Shake Shack (ifc mall) — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

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...

I’ve been wanting to come to Shake Shack for sometime. I was in the IFC area and decided to finally bite the bull it and brave the line. My four star rating is based on the following:

Food: 4 stars Environment: 3 stars (would be higher if this place wasn’t so crowded) Service/efficiency: 4.5 stars

The line here is really intimidating but it moves really fast. I give the staff here a lot of credit for making ordering and service so efficient.

I had the bacon shack burger with a single patty. I haven’t had shake shack for almost ten years so it was almost like eating it for the first time. The price of the burger was 62 hkd, which for Hong Kong is not expensive at all. It is pretty hard to find a decent burger at this price point.

The burger isn’t very big but the patty itself was quite substantial and had a real nice juicy beef flavor to it. The cheese was also nicely melted and even though I don’t like American cheese I enjoyed it. The bun is soft and a tad sweet. It is much better than an average hamburger bun that is often dry. The bacon was crispy but wasn’t too flavorful. It provided a contrast in texture but I would have preferred my burger without it. The burger also had some red peppers which provided a little bit of tartness and heat to the burger. I really liked the addition and the peppers were a pleasant surprise.

My favorite fast casual burger chain is still In and Out. I’m biased though being from California. Shake Shack isn’t the best burger in HK. I still prefer Honbo. However, I think it’s well worth your time if you are in the mood for a...

Superior choice for Burgers in Hong Kong 👍🏻(and perhaps for hotdog too👍🏻)

At 10:30pm, there were around 15-20 people ahead of me in the queue!!!😱 I mean....Shake Shack officially closes at 11:00pm and still so much crowd! 😅

But I MUST SAY- KUDOS to the staff for taking the orders quite efficiently/quickly👍🏻👍🏻. Honestly, I didn’t have to wait too long in that queue!

A FAIR WARNING TO ALL THOUGH, if you go during peak hours of the day and there are 50 people (not 15 people!) ahead of you.... then I don’t know how the situation would be😜😜😜

Perhaps the queue is shortest around 10:30pm - 10:45pm.......MY WORDS OF WISDOM 😃. Besides it’s a nicer view of the harbor at that time of the night. Let’s go to THE FOOD 🥘 - With just the FIRST BITE of a Shake Shack Burger (SMOKESHACK BURGER and CHICK n SHACK BURGER), you can feel right away that it’s better than most other burgers in Hong Kong! 😋I also tried the SHACK-CAGO HOT DOG had a similarly nice experience with the VERY FIRST BITE.

The Exclusive HK-Style Milk Tea Shake was good and has a nice after-taste.👍🏻

The CHEESE FRIES were definitely better that most Fries I’ve had at other burger places in Hong Kong👍🏻 I am not done with ShakeShack and it’s my mission to try everything else on the menu (and also repeat the SmokeShack Burger and the...