I only got a few more NYC eateries to blog about then I’ll be done for now. Shake Shack is basically the west coast’s equivalent to In-N-Out. The one we visited was the original Shake Shack that sits in the middle of some sort of park near Eleven Madison. For a rather chilly day, there was still a long line of people that took approximately 30 minutes for us to get our food. We had time to kill, so why not?
I’m basing my memory from February. From what I remember, there weren’t many choices just like In N Out. I wonder if there was any tricks to ordering e.g. animal style or extra crispy fries like what In N Out does, but I decided to play it by the menu.
I ordered the regular single patty shake shack burger, cheese fries, and a black & white shake with peanut butter sauce. Yes, it’s sugar and calorie overload. It’s pretty expensive for a burger, fries, and shake.
Food
And here we have it. The size of the burger is definitely smaller than an In N Out single patty. The fries had hot cheese wiz type of sauce on it. The shake is similar to an In N Out shake, so it wasn’t something I was impressed by. Back to the burger, the bun was pretty good. It tasted like it was buttered on the pan similar to FuddRuckers. The actual meat patty was pretty small. Probably slightly smaller than a McDonald’s quarter pounder. I liked how the cheese melt over the patty though. The tomato slices were thick and fresh. But all in all, this made the burger slightly smaller than my hand. It tasted fresh and good. It doesn’t have that greasy feeling to it that In N Out’s usually has. The fries were pretty good, but I think I still prefer In N Out’s. The shake was probably the most unmemorable part, but then again I’m not a huge fan of shakes in general.
Final Verdict
In the end, I thought Shake Shack was good but not for $15. Comparatively, In N Out’s double patty combo is around $7. I also feel In N Out still has better burgers and fries. I can’t say much for shakes, but I don’t have a sweet tooth and I didn’t feel this was that sweet at all. I do hope that this small burger chain make it out to the west coast some day as another alternative. Right now, I’d say the only other competitor is Five Guys, which is terrible.
Revisions
- Apr 29, 2012 - Initial revision.