Shake Shack’s New Summer Menu, Reviewed by a Burger-Loving Food Editor

• What It Is: vanilla frozen custard, graham cracker, chocolate and toasted marshmallow fudge chunks, hand-spun and topped with whipped cream and s’more crumbles
• Price: $6.50

Hear me out: As someone who isn’t a fan of chocolate ice cream, I genuinely enjoyed the mildly chocolatey, malty base of this shake. (Probably because it’s technically vanilla…but I digress.) Still, compared to the other shakes on the Shake Shack Summer BBQ Menu, this one’s at the bottom of my list. Most of the chunks and chocolate bits sat at the bottom of the cup, which wasn’t the case with the other two. The sweet, toasty marshmallow flavor dominated without being too overpowering, but I wanted a touch of salt and more graham cracker action.

• What It Is: crinkle-cut fries spiced with hot pepper blend of cayenne, garlic and paprika, served with a side of Shack Ranch
• Price: $4

The fries were tender, lightly crisp on the outside and evenly salted. The spicy seasoning was very garlicky at first, but the tingly heat built up as I ate. As for the ranch, the dressing was very good: tangy (hi, sour cream, buttermilk and yogurt powder), thick and herbaceous. Did I need it? No. Did I double-dip a few times? Yes.

• What It Is: crispy white-meat chicken, American cheese, applewood smoked bacon, pickles, crispy onions and smoky BBQ sauce on a toasted potato bun
• Price: $9

This pick’s notes were very balanced between sweet and sour. I loved the how crunchy and acidic the pickles were, and the texture of the chicken was superbly juicy yet still crispy. It was also a solid chunk of chicken breast, rather than the pressed-meat, particle board-like poultry you’ll find at other fast food places. (I felt this way when I tasted the Chicken Shack sandwich for a roundup of the best fast food chicken sandwiches, too.) The sauce was very smoky, but not as nuanced as the other.

• What It Is: crispy white-meat chicken, pepper jack cheese, applewood smoked bacon, fried pickles and tangy-sweet Carolina-style BBQ sauce on a toasted potato bun
• Price: $9

The Carolina-style sauce tastes a lot like honey mustard and leans sweeter than the smoky alternative. The chicken was really well seasoned, and I loved the creamy texture and slight heat of the pepper jack. Again, I’d prefer regular pickles (or pickled onions!) over the fried pickles, because they turn soggy pretty fast, but this was still my favorite of the two chicken options.

• What It Is: crinkle-cut fries spiced with hot pepper blend of cayenne, garlic and paprika and topped with cheese sauce, served with a side of Shack Ranch
• Price: $5

Confession? I *love* cheese fries. Here, the cheese was savory, salty and evenly distributed (although only across the top). One thing I appreciate about Shake Shack’s cheese sauce is that it’s sort of the best of both worlds in the sense that it’s a sauce, but it’s not like, bowling-alley-snack-bar nacho cheese (I used to bartend at a bowling alley, so I’m deeply familiar). And once it sits, it delicately solidifies like sliced cheese would without turning hard and crusty. That said, I found the ranch to be a bit overkill.

• What It Is: banana pudding frozen custard and vanilla wafer cookies, hand-spun and topped with whipped cream and vanilla wafer cookie crumble
• Price: $6.50

I was impressed how much this bev tasted like banana pudding specifically, not just bananas. I got creamy, milky, marshmallow-y notes with medium-intensity banana with every glug. I was also shocked to see how long the wafer cookie pieces would actually stay crunchy (spoiler: longer than you’d think). While the flavor was on point for a banana lover, it was also a bit one-note. I think some salty brown sugar or caramel would add some dimension to the general sweetness of the drink.

• What It Is: Angus beef, pepper jack cheese, applewood smoked bacon, fried pickles and tangy-sweet Carolina-style BBQ sauce on a toasted potato bun
• Price: $9

Leave it to Shake Shack to lean on quality. The meat itself tasted incredibly fresh and savory. The heat from the pepper jack cheese was very mild, so I could have done with a little more spice. But the main con here was the fried pickles; the breading peeled off of them pretty quickly as the burger sat. That said the mustardy sauce was bright, tangy and offered mayo-and-mustard energy to every bite.

• What It Is: Angus beef, American cheese, applewood smoked bacon, pickles, crispy onions and smoky BBQ sauce on a toasted potato bun
• Price: $9

Overall, I preferred this burger to the other burger, but not the sauce. (I don’t mind the smokiness, but I adored the tang of the other mustardy, Carolina-style sauce over this more typical barbecue sauce.) The pickles brightened up the richness of the beef and cheese. The American cheese melted well, as it always does, and had a richer mouthfeel than the pepper jack on the other burger.

• What It Is: vanilla frozen custard, Oreo cookies and funnel cake crunch, hand-spun and topped with whipped cream and Oreo cookie crumbles
• Price: $5

For me, only took one sip of Shake Shack’s holiday milkshakes to understand why “shake” is in the name. The custard’s quality is on point, they look as good as they taste and they strike what I find to be the optimal consistency—thick enough that you can’t accidentally chug it, but thin enough that you’re not wrestling with your straw or waiting for it to melt to indulge. The mix-ins are where things can go wrong, but in this case, I thought the milkshake was super balanced. The Oreos’ signature saltiness cut right through the vanilla base, while the funnel cake crunch did indeed taste like fried dough, offering a bready, malty note that diversified each sip. The pieces also retained their crunch for the long haul.