5 Ordering Tips To Get The Best Five Guys Burger

Five Guys may have a reputation for high prices, but there's no arguing the quality of this fast-food fare. The chain continues to dominate the burger industry, from its humble beginnings in 1986 to operating over 1,900 locations worldwide. While similar establishments struggle with lagging sales and decreased customer satisfaction, Five Guys is going strong. You can walk into any location and order a satisfying burger right off the menu, but why stop there? These burger hacks and secret orders will take your taste buds to a whole new level. 

From an impossibly cheesy sandwich to customizable condiments and a killer combo of toppings, we're excited to try these tips the next time we find ourselves in Burger Elysium. Keep in mind, we can't guarantee every Five Guys restaurant will honor all special orders and requests. And like always, exhibit kindness when asking for special items and respond graciously if the fast-food worker is unable to comply. 

Five Guys is known for its juicy burgers, but a grilled cheese sandwich has also been a longtime feature of the chain's menu. In league with Five Guys secret menu orders like the Chicago-style hot dog and steak frites, this sandwich is integral to a cheesy burger hack. When ordering a grilled cheese in the restaurant or online, add a burger patty for about $2.20 to make it a melt. You can include other toppings according to your preferences, such as pickles, grilled onions, or even bacon. 

Some ordering hacks become so popular that they lead to a menu update, and that's precisely what happened with Five Guys' secret sandwich. The restaurant officially introduced the Patty Melt in 2024. However, we prefer the old version for a simple reason: cheese. While it looks perfectly tasty, the Patty Melt is essentially a cheeseburger with a toasted, inside-out bun. Conversely, the hacked sandwich contains an almost dangerous amount of cheese. When it comes to cost, both the Patty Melt and the hacked grilled cheese total around $8.59 (depending on the location). That's rather pricey, but the reason Five Guys is so expensive is the chain's insistence on using fresh ingredients. 

Anyone who has visited a Five Guys knows you get an obscene volume of fries with your order. Five Guys fries are also decidedly delicious, and their appeal is attributed to careful spud selection and painstaking cooking techniques, among other factors. We're of the opinion that everything can be a burger topping if you try hard enough, so why not use those auxiliary fries to add some more heft to your meal? In doing so, you'll partially recreate a beloved regional delicacy: the Pittsburgh sandwich. 

The inspiration for this secret order can be found in our roster of the best sandwich cities in the U.S.  The Pittsburgh sandwich was made famous by a local chain called Primanti Bros., and reportedly conceived during the Great Depression. Adding fries to sandwiches made them more robust, and it also allowed truckers at the time to enjoy their entire meal — fries and all — in a graspable package. If you don't happen to live in one of the five states with Primanti Bros. locations (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, and Florida), adding a clutch of fries to a Five Guys burger is perhaps the best alternative.

If you couldn't tell from the variety of free toppings the chain offers, Five Guys is big on customization. In addition to adorning your burger with pickles, lettuce, onions, hot peppers, tomatoes, and grilled mushrooms, patrons also have several sauces to choose from. While each sauce is lovely on its own, these condiments can be combined to create a bespoke burger accompaniment. A small word of advice: your best bet is to order these sauces on the side and do your own mixing. Having them directly added to the burger may not sufficiently combine them, and you may also end up with a hopelessly messy meal.

Thanks to its somewhat neutral (yet tangy) flavor and creamy texture, mayonnaise makes a nice base for condiment experimentation. Adding a smidge of ketchup will recreate the beloved but controversial Mayochup condiment, which pairs well with both burgers and fries. To approximate a Thousand Island dressing flavor, mix in some relish as well. If you like meatier tastes, combine A.1. Steak Sauce with mayonnaise. You can also create a spicy mayo by blending the condiment with hot sauce. 

Did you know Five Guys allows patrons to add up to 17 toppings to their orders? While we don't recommend it from a structural standpoint (burgers should be wider, not taller), diners can merge different toppings to create new flavor profiles. That leads us to our next ordering hack: the Five Guys Southwest burger. We recommend starting with the plain hamburger as your foundation, as we worry the restaurant's sole American-style cheese option could clash with the Southwest flavor profile. 

As for toppings, the chain's fresh, hand-chopped jalapeños are a must, though customers can also ask for their hot peppers to be grilled instead. Like the jalapeños, chopped onions at Five Guys can be served raw or grilled, depending on your preference, though raw onions might work better with this hack. Five Guys doesn't carry salsa, unfortunately, but a splash of hot sauce with a little barbecue sauce can increase the heat and smokiness of your burger. For a bit of cooling crunchiness, don't forget the lettuce. 

Although Five Guys doesn't have a veggie burger in the traditional sense, the chain does offer a vegetarian-friendly dish. The veggie sandwich features lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, grilled onions, and grilled mushrooms on a toasty sesame seed bun. Customers can add other veggies, like raw onions and jalapeños, but we have a slightly unhinged suggestion for the carnivores out there. If you prefer your vegetables to come with beef, consider asking for an à la carte burger patty with this sandwich. 

You won't be able to request the patty on the app, as Five Guys doesn't offer it with the veggie sandwich. And, according to a Five Guys staffer on Reddit, their restaurant no longer has the option of adding a solo patty to orders at cash registers. That doesn't mean your "veggie burger" hack will be thwarted; you just may need to pay more than $2.20 (what patrons are typically charged for adding a patty to a grilled cheese sandwich) to add the burger. One Reddit commenter stated, "My guess is so a solo patty has to be rung up as a no bun bowl, little [hamburger] or HB [hamburger]. Makes more money that way."