Shake Shake: A Review

I ate dinner last night at the new Shake Shack on the Upper West Side (Columbus and 78th). It was good. I ordered a double Shake burger with an order of fries and a malted Black and White shake.

The line wasn't terrible when I got there at 8:15pm, but it was significant enough where I had to wait a bit. From the time I got onto the line until the time I got my food was about 20 minutes. The presentation is, of course, very basic. Just our burgers and fries on a tray with the burgers barely wrapped in paper. But the burgers were very very well done. I don't mean cooked well done. I mean the burgers were just the right amount of juiciness for me with just the right amount of condiments. What I liked especially were the potato buns which weren't huge in comparison to the tastiness and soaked up a lot of said juices. By the end of the burger, the buns were flattened down to next to nothing, the better to enjoy your heart attack.

The fries were just fries. Crispy and tasty, but not extraordinary.

The shakes, on the other hand, were sublime. I guess you'd expect that from a place called Shake Shack but sometimes names suck. They use custard or something rather than ice cream so the shakes are thick and cool but drinkable and delicious. Compare this to your normal ice cream shake which is so cold it gives you a headache and so thick it won't go through a straw.

All in all, a great meal but not one I'd wait for a long time on a line for. My next stop for burgers is the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien hotel, which Ali has been raving about.