KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 — Today marks the opening of the second Malaysian outlet for American burger joint Five Guys at the Connection Level 3, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.
What’s on every burger fan’s mind is whether the menu prices are cheaper compared to their Genting Highlands outlet. Sadly it’s just a minimal difference of RM2 less for the menu items, which won’t make much difference to your overall bill.
Labelled by Yahoo UK & Ireland Lifestyle London as “The Best Burger You Have Eaten In Your Life!”, the Five Guys brand prides itself for serving made-to-order burgers using only the freshest and quality ingredients.
The ingredients aren’t frozen but only refrigerated. You have beef burger patties made with a combination of 80:20 lean meat to fat ratio.
Their hand cut fries are made from Holland-grown potatoes that are cooked in peanut oil. There’s also a choice of 15 different types of free toppings, giving you a whopping 250,000 flavour combinations for the burgers.
Even the milk shakes can be customised with eight free mix-ins that can give you about 1,000 flavour combinations.
Back in October last year when the first outlet opened its doors at Genting Highlands, many fans were shocked to see the menu prices.
If you’re ordering a single portion of hamburger, fries and milkshake, it can total up to RM85! A breakdown would be RM35 for a hamburger, RM25 for a regular portion of fries accompanied with a RM25 milkshake.
Fans of the burgers were hoping that with the opening of this outlet in the KL city centre, prices would be more palatable to their wallets.
However the menu prices at Pavilion only show a difference of RM2 for almost all the items. It’s only the price difference for the fries that ranges from RM2 to RM4, depending on which size you order.
Hence your hamburger in Kuala Lumpur is priced at RM33, while the regular fries is RM23 and the milkshakes is RM23, making it a total sum of RM79 you need to fork out at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, compared to RM85 at Genting Highlands.
The high menu prices at Genting Highlands were highlighted by many last year. One Twitter user @RiyadhAshiblie even compared the prices between the US outlets and the Malaysian outlet.
In his tweet, he discovered the Five Guys prices are cheaper in the US compared to Malaysia.
“Yeah the prices in Genting are higher but I still find it ridiculous to pay RM85 whereby it’s RM40 for the cheeseburger, RM30 for a large portion of fries and RM15 for soda, when it is considered as regular fast food by the US.”
He also shared an article from The Cold Wire, highlighting why Five Guys in the US is considered as a premium burger brand.
The article highlighted that one of the factors is due to their policy to stick to freshly made ingredients versus frozen products. Portions are generally bigger too, such as their fries that are enough for two people.
“The savings in materials and labour costs here should also be enough to offset the higher cost of doing business in Genting so I don’t get why the menu items are priced higher than the US. Maybe it’s just the franchisee trying to maximise their profit since the demand is there,” he said in his tweets.
You can find Five Guys at Lot C3.06.01, Level 3, Connection, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, 168, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. Open daily: 11am to 10pm. Tel:+603-23910036. The outlet spans around 2,570 square feet and can seat up to 66 burger-hungry patrons. Website https://www.fiveguys.my Instagram: @fiveguysmy Facebook: @FiveGuysMalaysia
