Shake Shack, London

In between all the eating we do in London manage to squeeze in a bit of frenzied London sightseeing. The thing with sightseeing though is that it's hungry work...

Is is tragic that one of the food places I was MOST excited about visiting in London was Shake Shack - my beloved Shack Shake that I fell in love with in NYC?  It seems like fate that Shake Shack opened up their first UK restaurant mere moments before I arrived in London.

Located in the bustling Covent Garden area of London I feared that we'd face epic, New York-esque, type queues. Thankfully we didn't...and we even found a seat really easily in The Piazza where Shake Shack is located. I think London knew I was feeling blue and decided to cut me some slack.

Behold the buzzer of future happiness!

And behold the tray of greater happiness! I cannot tell you how happy I was right at this moment...but it was pretty darn happy let me tell you!

We start off with a tray of crinkle cut chips with cheddar cheese sauce (GBP 3.50).  I love "the shack's" crinkle cut fries as they remind me of the rustic style of chips of childhood (that makes me sound really old, but you know what I mean). I actually think these fries were better than those I had in NYC (yes, really)! The chips were more crunchy and I loved the velvety, rich cheese sauce.

For old times sake I just had to have the Cheeseburger (GBP 4.75). The burger comes plain, with just a meat patty and a slice of cheese.  For no extra cost you can choose to add pickles (an absolute must), onion (good, but not necessary), lettuce and tomato (get that salad OFF my cheeseburger I say).  I enjoyed every single mouthful of this burger - especially how soft the bun was.  A soft bun is something we just don't seem to get quite right here in Australia...Mary's is the closet to bun perfection I've had in Sydney.

I bet your wondering if this burger was good as Shake Shack in NYC. It's close...but not quite. But beggars can't be choosers can they?

I'd been hyping up how awesomely amazing Shack Shack was to The Boy so I was VERY relieved to report that he really enjoyed his Smoke Shack (GBP 6.50). It didn't blow his mind, but he loved it enough to order a second one when I went back for a sneaky second burger. The Smoke Shack is a pimped out Cheeseburger topped with British free range Wiltshire cure smoked bacon, chopped cherry peppers and Shack Sauce. I had a taste of this - it was SO good, really flavoursome and the smokey bacon was genius.

For my second burger (aka "dessert") I decided to try the Shack Burger (GBP 5.00) - a Cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato and and Shack Sauce (not sure what Shack Sauce is but it's goood)!  I also added a pickle to my burger because, well...just because.

And this post, my friends, explains why I put on 5kgs in just one month in Europe. French cheese, Rilette of every type, Scottish deep fried Mars Bars...and now Shack Shake in London. 

You'll find Shake Shack at 24, Market Building, The Piazza, Covent Garden, London.