Five Guys

Tim Horton's is Canada's main coffee and doughnut place . I went there a couple of times when I visited Canada in 2006 .


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I hate to be a Scrooge, but our doughnut needs are already well served by Krispy Kreme which happens to be from Winston Salem , North Carolina.  Don't know nothing about any Canadian doughnuts. 

Maybe Son of Sailor might eat those.

Tim Horton's is Canada's main coffee and doughnut place . I went there a couple of times when I visited Canada in 2006 .


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I miss Timmy's more than I can say. It is probably one of those litmus tests for nationality, like Tebbit's cricket test.

our doughnut needs are already well served by Krispy Kreme

UGH!  Krispy Kreme's doughnuts are mingin!    Unless you're lucky enough to get a cake doughnut when they do them... those are nice.

UGH!  Krispy Kreme's doughnuts are mingin!    Unless you're lucky enough to get a cake doughnut when they do them... those are nice.

I take back what I said on that other thread!   Admittedly, the glazed doughnuts get old after half a dozen or so, but there's nothing better than a Boston Creme (chocolate frosting, filled with yellow custard)

Maybe Son of Sailor might eat those.

I am partial to donuts.

I hate to be a Scrooge, but our doughnut needs are already well served by Krispy Kreme which happens to be from Winston Salem , North Carolina.  Don't know nothing about any Canadian doughnuts. 

Maybe Son of Sailor might eat those.

While I love a Krispy Kreme, there is room in the world for a large variety of donuts.  I don't discriminate.   

How about Jack in the Box?  I used to go there when I lived in Arizona around 1994.  Seems like they fried the buns in butter and had a E Coli problem.  It was good though.  Do they still exist?

Jack in the Box still exists.  There's one near my work, and another near my house.

Jack in the Box tacos!
God only knows what that mystery meat was inside them, but we loved eating those in high school.

I'm genuinely hoping Tim Horton's don't bugger up the UK expansion like they did in the US. The coffee here is so over-roasted and doesn't compare to the Canadian cup. They're coffee & donuts jimbocz - kinda like dunkin donuts but better. They also have sandwiches and other lunch foods. And for those who like sugary frozen things, the iced cappucino is really quite tasty.

Now ... I'm from Buffalo. Is there any where that does proper US style chicken wings there? No breading, fried crispy with lots of vinegary hot sauce?

oooOOOooo Tim Horton's! Yummy! I miss cake donuts. Krispy Kreme just doesn't cut it when I want a nice old fashioned glazed.

Just off Times Square in NYC they have a Tim Horton's/Cold Stone Creamery combo, OMG, glorious!

oooOOOooo Tim Horton's! Yummy! I miss cake donuts. Krispy Kreme just doesn't cut it when I want a nice old fashioned glazed.

Just off Times Square in NYC they have a Tim Horton's/Cold Stone Creamery combo, OMG, glorious!

I think there's also one in Penn Station!

Hi,

I'll be the boring one! I'll answer KFdancer's question

The general UK population will understand the Cost of Living, Standard of Living indice's. Related to this is the 'Cost of Doing Business' in the UK. For the most part, the UK's buying public don't understand the costs of running a business in the UK. In short, it's very, very expensive, mired in red tape and the law heavily biases the Consumer over the Business.

I've previously looked at taking on a franchise and yes, the potential profits to make do sound great. With more evaluation, I've decided not to continue (this was all amongst family and selected friends as well).

Mcdonalds want between £200-500K for a restaurant, put up 25% minimum up front, a one off £30K fee upfront to 'join' them and then recurring monthly charges of between 10-18% based on that months sales, 5% to use Mcdonalds' systems and another 4.5% to contribute to the corporates marketing costs. Also delving a bit more although this may have changed (or could have been complete porkies), a full restaurant re-vamp/fit out is needed every few years, which the franchisee pays for and also, you sign an agreement that as a franchisee you have no other source of income whatsoever. Also, prime locations cost significantly more, into the million(s).

Now smaller franchises do cost less usually, but even the cheapest one I looked at, which was a chain of a handful of outlets (fast food again) was £80K upfront. I only did a little more research into places like Starbucks, Costa etc and a few other non food type sectors.

So, in London, I can easily see why that 5 Guys 'meal' cost over £11! Ground rents and rates are stupidly high, insurance is similarly expensive, and then taxes on your profits are also 'relatively' high. Usual costs such as utilities and of course employee salaries/wages are similarly high.

There is of course the ratio of the cost of the meal compared to 'actual' business costs - the profit. 5 Guys does portray itself as a higher quality food place than mcdonalds, BK, KFC etc etc and hence add their 'profit margin' as well. I'd suspect the actual margin is relatively small, perhaps a modest amount more. I don't think they'd have large or big margins which is fashionable for many non business people to say/believe.

In addition to the above, one other forum I'm on, there's semi regular discussions about the potential of having/bringing a USA franchise 'over here'. I know many people on this forum often lament the unavailbility of specific brands, foods, products etc and believe me, plenty of people (including myself!) look into if and how to potentially do that! In short, its extremely difficult to do for a variety of reasons not just costs - for the 'food' sector, the UK palette is significantly different to the much more varied US one along with the fact that only a few regions in the UK, 'might' be interested in a certain food type group.

Right, I'll shut up - should I open a IHOP? or a In N Out Burger?! 

Sorry for the boringness!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

I think people who have been in the UK or overseas for a bit forget that prices continue to rise back home, too. I went to Five Guys a couple of weeks ago and got a little cheeseburger, small fry, and small fountain drink. It cost $12. Yes, that's a bit less than £12, but not much. Five Guys is expensive, period.

But sooooooo good.

I think people who have been in the UK or overseas for a bit forget that prices continue to rise back home, too. I went to Five Guys a couple of weeks ago and got a little cheeseburger, small fry, and small fountain drink. It cost $12. Yes, that's a bit less than £12, but not much. Five Guys is expensive, period.

But sooooooo good.

My son is eating 5 Guys at the table right now. He bought a little bacon cheeseburger, little Cajun fries and a small soda. With tax it came out to $13.50! Yikes! The "little" Cajun fries is enough to feed two people, if not three. So, I'll let it pass but still $13.50?!

I have always believed that food was so inexpensive here in the US but it's not the value it used to be in the past. But, that's the way things are.


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Yeah, Five Guys was expensive in San Diego, too, but almost all hamburger places there without a drive-through cost in the $7 - $8 range just for the burger as of last month (as far as I know). We had a real favorite place, though - Angelo's up in Encinitas. Greasy spoon place that has been there for decades. You buy one burger/fries/drink combo for about $8 and they'll throw in a second burger for free on request!

Anyway, I was never crazy about FG's burgers, but they made the best fries in town. When the Daughter was abroad at school I very often took a package to mail to her at our local PO on a Saturday morning. It was in the same shopping center as FG so I'd have some lovely fries for lunch.  The double-cooking does the trick, I think.

An aside, Daughter says that hot dogs in Glasgow are "horrific" and warned me to not buy one ever. She also says that thankfully you can get a "real" one at FG's. So I imagine that on the 4th we will toodle down to City Center and have an American Hot Dog and reminisce.

Something Daughter mentioned the other day, and I have to agree. We see a lot of things (fast food, for example) advertised where the actual price number (say, the 7 in $7 is the same here for a similar item, it's just in pounds instead of dollars, a lot of the time. Of course, with the exchange rate today, it's 1/3 more than that for us to buy when we're converting from dollars to pounds, but it's somewhat interesting that the actual numbers seem to be the same. Groceries, on the other hand, are dirt cheap.

Which brings me to.... does anyone know where to buy vanilla extract that is literally just vanilla and the alcohol base? All the stuff I'm finding on the shelves here seems to have sugar added.