Shake Shack

A weekend in London provided the opportunity for the meat memoirs to search out and sample the best burgers the capital has to offer. 

First stop was Shake Shack in Covent Garden (https://www.shakeshack.com/location/london-covent-garden/). 

Shake Shack

Shake Shack is a popular and large American chain of restaurants which opened their first UK store in Covent Garden last summer. As the name suggests their speciality is burgers and milkshakes with a huge menu of various shakes, concretes (frozen custard), and ice creams. Along side these they also offer regular drinks, hot dogs and even snacks for your dog if you're bringing your pooch along too.

Since opening Shake Shack UK has had mixed reviews so it's time for the meat memoirs to weigh in. 

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)

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. 

Kitchen Area

Wall Menu

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

@shakeshackUK

Meat rating; 3/10

Money for meat; Paid in Full

Lord of the Pies

Walking into Stockport town centre a little shop with a catchy name caught my eye and I couldn't help but take a quick look inside.

A quick search on the internet for "Lord of the Pies" brought up their two social media links which were full of rave reviews and mentions of their numerous award winning pies. An ideal stop for a lunch time meat then!

The little shop with its clean white and grey appearance outside is a quaint little cafe inside with a small number of timber tables and benches for eating in, or all food is available to take away. The wall to the right has an impressive collection of awards hung on the wall, but does the food live up to these awards?

Lord of the Pies

Interior

Awards

To the back is a small kitchen which looked to be being kept very busy on a Friday-pieday!
The counter displays freshly bagged uncooked pies ready to take away, while to the side there's a hot oven with only a small number of ready to eat pies in it. As they offer cooked pies all day long it proves that the pies aren't all left pre-cooked under a heat lamp all day and that they're continually cooking fresh pies through the day. So the pie you buy probably won't have been out of the oven long.

Uncooked pies

Cooked pies

They have quite a selection of traditional pie flavours each with their individual touch on the recipes. They don't have a set menu online as I presume they often change the flavours available, however to get some idea, there's a link to their September menu at the end of this memoir.
With the pies comes the offering of various traditional side servings such as mashed potato (traditional, cheesy or mustard), mushy peas, braised red cabbage, or red wine gravy.

As well as meat pies and all the sides, they also offer pork pies, sausage rolls, soup of the days and various sweet desserts.

It took some time to decide due to the delicious choice but I opted for the beef and blue cheese pie and a sausage roll (just to compare following the recent sausage roll review in "Butcher the Blog Part 1" here: Meat Memoirs; Butcher the Blog Part 1

The sausage roll was the first thing unwrapped as it didn't feel as hot as the pie. Opening the paper bag exposed a thin but long, broken crusted sausage roll, with a light pink meat inside.
The pastry was seasoned with herbs and very crunchy, no grease at all in these sausage rolls.

Sausage Roll (£1.50)

Taking a bite the flaking pastry made it impossible to avoid making a mess. The soft pork meat inside was obviously of a high quality with no gristle or obvious fatty chunks making up the meat.

Inside the sausage roll

Then it was onto the pie. A very generous size for what is expected to be a top quality pie based on the certificates and awards. Outside the pie pastry and crust is a perfect golden colour with a sprinkling of crumbs and herbs.

Beef & Blue Cheese Pie (£3.25 - takeout / £3.90 eat in)

Cutting open the pie, the thick gravy inside spills out along with the meat suspended within it. And it's a lot of meat! It's instantly obvious that there's a lot more meat in this pie compare to some famous branded pies.

Inside the Beef & Blue pie

Take a bite and the pastry taste is the first taste on the tongue. The herbs and crumbs almost make it taste like a seasoned pizza crust, yet it's crumbly pastry rather than a soft bread. The smooth gravy inside holds the juicy beef which is full of flavour and very well cooked. Like the sausage roll, there's no gristle or chewy meat to be found within the whole pie. Just juicy, mouth watering meat throughout.
The blacksticks blue cheese within these beef and blue pies isn't instantly obvious, but then every now and again you get a hit of it on the pallet. As I ate the pie I thought it could do with a little more blue cheese flavour, but once I'd finished it my mouth was left with the taste of blue cheese more than anything else. This may or may not be the intention of the recipe used to make these pies but it works as it means the cheese doesn't overpower the other flavours of the pie, in particular the juicy meat and gravy, yet your still offered the taste of the cheese.

Conclusion

Lord of the Pies certainly lives up to it's name! Really well seasoned pastries surrounding high quality meats and gravies. These pies are very moreish! If you're a fan of pies then I'd definitely suggest that you give Lord of the Pies a try. Their awards seem well deserved from this first experience! Now to make pieday-Friday a regular thing to sample more of the menu.

Also a comment regarding the exceptionally friendly customer service received within the shop on Friday. The staff were very welcoming and more than happy for me to take a few photos for the meat memoirs. All adds to the great experience received from this small shop.

Here is the September menu which was available at the time of this memoir being written:
Lord of the Pies Menu (September 2014)


Lord of the Pies on Facebook

@LordofthePiesGB


Meat Rating: 10/10 (the first 10 for the Meat Memoirs. Congratulations Lord of the Pies!)

Money for Meat: Paid in Full