US Burger Brand Five Guys Takes the Express Chain to West London

In light of veganism’s rapid spread across London’s restaurant industry this year, readers could be forgiven that lovers of fast food had grown tired of real meat. And yet, American burger chain Five Guys would appear not to have received the memo. There is, evidently, still a great appetite for what might soon and necessarily be called a traditional, animal-based burger.

Five Guys UK, the so-called “better burger brand,” has plans to open two new smaller format sites according to a report by MCA. It is understood that they have secured new premises in west London: one in leafy, suburban Richmond; the other on the bourgeois-bohème King’s Road in Chelsea.

MCA say that they have acquired the Urban Diner in Richmond and the BRGRCo. site on the King’s Road — across which they will pilot a “more express format,” where, given their size, there will be a much greater emphasis on takeaway element and as such, less seating. The acquisition of BRGRCo., the Lebanese-American brand, on the King’s Road, means that company will be left with just one London site, on Wardour Street in Soho.

Five Guys arrived in the UK in the summer of 2013, the same week that Shake Shack first landed in London’s Covent Garden. The company currently operate 20 sites in London, with Stratford Westfield shopping centre also said to be opening soon. Across the UK, Five Guys has 78 sites in total, with a total of four sites said to be opening “soon” excluding Richmond and Chelsea.