What's The Difference Between Fast Food And Fast Casual Restaurants?

Picture yourself driving home from work on a Tuesday night. You're starving and tired after a hell of a day, and you want a quick burger. You don't want any old McDonald's Quarter Pounder though, you want a juicy Five Guys burger. That subtle difference in quality between McDonald's and Five Guys? That's where the difference between fast food and fast casual lies.

It's somewhat similar to how all champagne is sparkling wine but only sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France can be called champagne. So too, all fast casual places are technically fast food but not all fast food places can be considered fast casual. To discuss the litany of nuanced similarities and differences that make that statement true would take all day, so for purposes of brevity, let's narrow the focus to the differences between fast food and fast casual's quality of food, and the experience of being at the restaurants from beginning to end.

Circling back to McDonald's and Five Guys as examples, starting with food quality, McDonald's uses frozen beef patties while Five Guy's doesn't even have freezers to begin with. Frozen beef is almost always worse than fresh, but by sacrificing this quality, McDonald's can move faster than Five Guys and keep their costs lower. However, using fresh beef is one reason Five Guys is among the best burger chains in the U.S. while McDonald's doesn't make the list.

But, that fast service and low cost (well, maybe not while McDonald's keeps raising prices) is one of the key experiences of hitting a fast food place for dinner. The food isn't that great, but you don't even have to get out of your car to collect it. Meanwhile, almost none of Five Guy's restaurants have a drive-thru, so you're forced to go in, plus it takes time to get your food because they make it to order and burgers are always well done. But, unlike McDonald's usually spartan interiors, Five Guys makes itself a place you'd actually want to stay to eat at, from free peanuts to comfy seats and the ability to watch the cooks work. That enjoyable atmosphere and the food more worth waiting for? That's the fast-casual way.