Shake Shack (New York City)

I have been hearing about Shake Shack for a while now and have been very eager to try their hamburgers. During Day 1 of the group's walking tour of Manhattan, we ended up at lunchtime in the area of Madison Square Park and Eataly. I chose to have a hamburger and one of my travel mates NC joined me too. The others decided to hang around Eataly.

When we arrived at Shake Shack we realised that the line was a lot longer than 15 minutes ago, when we first passed it. But we took the chance and queued up. It was a hot summer's day and one of the Shake Shack employees came out with a tray of iced water for the people who were queueing up to order. I thought that was a very nice gesture.

Five Guys (Washington DC)

About 1 block from the hotel I saw a sign on a corner cafe called Five Guys. It looked like a hamburger joint so I decided to investigate this place further via the internet. My good friend Mr Google was of great help as usual!

Based on what I had read it looks like Five Guys is a rather popular hamburger joint and has locations all around the US. It has been voted as having the best burgers from various states around the US including Washington DC. So one night I decided to have a low down hamburger dinner there.

For burgers, the way it works in this place is you have to decide if you want a Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Bacon Burger or Bacon Cheeseburger. Then you can choose the toppings to go with the burger. All toppings are free of charge.

Their list of toppings are:
Mayo, Lettuce, Pickles, Tomatoes, Grilled Onions, Grilled Mushrooms, Ketchup, and Mustard.
Relish, Onions, Jalapeño Peppers, Green Peppers, A1 Steak Sauce, BBQ Sauce, and Hot Sauce.

I decided to have a Hamburger with Tomatoes, Grilled Onions, Pickles and Ketchup. I also ordered a Small serving of Fries (Five Guys Style). It turns out that the Five Guys Style is that the fries have the potato skin still on. A rather rustic style but not one that is off-putting. I didn't mind it at all.