The Truth About Five Guys Fries

The burgers at Five Guys might be the star of the show, but their french fries are, without a doubt, a fantastic supporting act. It's a tough racket in the fast food industry for french fries, but Five Guys have emerged ahead of the pack, and according to some, they're the most popular fries around today. 

While an order of Five Guys fries does cost a little more than McDonald's, Wendy's, or In-N-Out fries, Five Guys delivers with unusually large servings. Here's what you should know about these popular fries and how they differ from the competition. 

When you walk into any Five Guys, you'll notice right away big bags of potatoes are stacked everywhere. Those bags of potatoes aren't a fast food prop — they're merely fries that haven't yet reached their final form (via Fox News). Whereas most fast food restaurants receive their fries already sliced and frozen, that's never the case with Five Guys. 

Five Guys gets all of their potatoes from northern Idaho and slices and fries them up in each restaurant. Using the "monster cutter," employees are able to quickly turn each potato into sliced fries, which are then pre-fried (via YouTube). The fries then get a "mush test" to determine if they've been undercooked. If everything checks out, the fries go back in the deep fryer for around 2 1/2 minutes. "The goal is to have a baked potato inside," one Five Guys manager said. Also, the famous brown bag is never closed. "We need that outside air to get inside to keep those fries fresh," the manager revealed. 

Every order of Five Guys fries gets a "topper" of fries to make sure there are plenty of extra fries in the bottom of the bag. All of those fries, of course, equal a lot of calories. Most people probably don't assume that the fries from Five Guys are healthy, but you may not be aware of just how unhealthy these fast food fries really are. 

A small serving of Five Guys fries contains 530 calories, while the large size contains an impressive 1,310 calories. As Taste of Home points out, a large order of their fries has just as many calories as a plain, single-patty burger and milkshake. Because Five Guys gives customers so many fries, this also means a serving contains a lot more calories than McDonald's, where a large fry contains "only" 510 calories. 

If you were going to burn off all those calories from a small order of Five Guys fries, you would need to walk for 143 minutes (via Nutritionix). Of course, a little bit of exercise and sweat is a small price to pay for those crispy, salty spuds, right?  

One of the best parts about getting an order of Five Guys fries is that "topper" of french fries waiting for you in the bag. All those extra fries in the bag make it feel like somehow you're getting a bonus from Five Guys just for being your awesome self. Well, Five Guys knows exactly what they're doing and you're actually not getting more spud than you paid for. Sorry, but it's true!

One former Five Guys employee told Pop Sugar that the topper is accounted for in the item's price. "When you order a small fry you are paying for all of the fries that go into the bag," the employee confessed. "That 'extra' scoop is kind of an illusion; they told us during training that it's to make customers think they're getting a big bargain. And you can ask for the cup with no topper if you want."

While it may be a "free fry" illusion, it's certainly a smart marketing tactic that helps set up Five Guys in the eye of the consumer as an incredibly generous chain when it comes to its french fry offerings. 

The fries at Five Guys are already incredibly good on their own, but it doesn't hurt to try and upgrade them. If you really want to push the limits of what a fry can handle, there are numerous food hacks out there that can be applied to your Five Guys fry order.

The first one is pretty simple: you can get a crispier order of french fries if you simply say that you'd like your fries "extra well done" (via Wide Open Eats). No limp fries in your brown bag!

Also, a Five Guys employee on Reddit also recommends trying them "confetti style." This simply involves mixing part BBQ sauce and part mayo and sprinkling in some Cajun seasoning. "Dump your fries in a bag, dump the sauce in, and shake it up. They come out delicious, lightly coated and speckled with Cajun." 

Are you ready to try taking your fries at Five Guys to the next level?