Seattle Burger Review: Shake Shack (mostly) lives up to the hype

I’m on a mission to find the best burger in the city of Seattle. I travel to various burger joints within city limits and rate the establishment’s most popular burger on a scale of 1-10. Of all the measures I use, taste is most important.

When reviewing burgers, it’s important to avoid the allure of a national brand. Shake Shack has the famous name and locations across the country. However, until their two planned spots open up, they have just one location in the entire Pacific Northwest: South Lake Union.

I ordered the ShackBurger, which is essentially a cheeseburger. To date, this is the second-smallest burger I’ve reviewed. I was a little disappointed to see it only took up about an eighth of the tray handed to me after I had to wait through that horrible Kiosk line, which went out the door during the lunch-hour rush. I can guarantee you, the struggle just to get the burger will have no effect on my review.

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The taste jumps out right away. The magic of the burger is the charred-over exterior. You can’t see it because they melt the cheese over, but you can definitely taste it. I would describe the inside of the patty as ‘approaching medium.’

The ShackBurger is 100 percent all-natural Angus beef, and comes with American cheese, lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce. It could probably use some onions. The bun is soft and tastes likes a dinner roll.

The patty doesn’t resemble a normal burger; it’s flat, but the borders are arbitrarily angular. I appreciated that, because it gives it an anti-fast-food, anti-factory-made feeling.

The ShakeSauce is really good. The fries are basic crinkle-cut fries and lack something special; I didn’t touch them until my burger was fully devoured. The vegetables are only supplemental as all of your attention will be brought to the meat and sauce.

For a single patty (which I chose) you’ll pay $5.59. To double it up, you’ll pay $8.59. Next time I go there, I will buy a double without hesitation because the single won’t fill you up.

Before going to the restaurant, two people told me they had eaten at Shake Shack outside of Washington and didn’t really like it. But one of those two people told me the Washington version is much better. Again, don’t let pre-conceived notions stop you from trying a burger joint. I would recommend the ShackBurger to anyone.

Biggest strength(s): Charred-over surface, ShakeSauce, bun

Biggest weakness(s): Size, could use onions

I’ll give the ShackBurger from Shake Shack an 8/10.

What do you think of their burger? Where should I go next? Tweet me @NewProducerTom on Twitter.

Past reviews: 8oz Burger (7.5/10), Little Big Burger (8/10), Uneeda Burger (5/10), Li’l Woody’s (7/10), CaliBurger (6/10)