Shake Shack Ann Arbor — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

Underwhelmed. Plain old middle-lower of the pack average. This was my first time and I'm disappointed. I saw the 60 Minutes profile and heard about the people waiting in line for an hour, so I was pretty excited going in. But unfortunately, SS didn't even come close to the incredible hype.

--Fries: *One star at best. Exactly the same as frozen crinkle cut fries.

--Burger: *Lackluster three stars. A way overpriced McDouble. I ordered a ShackBurger, double, no cheese, and asked a moment later if they could add mushrooms. I was thinking sliced sauteed mushrooms (but I didn't specify.) The counterman said I should change it to a Shack Stack double since that would be the same as adding mushrooms. The mushrooms turned out to be their 'Shroom Burger--a fried portobello mushroom patty with gooey cheese inside (which is as advertised on the menu)--and wasn't very good tasting. If I had ordered a 'Shroom Burger looking for that portobello flavor I would think the 'Shroom way overpowered by the amount of cheese that came pouring out when I bit into it. The beef was lackluster with no spice, zing, kick, or power to it's taste. Shack Sauce? I dipped my finger in and tasted it but I couldn't taste any difference from mayo at all. (Big Mac, Whopper, Hardee's/Carl's Jr, In-n-Out or in Hawaii Teddy's sauces are all better.) After trying two thirds of this burger, I had to rescue it from total anonymity with a good dollop of Ketchup.

--Shakes: **Catastrophically average two stars. I tried our party's vanilla (ho hum), and strawberry (dull, with almost no sweetness to it), and ordered a Salted Caramel myself. I will say the Salted Caramel is pretty good--I sometimes find that Salted Caramel ice cream is overpowering but this shake with vanilla custard mixed with the salted caramel pretty much hits the mark. But competitors like the real ice cream shakes at Steak & Shake or Dave and Buster's even are way better tasting.

--Cost: **Two Stars. Cost should be lower. Paying for brand hype. $5.69 for shakes I thought was reasonable and certainly lines up with some of the better tasting options I mentioned above. Side of fries was $2.99 but (frozen-crinkle-cut-tasting) fries should be that little or cheaper. But I can't see anything here that warrants the price for the burgers. Almost $10 for the Shack Stack? Even with the double patty and the 'Shroom, there's nothing here to justify that.

--On the whole: **Two stars, since I can't give it one point seven five. Definitely a one-off for me. I...

Hi!

My husband and i have attempted to go to the new Ann Arbor location twice now and we’re not able to try/purchase food.

The first was grand opening and they said they were too busy and wouldn’t allow us in until there were only 3 people in line?

The second was today, 7/20. We got there at 1145a and there were many people standing out side confused and not being permitted in. Finally an employee was walking in so someone else came to open the door, we all asked if we could enter and they ignored us. Finally someone else came to the door and said they had power outage but it’s been back on for 45 mins and they’re trying to get things going. Understandable! But maybe tell the group of customers out front especially when they ask?

Then the employee who finally told us, said it would be 40 mins, so we’d came back 45 min later and they were still closed and still being very unavailable to tell the customers waiting at the door knocking (mind you, the power is and hasn’t been back on for almost two hours, so you allow people to maybe sit in the store vs 99 degree heat) and then the employee said another 30 mins, so then we came back 30 more mins later and they told us an hr.

So we left.

I completely understand power out, and all that must have complicated things, but employees were just walking around not doing much inside and ignoring those outside. Also, just tell people it’s going to be a long time vs 30 mins so people don’t continue to sit around and wait with hangry kids in the heat.

Again, i get there was a big problem, but i felt ignored and tricked that they kept saying 30 mins- shouldn’t they know how long it takes to restart for the day and prep?

Very...

I actually never leave this detailed of reviews but I felt this was necessary.

This was my first experience at Shake Shack, and it was okay, though I wasn't amazed by it.

Pros: the location was great, easy to find, easy to park, well lit at night, and relatively clean looking, there were only a few tables that had not been wiped off from the prior guests. The kiosk was user friendly and we had plenty of room to find seating at the time we were there for dinner (8pm on a Monday evening). The classic single burger was pretty tasty.

Cons: the bathroom was not maintained well and the floor was slimy feeling in comparison to the rest of the restaurant, there was visible mildew on the caulk around the toilet floor and paper garbage overflowing. The toilet would not flush completely, it had paper in it when I went in, and still had paper in it when I flushed. Additionally, the cost of the meal (~$15) was not worth the food I received, especially fast-food style, I'll grant the classic burger was tasty but the fries were mediocre and the small fountain drink was $3.49! There was no person taking our order and yet the kiosk asked if I wanted to leave a tip. I need to know what for. There was a nice gal that brought our trays to us but there was no follow up, and we were expected to clear our table when we were finished (I assumed as I saw other patrons doing so).

I might try again if I'm in a group setting and it's suggested but another person, but this restaurant was not...