The One Thing You Should Always Put On Your Five Guys Burger

There's no wrong way to enjoy a Five Guys burger, and the Arlington, Virginia-based burger chain is rapidly growing in popularity. Five Guys has been around for over 30 years and has built a reputation on using never-frozen beef and giving customers a ridiculous amount of french fries with their order. 

When it comes to ordering that absolutely perfect, mouth-watering, burger, the sheer number of toppings at a person's disposal can be a little overwhelming. If you haven't been to your local Five Guys in a while, there are 15 toppings customers can choose from. That might not seem too crazy, but with a mind-boggling 250,000 different ways of ordering your Five Guys burger, the potential burger possibilities are ridiculous. 

It would remiss if we didn't mention that when it comes to those 15 toppings, they're free — all of them. That's right, mayo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, mustard, relish, onions, jalapenos, green peppers, Bar-B-Que sauce, hot sauce, and A1 steak sauce is all free. You can stack up your burger with all 15 toppings if you like. You had better ask for a knife and fork if you do though, because there's no way you're getting your mouth around that delicious hot mess.  

Crafting that perfect Five Guys burger is no small task, though, and it's going to be better to walk in with a game plan rather than simply asking for everything and hoping it works out. First off, you're going to need bacon. As you may have noticed, bacon is not one of those 15 toppings that you get for free. The world is a flawed place though, and that's just how it works out here. So in order to make this work, you'll need to order a Five Guys' Little Bacon Cheeseburger. 

Why the Little Bacon Cheeseburger and not the Little Bacon Burger? Well, just like bacon, cheese is also not one of those free toppings. It's a universal truth that cheeseburgers are superior to regular hamburgers, and the cheese will be needed to act as a glue to hold the bacon and some of those other toppings in place. 

You can order the double patty if you like, but it's a little excessive, especially if you plan on eating fries or find yourself regularly munching on the free peanuts beforehand. Trust us, you'll regret it if you fill up on free peanuts and find that the double patty is too much to handle. 

Now when it comes to the all-important "one thing" that you should always put on your Five Guys burger, that one thing is actually the greater sum of five individual toppings. With their food powers combined, these five toppings deliver the tastiest burger you could imagine. Next time you're in Five Guys, order that Little Bacon Cheeseburger and tell them to put on grilled onions, lettuce, and ketchup. 

Okay, so we did say there's no wrong way to enjoy a Five Guys burger, but there is a superior way, and it includes the ingredients that were mentioned above. Don't scoff and tell that teenager working behind the counter at Five Guys you'll have it "all the way" just yet — hear us out first. 

Ordering the Little Bacon Cheeseburger will highlight the flavor of the beef because it works so well with the saltiness of the bacon. Now some folks think lettuce has no place on a burger, but if you specify that you want the lettuce on the very bottom against the bun, it will work as a shield so that your bun doesn't become a soggy mess (via Lifehacker). Skip the tomato and opt for ketchup. The juices from a fresh tomato can turn a burger bun into a huge mess quickly, and burger experts seem to agree that ketchup is the better choice for flavor anyway (via The Guardian)

Now Five Guys offers the option of raw onions, but grilled onions are going to add a lot more flavor that pairs well with the bacon. Thrillist writer Kevin Alexander, who claims to have reviewed "every major chain cheeseburger," says Five Guys has a habit of not grilling the onions long enough for them to caramelize, so asking them to be "extra grilled" might not be a bad idea. The cheese will help to hold those awesome grilled onions in place and keep them from completely spilling out of the burger. It's worth noting that cheese, lettuce, onions, and ketchup were the top Five Guys burger toppings on Ranker, and for good reason — they work. 

There you have it, the one Five Guys burger topping combo that is a must. Feel free to branch out if you like, but we're betting you'll find that this perfect simplicity is all you need.