Five Guys has a curious reputation. On the one hand, people love it, and many a convert will regale you with all the reasons why you should head into its tiled establishments over McDonald’s or Burger King.
On the other, it’s a bit expensive. At the time of writing, a Five Guys Cheeseburger in London will set you back by £13.75 on Deliveroo, with the Hamburger being slightly less dear at £11.35.
However, its service is usually one of the selling points. It’s quick, efficient, and the staff are instructed to add extra fries to your bag as a little sweetener.
But for X user @peterdellapenna, falling foul of a Five Guy’s closing time was enough to launch a tirade on the social media platform.
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“England is hands down the most unfriendly customer service country I've been,” he said in the X post.
“Went to a @FiveGuysUK in Preston just before closing at 10. Got my food. Was chased out by manager at 1015 while still eating my food & told, ‘15 minutes is enough, you need to leave’. Never going back.”
10pm is a pretty late closing time, and those burgers are available to take away, but it seems the tourist was expecting to eat his burger at a leisurely pace while staff waited expectantly for him to finish.
“If you're making a point about politeness, may I point out most British people would be aware it is impolite to keep people stuck at work and be respectful of that,” said a reply, defending the Five Guys staff for understandably wanting to go home at the scheduled time.
They added: “What you're saying sounds a lot like entitlement.”
Peter Della Penna, however, wasn’t done: “If a place in the USA says they close at 10, that means last customer inside/order at 10 & eat your food at a normal pace.
“If a place in England says they close at 10, that means they want the lights out and door locked at 10 or else they don’t want any part of your business.”
You have to wonder what a ‘normal pace’ would amount to in this X user’s estimations. 15 minutes to eat a burger sounds like a pretty sedate speed, especially when you’ve got a team of workers waiting for you to finish the thing.
Some customers really think spending £15 entitles them to a red carpet. If this X user thinks their spending went unappreciated, he should try paying a UK water bill and seeing what gratitude it gets him.
Many more comments leapt to Five Guys’ defence.
“Turning up to a restaurant that closes at 10 and moaning that it shut at 10 really is something,” said one user.
“Let the staff go home you f*****g narcissist,” said one comment that refused to mince its words.
“You absolute muppet!” rang another. “Taking 15 minutes to scoff a burger while the staff are itching to b**ger off home? Next time, shove it down quicker or sod off earlier don’t be a proper bell*nd keeping everyone waiting!”
Five Guys got back to the X user over his spilt milk to say: “Hi Peter, we're really sorry about this. Unfortunately due to licensing, some stores cannot have customers in the premises after a certain time. Please reach out to us if you have any further concerns.”
A measured response indeed.
FOODBible has reached out to Five Guys for comment.
Topics: Fast Food, UK Food, Social Media
Rachael Davis