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McDonalds Next, in Admiralty, Hong Kong.

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  1. #11

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    Any other reviews of Shake Shack? They have just opened here with the usual paid articles saying how wonderful they are.
    A notch above regular McDonalds - its OK. Nothing that special and not worth waiting in line for. Not many other places in town that do a crispy bacon burger.

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    Nothing. It's just not "special". It is your average chain burger and a notch above your regular McDonalds.
    hullexile likes this.

  2. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    A notch above regular McDonalds
    Totally agree here. Loads of brands have made it to that level. Nothing special. A&W, Harvey's, Triple O fit into that category. I actually prefer those over Shake Shack. And to top it all off, they still produce the same amount of garbage than all these ancient brands. One would think a new hipster brand would be more innovative in that regard. Considering their prices, I may as well pay a little extra and settle for a good restaurant burger.

  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by hullexile:
    Any other reviews of Shake Shack? They have just opened here with the usual paid articles saying how wonderful they are.
    They are pretty good. Not as good as Bitters&Sweets, but better than Beef&Liberty imho. I would say they are on par with Butchers Club at half the price.
    Not worth queuing up for as others have said, but then almost no place is. It's fast food and beers, what more can you want? For some reason they are the missus' favorite now, we've eaten there more than at any other burger joint.
    jack55 likes this.

  4. #14

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    Shake Shack is supposed to be a fast food burger done better with fresher ingredients. It achieves that in my opinion. It was founded by a well respected restaurateur from New York.

    Five Guys isn’t hipster, it’s just another burger chain.

    In HK people love to queue and take Insta shots of them at whatever is new. It’s quite irrelevant to whether you’re personally going to like it or not.

    Kowloon Goon likes this.

  5. #15

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    Five Guys isn’t hipster, it’s just another burger chain.

    I don't see bearded bros in McDonalds.

  6. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    I don't see bearded bros in McDonalds.
    What I meant is, in the US Five Guys isn’t hipster, they’re in lots of uncool cities and suburbs. Not sure how they’re marketing themselves here.

  7. #17

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    So are the beef burgers actually made from minced meat with the texture of a good burger. Or are they the same rubbery/ leathery consistency you get in regular McDonald's?

    In regular McDonald's I eat some of their chicken options (GCB, mcspicy, wings) but hate their beef burgers which are so processed you wonder what's in them.

    I'd be willing to try if the comparison to butchers club is true. Love butchers club but they're damn expensive.


  8. #18

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    Having eaten and enjoyed Shake Shack since they first opened their Madison Square Park location, I can definitely understand the hype and the mixed reviews.

    First of all, they're not playing in the same market segment as McDonalds or Burger King. A closer comparison would be the premium / fast casual segment such as a Triple O's or even Butcher Club.

    Back in the old days, they were using nearly the same Pat LaFrieda blend (80% brisket with short rib and chuck making up the rest) that they used at the Spotted Pig and Minetta Tavern which were charging 5-6x of a shackburger. So at that time, eating at Shake Shack was an affordable luxury.

    Since then, I don't think LaFrieda has the scale to keep up with their massive demands but they've still kept quality tight and supply chain surprisingly effective. But nearly all locations I've eaten at (Tokyo, HK, Seoul, Las Vegas) the produce is fresh, the burger well cooked and seasoned, and the bun (the original uses a Martin Potato Roll... I don't know what they do for the Asia product) reliably squishy and slightly sweet.

    Shake Shack was founded by Danny Meyer, who in the restaurant world is synonymous with customer service and experience. Whether it be his high end restaurants such as Eleven Madison Park (no longer owned by Meyer but I ate there several time under his watch and the meal was worth every penny) to a lowly hotdog at Shake Shack, the customer experience is enjoyable. Although mileage may vary depending on the queues.

    Side note: there is a famous story about Eleven Madison Park - several years ago, a waiter overheard a patron talking about how much they loved Shake Shack's burgers. They notified the service manager who ran across the street to Shake Shack (both EMP and the original Shake Shack are spitting distance from each other), and delivered to the customer a surprise intermezzo of a Shack Burger in the middle of his $225 USD tasting menu. These "surprise and delight" experiences are what creates lasting legacies (and is sorely missing from Hong Kong restaurants).

    This is not meant to be a defense of Shake Shack - everyone's tastes are subjective. However I think it's important to understand the context and history of a dish or a restaurant no matter the provenance.

    tl;dr: Home sick New Yorker mansplains a $6 burger to the interwebz

    edit: A stellar recipe (for which I was a lucky taste tester during the development and refinement: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...er-recipe.html )

    Last edited by tf19; 26-05-2019 at 02:01 PM.
    TheBrit, shri and CarterTG like this.

  9. #19

    A Shake Shack rep has joined the conversation.


  10. #20

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    Has McDonalds (in the PRC) offered any new loyalty schemes since the CCP took controlling stake via their CITIC investment arm in 2017?


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