This place is unfairly maligned, and I'm not sure why. It must be attracting the wrong kind of…read morecustomers, the kind of people more than happy to regale you for hours on end with their opinion about the seasoning on the tendies at Cane's.
I don't need to know these people personally to be able to name the 10 CDs they owned back in the 1990s. (If they weren't around back in the '90s, obviously I wouldn't want their opinion about anything.)
Shake Shack isn't as good as Hi Pointe, but it's good enough that I wouldn't drive past a Shake Shack to get to a Hi Pointe if, for some reason, I just had to drop a Section 8 rent payment on my lunch.
I was only there yesterday because I was meeting people, and I figured I'd go all out since I might never return. I didn't get the most elaborate sandwich, but more so because the specialty selections sounded, erm, ridiculous to me, to use currently acceptable terminology. But you best believe I got both a shake and the weirdly pale-looking cheese goo on my fries.
I notice they nickel and dime you on various add-ons and options, e.g. whipped cream on your shake and what have you, which seems kinda pathetic, but it still ends up being less than you'd spend at a Five Guys. But that's true of literally anywhere you can shop in 2026, including Hermès.
I appreciate the fact that you can order via kiosk, like at a Panera. It saves you from having to explain how you'd like your sandwich to the staff, which may or may not consist of Ladue residents. (They honestly seemed lovely.) Ordering my Double ShackBurger, I noticed that it comes standard with lettuce and tomato but no pickle or onion, which are available free of charge, so I went ahead and took care of that.
The weird cheese gloop on the fries is only $0.50 extra, but I don't know how necessary it is. As its complexion (so to speak) suggests, it lacks the tang of stadium nacho cheese. It's not bad, but I would have been fine with just ketchup. Crinkle-cut fries are no one's preference (literally no one), but these might be the GOAT crinkle-cut fries. They're crisp to the point where they held up even under the gloop, but they weren't all dried out.
They wanted another $0.50 for the whipped cream on my Cookies and Cream Shake. Are they saving up to go play Pac-Man? The shake was nearly impossible to suck through a straw when I got it (ahem), and that's even before you account for the bits of off-brand Oreo cookie. I wish they'd give you one of those bigger straws, not just a regular soda straw. If they're doing that for the environment, I might have to get the president involved.
For some reason, they made my burger twice. They brought out a tray with everything on it, including my burger, and then later they brought out another burger. As a result, I ended up eating two double cheeseburgers, cheese fries and a shake. It wasn't my finest hour. I shudder to think how many calories I consumed. The guys I was there with (no Diddy), who were all runners, were shocked and appalled.
They're not ginormous burgers, but I notice the buns are a little bit smaller, so the meat and various toppings hang out over the edge. It's an odd bun, weirdly soft and chewy, with a flavor that calls to mind the more premium/non-WIC hot dog buns they carry at the nearby Schnucks. The meat didn't seem to be as high quality as the meat at the aforementioned Hi Pointe, but the toppings were, uh, top notch. Overall, I'd describe the burger as an elevated Dave's Double from Wendy's, which, if you know ball, is the highest compliment you can pay anything, let alone a burger.
I'd be curious to know where people are eating, if they don't like Shake Shack, but maybe I don't want to know? It'll be a while until my system is rid of all that ground beef, and longer still until I've recovered financially.