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Shake Shack

August 28, 2012 by Jennifer Che 10 Comments

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This is the seventh post in the Eating the Big Apple series. Other posts include Soba Koh, Sylvia’s Restaurant (Gospel Brunch), Torrisi Italian Specialties, Ippudo,Tasty Hand Pulled Noodle, and Il Buco Alimentari & Vinera.

Who has the best burger?

It’s a touchy, touchy subject. Those from the West Coast (like my husband) swear by In & Out, citing their soft buns, high quality meat, and the variety of secret “off-menu” styles that are available. Friends from the DC area absolutely love Five Guys, a burger joint originally from Virginia that offers generously sized burgers with a wide variety of fresh, high quality toppings.

Up until this point, those were the only two I had tried. Bryan always insisted on stopping by In & Out every time we were in California, and I have several friends who are so obsessed about Five Guys (this is a couple years back), we would regularly make the trip to Dedham from Cambridge just for a bite of that burger.

Yet I would always hear about Shake Shack.

New Yorkers rave about Shake Shack. Fans point to the soft potato bun and deliciously juicy beef patty. Apparently their shakes are incredible too. Lines are notoriously long.

This past year Bryan and I finally tried Shake Shack. We visited twice – once at the original location in Madison Square Park and once at a newer location in the theater district (not too far from Times Square!).
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Shake Shack is definitely a more recent phenomenon, starting as just a simple hot dog cart in Madison Square Garden to support the garden’s first art installation. It became so popular that, in 2004, Shake Shack obtained permission to open a permanent kiosk right inside the park.
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Since then, the lines have been notoriously long (the guy with the Lakers shirt above is at the end of the line). Don’t be surprised if you have to wait 15-20 minutes for your burger. Thankfully, there are two lines. If you’re just there for shakes, ice cream, or drinks, you can actually go into the much shorter line.
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Their namesake burger “The Shackburger” (shown below), is a cheeseburger served with lettuce, tomatoes, and “Shack Sauce” (a ketchupy-mayo-like sauce with other spices).
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Their burgers are cooked medium by default unless if you request otherwise. Frankly, I thought medium was just perfect. The potato bun is super soft and goes down quite easily with the juicy burger. The vegetables are all fresh, and overall, it’s a great burger.
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Their version of a hot dog – the Shack-cago dog- is topped with relish, cucumber, pickle, tomato, onions, sport pepper, celery salt, and mustard. It also uses the same type of potato bun. I’m really not a hot dog connoisseur, so I’ll guess this is similar to a Chicago-style hot dog? (Yes, I’m embarrassed to say I was raised a Midwesterner and I don’t know the answer to that . . .)
Untitled
They serve all sorts of frozen custard. For some reason, this particular one I got was a bit melted, which made me sad. One time before, I had tried one delectable, single spoonful of perfect custard at the other location (they were passing out free samples), so I knew it could be better than this.

Perhaps this was an anomaly?

Bryan told me to go and get a new one, but I really didn’t feel like standing in line again.

So I ate the melty one. The flavors of the custard were nice, but the melted, messy nature of the custard sort of ruined the texture and enjoyment of the dessert for me.
Untitled
They had messed up our order and accidentally gave us a root beer float, which they let us keep. Bryan actually loves floats so he thought it was great. Me, I like my ice cream nicely solid. Why “melt” it with liquid and ruin a good thing? 😉
Shake Shack
We visited one of the newer Shake Shack indoor “brick and mortar” locations in the theater district. This one is pretty close to Times Square (it’s at 44th street and 8th Avenue). We stopped by here for a quick bite right before heading out to Penn Station (34th street) to take the train back to Boston.
Shake Shack
This Shake Shack is trendy and modern inside, especially when compared to the outdoor benches at the Madison Square Garden location.
Shake Shack
The lines are still ridiculously long and very often snake outside the door. They have those line-organizing barriers (like at Disneyworld!) to keep everything in order. Crazy!!
Shake Shack
The seating area is reasonably large, and people eat quickly, so it wasn’t too hard to find a seat.
Shake Shack Burger
Bryan got the crazy ShackStack® – a cheeseburger and a ’Shroom Burger topped with lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce. It was alright, with fresh ingredients and quality components, but Bryan thought it was a bit too crazy. It’s virtually impossible to put that thing in your mouth, it’s messy, and at the end of the day, it just wasn’t as good as a simple cheeseburger.

“It tastes like a veggie burger with meat on top” – Bryan Che
Shake Shack Cheeseburger
I got the a single cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. It was just the right size and pretty darn good.
Shake Shack

Thoughts
We both really enjoyed our burgers at Shake Shack. They definitely make a solid burger at a good price point ($4.55 for a single, $7.10 for a double cheeseburger). I can totally see why the lines are so long.

Having said that, Bryan still prefers In & Out. He didn’t really like the beloved potato buns. He thought they were too “airy”. He also is a huge fan of the “animal style” burger at In & Out (grilled onions, special “sauce”), and hasn’t yet found another “fast” burger that quite competes.

Nevertheless, we both agreed that Shake Shack burgers are quite enjoyable and we would most definitely consider stopping by again if we were in New York.

And I still do want to go back and try a full cup of that custard. I am dreaming of a rich, thick and creamy bite without a melty puddle in sight.

Shake Shack
Madison Square Garden
11 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10010
Shake Shack on Urbanspoon
Shake Shack (Ues) on Urbanspoon

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: New York, New York City, Restaurant, Review Tagged With: American, burgers

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Comments

  1. Esther @ambitiousdelish says

    August 28, 2012 at 11:05 am

    I am always in the mood for a good burger and Shake Shack is pretty good about meeting that hunger! 🙂

    I wish they had better fries though!

    Log in to Reply
  2. Jennifer Che says

    August 28, 2012 at 11:20 am

    Yeah, I agree! I still think the fries at Five Guys is the best out of the three mentioned above. In & Out is quite so-so unless if you get the “well-done” fries, which is then not too bad. 🙂

    Log in to Reply
  3. Shannon G says

    August 29, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    have you been to abbott’s?? i knew them from my stint out in rochester, but they opened one up in brighton that i’ve stopped at a few times 🙂

    Log in to Reply
  4. Jennifer Che says

    August 30, 2012 at 1:44 am

    No I have not! Thanks for the heads up. I also heard Shake Shack is opening a location in Chestnut Hill area soon.

    Log in to Reply
  5. Minnie Gupta says

    August 31, 2012 at 6:14 am

    I am not that big of a Burger fan but my little guys love In and Out. Shake Shack sounds like a great option.

    Log in to Reply
  6. chris says

    September 1, 2012 at 6:33 am

    There is no such thing as ‘the best’ of anything – it’s just that people like different things. Some like a cheesy burger, some like a healthy one.

    Chris.

    http://www.foodiebizz.com

    Log in to Reply
  7. T. U. Ed says

    September 5, 2012 at 12:18 am

    Now I’m hungry for a burger! BTW, I can’t figure out the Star system right above the comment box. I keep clicking it, but it just goes down, not up. It’s down to -19 before I gave up. 🙁

    Log in to Reply
  8. Jennifer Che says

    September 5, 2012 at 1:15 am

    Whoa, I never noticed that star thing! I have NO idea what it does. Funny, when I clicked it, it only toggled between 1 star and 2 stars. No idea what that means.

    And you guys have In & Out!!!

    Log in to Reply
  9. Samantha P. says

    September 6, 2012 at 10:51 pm

    Five Guys! 🙂

    Log in to Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Yusho Las Vegas in Monte Carlo - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
    March 18, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    […] flagship restaurant in Vegas to popular burger joints like In & Out or New York’s Shake Shack, a burger stand with a cult-like following that just opened its first location in (where else?) the […]

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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