Shake Shake - the darling of the burger world in NYC in recent years has arrived in Hong Kong with their first branch at the IFC Podium Level 4 in Central District. Opening hours are 11am to 11pm daily and you can expect a queue at pretty much all times of the day until the newness of the Shake Shake HK wears off.

We made our way to Shake Shack recently to give them a try. Quite familiar with Shake Shake having enjoyed their burgers at several shops in NYC as well as Boston, D.C. and Vegas. We were eager to find out if what they were dishing out here in HK was anything like their American counterparts.

We arrived in mid-afternoon, trying to avoid a peak lunch and dinner times. Queue was reasonable, starting outside the shop but moving quickly. After 15 minutes, we had made it to the counter, placed our order, paid (cash, cc: or Octopus card) and were handed our pager.

Note: There is very limited indoor seating at the Shake Shack at IFC. However, there is a fairly large section of public seating just outside the restaurant. Some seats are under awnings, some are shaded while others are in the direct sunlight - keep this in mind if you plan to visit during the hot summer months or when it is raining.

Note: Most will not be aware but there are three more sections of public seating at the IFC outdoor podium. After you pick up your Shake Shack food, you may actually want to keep walking west to the other seating areas, which will have few fewer people competing for seating that what you will encounter directly outside the restaurant.

After placing our order, we waited another 18 minutes for our pager to flash, signalling that our food was ready. Picked up our food at the collection counter, made a quick stop at the condiments bar for napkins, tomato sauce and mustard. Then returned to our seats to try the Smokeshake burger, fries and peanut-butter shake.

In short, there were some good things about our first Shake Shack HK meal and some not so good things. We liked the beef, cheese, toppings and overall burger taste of the Smokeshack. This was similar to good Smokeshack eaten at U.S. based Shake Shacks.

Unfortunately, we hated the buns. They tasted like local milk buns and were not toasted long enough. As such, they were soaked with beef juice and very soggy. This looked and sadly tasted awful (warning if you look at the submitted picture). Much of the bottom bun was not edible.

Fries were ok, nothing special - just fries. We also ordered a peanut butter shake, something we have really liked at Shake Shack in the States. The shake here had good flavour but was too soft. It was a hot day and it was really melting fast, forcing us to drink faster than we normally would. This needed to be served colder and with thicker texture.

In the end, we are happy that Shake Shack has arrived but like most new restaurants that open in Hong Kong, they seem to be behind the learning curve and need to do a better job preparing and serving food and drinks to their customers here in HK. We'll give them a pass during the hot summer months and perhaps give them a try later in the year so see how they are faring.