Not to be outdone by Popeyes, and eager to cash in on their success, Five Guys Burgers came to Shanghai the first week of May, 2021. The response was even bigger than Popeyes (IMO). The above photo was taken on May 5th, 2021 @ 14:05 (2 in the afternoon) and the line still extended way out the door with an even longer line inside.

Needless to say, I didn’t stick around to get a bite.

The crazy part is this restaurant, their first in China, is one of the most expensive sections of the city, on the first floor of a very expensive mall, and its ain’t small (easily seats 100+ people)! However, with the traffic they are generating, I don’t think they’ll have any problems turning a profit.

We’ve eaten their thrice so far, the wait times have been around 30 mins to order after 13:00 (1pm), or before noon. And it’s run around 150¥ (23$ USD) for both of us: 1 standard bacon cheeseburger, 1 mini-cheeseburger and a soda. Cheap by US standards, expensive by China standards.

Their burgers are #1 in Shanghai IMO. Huge double beef monsters just dripping with grease on a bun that tries its best to soak it all up. And the topping are all free: lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, onions, pickels, etc. Their fries are better than anywhere else with massive servings that they just dump into the bag. They’re real fries with skin and all the odd imperfections of a real potato, not mass-produced clone fries other Fast Food places server (you know who).

Their hotdogs are just meh. But they’re a burger joint after all.

Five Guys apparently didn’t come into this with eyes wide-shut. They don’t currently have a WeChat App for ordering, so only accept walk-ins and no delivery. Seems they knew they would be overwhelmed and wouldn’t have the supply to handle anything else at the moment.

They also limit purchases to 300¥ per person. This is to help cut down on scalping – a real problem with high-demand food and items here. People have been known to get in line and buy thousands of yuan worth of product and then take it right out front and scalp it on the street for many times its price. Then go back in and do it again.

The wait times are also shorter because its so much larger inside than Popeyes, and they have staff to shuffle out lollygaggers who would just sit and peck at their phones for hours on end. You know the type: phone-zombies.

Now, just hope they open a half-a-dozen more (with one near us) in the next few months!