After a long work week, I decided I'd head over to the Fashion Mall to check out Central Indiana's latest Shake Shack, a New York-based chain that only entered our market this year with its first spot up in Fishers.
This spot is located inside the Fashion Cafe in the spot that previously housed Tesla and directly next to a now vacant spot that was Shapiro's.
While I think most people have heard of Shake Shack, for those not in the know this is basically considered one of the better burger joints. I'd probably call it fast food at fast casual pricing, though the food is probably just a notch above actual fast food.
I will admit that I'd been a little underwhelmed at the Fishers spot and I was anxious to try this location. In my opinion, this location is warmer and a little more inviting. They had quite a few employees working and the hospitality was on high.
As you enter, there's a set of kiosks where you can order if you're paying by credit card or you can go straight forward and order at a cash register. They had two registers and both were steady though not quite seeing the overwhelming crush that the Fishers spot saw in its opening days.
I decided to order at a kiosk. The kiosk set-up is surprisingly wheelchair friendly and at a decent level. The menu is very logical and easy to use. I will admit I'm typically a service kind of guy, but I do like this convenience. They take your name and number and then they text you (and call your name) when the order is ready.
I ordered a double burger with crinkle-cut fries and a large iced tea. I only had to wait a few minutes and I was also pleased that an employee offered to carry the tray.
The layout is pretty relaxed. There's rows of tables on both sides of the dining room with the kiosks in the middle. I wouldn't say the tables are super wheelchair-friendly, though they're not bad and they are at a good height.
You can get your condiments, napkins, and straws at a small area by the pick-up spot.
I've still never figured out if they do refills on drinks and it does seem like the layout lends itself toward more of a quicker dining experience. This is more relaxing than Fishers, at least to me, because the spacing is better, there's also seating out in the mall, and the acoustics are considerably better here. It's still fairly loud, but it's much more tolerable.
I enjoyed the meal. It came in at about $13 - the burger was delicious. The fries were tasty and the drink was solid. I'd say the burger is in the Steak n' Shake range, at least before the current owner completely tanked Steak n' Shake's quality.
I would easily return here and because this is a mall there's ample accessible parking, automatic doors, and overall the wheelchair friendliness is very high here. They had a couple kiosks that weren't operational yet and you could tell that folks are still learning, but this was a solid experience and a better meal and better customer service than I experienced at Fishers. I'd say that Fashion mall easily has the best food court type setting in Central Indiana and the addition of Shake Shack is a definite home run for this mall. read more