terra australis in collaboration with Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group, an entity that so far has focussed its efforts solely on developing its own unique brands, each of which is imbued with a distinctive DNA and widely appreciated for going above and beyond when it comes to customer service and satisfaction.

Given the aforementioned and the fact that it was the first time Seagrass Hospitality Group endeavoured into franchising, expectations were high.

Now, for the uninitiated: Five Guys streamlined offerings are centred around crispy yet pillowy soft fries and four core burger variations, the latter of which come with a standard serve of two patties which can be customised via fifteen different toppings than can be chosen from, i.e. mayo, ketchup, mustard, A1 Sauce, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, relish, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, green peppers, and jalapeño peppers; resulting in over two-hundred fifty thousand permutations to individualize your burger and thereby enabling you to make it unique not unlike a snowflake.

While purists and aficionados wax lyrical about their ways of assembling their burgers, the common denominator is that every burger cooked at Five Guys is prepared well-done without further variations on offer and to serve them as fresh as possible and with the bookending eggy cake-like buns striking a borderline perfect balance between fluffiness and toastiness, with just the slightest hint of a char courtesy of being cooked directly on the grill.

Another Five Guys USP is their use of applewood-smoked bacon, resulting in what could be best described as a melange of sweet and smoky, which, curiously enough, can also be had as an ingredient in their hand-spun milkshakes.

With Five Guys’ commitment to freshness, it should not be further wondrous that their locations neither house any freezers nor heat lamps, with all produce including the hand formed patties being made, sliced and chopped fresh every morning and temperature controlled via wireless sensors throughout the day in a bid to ensure that raw ingredients are stored at a safe temperature at all given times.

Taking all of the aforementioned points into account, Five Guys’ unconventional approach  results in a total that is much more than the mere sum of its individual components: Essentially, Five Guys is more of casual Fifties throwback restaurant rather than a mere fast-food joint, with the employees adding their own idiosyncratic touches in the open kitchen which does add a Willy Wonka-esque approach.

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image from company website