Verdict: Quality Fast Food at near Fast Food Prices, except without the ‘Fast’.

“They just opened a Shake Shack on the block and there’s never a line” said Lily in a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother and within days they did open a Shake Shack on the block, well, in Covent Garden Market Piazza. A mere coincidence, a sign from the universe or targeted brand placement during franchise expansion? I guess we will never know, but one thing is certain there is always a line, a queue, a long queue.

It was my third attempt to eat there when I found the queue short enough for my patience. Average wait at peak dining times is around 30 mins to place an order then 10-20 mins for the order to be ready. Between Lunch and Dinner time on a Thursday afternoon was about 5 minutes to place the order and 8 minutes for the order to be ready, so still not as fast as a fast food burger restaurant.

However Shake Shack are not really a fast food joint, although they resemble one, and they are not really a gourmet burger bar either, although the quality of their food is close to that level. The burgers, hot dogs & fries are all flavourful, the meat is certainly top quality, the bread is succulent, the frozen custard dessert is delish. My main criticism about the food would be that the portions are all very small, and indeed scaled to match each other and the bottles etc, so that in photos they appear full size… like a miniature village. The fries are average crinkle cut frozen fries, the cheese sauce is exactly the fake goo you would imagine and again the portion is small, so I think the cheese fries are ridiculously overpriced. However they are probably the only menu item that is so overpriced, everything else comes in at around standard fast food prices. The Kernel Brewery London supply some very nice bottled beers.