First stop was Shake Shack in Covent Garden (https://www.shakeshack.com/location/london-covent-garden/).
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| Shake Shack |
Since opening Shake Shack UK has had mixed reviews so it's time for the meat memoirs to weigh in.
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| Shake Shack |
Even after a year of being open there's a lot of hype around this store as it is the only one in the UK. Arriving mid-Friday afternoon hoping to avoid any lunch time rush there was still a queue out of the door. Joining the queue I was handed a menu to read from so you're ready to order when you reach the till.
The menu is fairly simple in terms of food. Burger or hot dog, with optional fries or cheese fries on the side. All burgers are available as double or singles with options to add additional cheese or bacon if desired.
All the burger options seem very similar and don't seem to offer much selection. There's a
- Plain cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato (£4.75 single / £7.75 double)
- Shack Burger, a cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato with Shacksauce (£5.00 single / £8.00 double)
- SmokeShack, cheeseburger with smoked bacon and chopped pepper topped with Shacksauce (£7.00 single / £10.00 double)
- Shroomburger (v), fried mushroom filled with cheese and topped with lettuce, tomato and Shacksauce (£5.25)
- Shack Stack, a combination of a cheeseburger and a shroom burger (£8.00)
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| Menu |
There's a bit more variation in the hot dogs but the meat memoirs are here to try the burgers.
Selecting a drink wasn't too easy with a huge selection of milkshakes and frozen custards to choose from. With shakes being part of their name it was hoped that their milkshakes would be the speciality so I selected a strawberry milkshake.
The queue moved quite quickly into the very small, exposed brickwork shop. The menu fills the wall behind you but it's not very easy to stand back and take in within such a small shop. It makes sense why they give you a menu while you wait.
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| Kitchen Area |
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| Wall Menu |
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| Wall Menu |
Placed my order for a SmokeShack and an optional cheesy fries, and the strawberry milkshake to wash it down. Handed over the money and in return you receive a device which flashes and vibrates when your meal is ready, as you usually get in some restaurants to inform you that your table is ready.
After this the process of finding a seat and collecting the food was a little complicated. With a couple of people or a group it might be easier as there isn't a lot of seating for the Shake Shack due to its location, so when a table becomes free one of you could grab the table and the other get the food. On my own I couldn't do both. So wasn't sure what to do. In the end I opted for a table when one finally became free then once my buzzer sounded to inform me that my food was ready a member of staff kindly offered to get my food for me. Food is collected from a window in the side of the kitchen which is clearly labelled.
There seemed to be a lot of people waiting for a table, it's not very clear that there's seating to both sides of the shop and within the shop next door which is available to customers.
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| Seating to the front of the store |
Once I received my food I was a little underwhelmed by the sizes of the portions. The burger didn't look very big, and the milkshake came in quite a small cup.
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| Order |
Fries first as they looked tempting. The liquid cheese on top looked great and the crinkle cut fries were unexpected. The cheese is soft runny american style cheese, and the heavily salted fries have a great crunch to them.
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| Cheese Fries (£3.75) |
After all the salt on those, a slurp of shake was needed. The milkshake is so thick the straw is almost useless. Putting "shakes" in their name you expect the milkshake to be outstanding but the flavour wasn't really strong enough and it tasted more like ice-cream than anything else. Rather disappointing for £5.00.
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| Strawberry Milkshake (£5.00) |
Finally, onto the burger.
The small size was obvious before even unwrapping the burger. Open the paper to find the thin meat patty within a cheap style bun, and topped with a cheap cheese slice, much like you'd get at McDonalds. The chopped peppers and Shakesauce (Shake Shacks own burger sauce) added a bit of extra flavour but nothing else really stood out. The taste of the bacon was none existent.
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| Smoke Shack burger (£7.00) |
Conclusion
Overall Shake Shack was very disappointing. If their popularity is ongoing due to word of mouth I don't know how its gone on so long serving small portions like this for these prices. The meat is decent enough quality but the patty sizes are no bigger than many other fast food outlets. The milkshakes are more like ice-cream which adds to the disappointment, especially for the small sizes of the cups. The cheesy fries were the best part of the meal.
For the price there's much better food to be had in London. I'd read a lot of reviews about poor customer service prior to visiting Shake Shack. I have to say the staff on my visit were very friendly and helpful so I have no criticisms there. Shack Shack are obviously busy though and there's obviously a market for these American chains within the UK. Having tried it once though I can't say I'll be back for more next time I'm in London.
Meat rating; 3/10
Money for meat; Paid in Full
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