If you had to name the trendiest ingredients in fast food – bacon and avocado would top many people’s lists. The chef’s at Shake Shack (another eminently trendy name in fast food world) would be right there with you. This week the restaurant chain took the wraps off its latest time limited menu specials – both based around bacon and avocado upgrades. But are the new additions worth the extra splurge? Lets find out.
First up, a bit of detail on the three new items you can purchase at Shake Shack with bacon and avocado:
- Avocado Bacon Burger, single – $7.59
- Avocado Bacon Burger, double – $10.39
- Avocado Bacon Chicken – $8.49
The Avocado Bacon Burger is a regular Shake Shack Cheeseburger gussied up with “freshly sliced avocado” and “Niman Ranch applewood-smoked bacon” according to the brand. Meanwhile the Avocado Bacon Chicken applies the same fixings to the Chick N Shack respectively. For those upgrades you’re of $1.50 (chicken) through $1.90 (burgers).
The verdict? In a word: disappointing. You can check out the pictures below, but I found the quality control surprisingly lacking. For a premium brand, to charge a premium price, for ostensibly premium toppings – I’d expected to be pleasantly surprised. The reverse was true.
The main culprit was the avocado – unripe, hard, tasteless stuff. Of course this could be a one off chain location problem, but again, I would expect the premium branding of Shake Shack to bring a little more finesse. In the case of the chicken sandwich, the person who prepared the sandwich seemed almost embarrassed by the quality, laying on a miserly three blink and you’d miss it pieces of the green stuff. Or should I say, almost green.
The bacon was better but still lacking. Shake Shack tout Niman Ranch as the source of the bacon – a brand I love and buy (check out their Pulled Pork) ordinarily myself. The bacon had a solid flavor, with the gentle smoke certainly apparent. The limp and languid texture though was a let down. Again, the amount of topping applied to each sandwich was seemingly random.
Aside from that these two sandwiches are as you’d expect from the brand. The Chick N Shack is a solid chicken sandwich, and the Cheeseburger is a tasty enough burger; but would I spend the extra on bacon and avocado? Probably not. Here are the pictures…
Shake Shack Avocado Bacon Chicken
Brand description – Crispy chicken breast topped with lettuce, pickles, buttermilk herb mayo (contains milk, wheat, egg, soy, and gluten)
Avocado Bacon Burger
Brand description – Cheeseburger topped with freshly sliced avocado, Niman Ranch applewood-smoked bacon, ShackSauce
Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic Salt Lake City, and a former freelance restaurant critic. I’ve worked extensively with local, regional and national food and drink organizations. I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have been writing about food and drink for more than fifteen years. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. I don’t mind admitting to a certain secret obsession with fast food as well – and that’s where Menu And Price comes in…