Shake Shack – Burgers, Upper West Side

Posted on January 7, 2009 by justinrhyme

Shake Shack
366 Columbus Ave at 77th St

Pricing: Cheap
Venue: Sit Down / Take Out
Cuisine: Burger Joint
Favorite Dish(es): Strawberry Milkshake ($5.25), French Fries ($2.75)

People have been waiting for the opening of the new uptown Shake Shack for, well… as long as they typically wait in line at the original location in Madison Square Park. The Upper West side location boasts some meager indoor seating in a fast food style setup, with some New York touches. There is still usually a line, but there are two cashiers and they keep it moving. They give you a buzzer to let you know when your order is ready, which is a nice touch. They serve some good local draft and bottled beers, and wine, but you’ll want to make sure to save some room for a milkshake, which is, in our opinion, their best offering. Their burgers are ok, but too greasy – they’re the small, picnic bbq size kind on a potato roll that is either buttered or soaked in extra burger grease. They’re made of decent ground beef, juicy and cooked right, but nothing to write home about. The “Shack burger” ($4.75) comes with yellow american cheese and their special sauce, which I guess is something akin to McDonald’s orange special sauce. Their burgers just left us wanting more [J.G. Melon's perhaps?]. The fries, however, were really good, crispy, and well salted, which is usually hard to find in the crinkle cut variety. This brings us to the piece-de-resistance of the meal, the strawberry milkshake. It’s SUPER suck-your-brains-out thick, with some malt to add some texture and more flavor, and tastes a bit salty for that deadly salty/sweet combination. We will definitely come back for their milkshakes, but your doctor would probably not recommend more than one a week. They also serve frozen custards, a different flavor every day, but we were too sugared out from the milkshake to try anything else. Overall, for burgers Shake Shack is decent but we’ve had better in the city – stay tuned for our upcoming post rounding up the best burger spots in NYC.