"They've got nothing on In-N-Out."

Not long ago a new burger joint came to Salem. It seems that
restaurants with quality burgers are a bit of a rarity, or too
expensive and off the beaten path.

This new place, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, seemed that it would be a
welcome addition to the burger offerings in town.

When we heard, or rather saw, that this was going in, we were looking
forward to trying it. After seeing their prices I decided that there
was no rush to try them.

A couple weeks ago we were nearby for something else and decided to go
ahead and try their burgers.

One of the first things we saw upon entering was a box of peanuts for
us to help ourselves to. There were also many boxes, or was it sacks,
of fresh potatoes.

Their burger offerings are not many: hamburger, cheeseburger, bacon
hamburger, and bacon cheeseburger and also a "small" version of each.
The only difference, other than $1 or more in price, between the
regular and small versions is 2 vs. 1 patty.

We each chose a small cheeseburger. The fun part was choosing the add-
ons. Every burger comes with you choice of toppings at no additional
charge. I think it's 19 different toppings with choices such as
lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, ketchup, pickles, grilled onions,
grilled mushrooms, and more.

We also got a large order of fries to share. They certainly provide a
generous serving of fries, even overflowing into the sack. We got the
Five Guys style, which are a homestyle cut fry.

While the burgers were not awful, they were definitely NOT anything
spectacular. I ordered the grilled onions and mushrooms, but they put
so few on that I couldn't even taste them. I had to look to make sure
they actually had put some on my burger. The seasoning of the meat
itself seemed to be fairly nonexistent as well.

They fries were well cooked but could also have used some seasoning.
Overall I found the food to be fairly bland. There was nothing to set
it apart from any other restaurant that might offer a burger on their
menu amongst the many other entrees they serve.

My wife grew up in southern California and is a huge fan of In-N-Out.
It was her that made the statement I used as the title of this post.
She knows where the nearest In-N-Out is, and would gladly drive the 6
hours to get there, but she isn't likely to drive the extra mile out
of her way to go to Five Guys Burger and Fries.