In-N-Out competition?

You might not have heard of Five Guys Burgers and Fries, but East Coast burger aficionados have been giving the place INO-type accolades for years (the Washington Post calls it “the Willy Wonkas of burgercraft”). Well, Five Guys is now in Socal. Its first store opened over the weekend in Carson, and the OC Register's Nancy Luna is impressed.

While the burgers were just as tasty as In-N-Out, Five Guys is still very different from INO. First of all, it’s menu is highly customizable — offering about a dozen toppings and sauces from fried onions to A-1 sauce. Also, the fries (fresh from Idaho and fried in peanut oil) are much more superior than INO’s potato chip-tasting French fries. In some ways, I’d compare the Five Guys order experience to that of eating at The Counter, a chic custom burger joint with locations in Irvine and Santa Monica.

A second Five Guys is slated for Cerritos later this year. Phil Ratner, former president of Marie Callender's, has the rights to open 30 of them in Southern California.