The hype behind Shake Shack was absolutely enormous. The buzz around town was that Shake Shack had the best burger around and would take over the nice variety of burger chains and restaurants that are in the local Boston area.

And so, our expectations were high for this New York-based burger joint. Did it meet the expectations?

The line was long, a standard feature of the restaurant during busy hours of the day, and it took about 25 minutes to get into the building and place an order. The restaurant was noisy and very crowded.

Wooden bench seating added an upscale feel while allowing many patrons to eat in comfort. Food was served quickly, and the restaurant team handed buzzers to each member of our group after we placed our orders.

For someone who has extremely high standards for burgers (McDonald’s burgers don’t really do it for me), the burger was good. Although the patties on the burgers were slightly small for the price, there was a large variety of choices for burgers.

The most unique burger was the Shack Burger ($4.75 single/$7.30 double), which features the signature Shack Sauce. The burger was juicy and greasy (which can be a pro or con, depending on what you look for in a burger) and tasted ever so slightly sweet.

The milkshakes ($4.75-$5.50) were solid, literally. It was difficult to drink through a straw. We resorted to spoons. They paled in comparison to UBurger’s shakes, which are more liquidy and offer a bigger portion for a smaller price.

The Dapper Dog ($4) was, for the price, a solid buy, and the frankfurter was well cooked and cut evenly in half, allowing the cheese sauce and onions to fall into the center of the sausage. However, the sauce and onions were of large proportion to the relatively small frankfurter and dulled down the flavor of an otherwise excellent hot dog.

Shake Shack uses crinkled fries with the option to have melted cheese on top. The fries were frozen, pre-processed fries that did not have that fresh taste you get at a place like Tasty Burger or Five Guys. They were still pretty good, but for a burger joint that is hyped to be one of the best, it just did not meet expectations.

That seems to be a running theme with Shake Shack: big hype and expectations, but a failure to meet that bar. Shake Shack was a pretty good burger joint, but it definitely did not meet the hype that surrounded it when it came to town and is definitely not worth the wait that could last up to an hour during dinner time.

There are so many delicious burger places where the line is shorter, and the food is better and cheaper. Unless you are really craving an overrated, small and expensive burger, Shake Shack is not worth the hassle.

49 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
(617) 651-3406
Mon-Sun 11a.m. -11p.m.

Joon Lee and Anthony Poluyanoff can be contacted at [email protected]