Shake Shack Mall of America — Restaurant in Bloomington

My first impression was: underwhelmed. It's just a burger, gang. And not an over-the-top, fantastic, memorable burger at that. The size of the burger and the bun were underwhelming. I wanted to set a half-dollar or some other coin beside my burger to show the actual size of the bun. I've had bigger burgers at Burger King. I swear that the bun wasn't much larger than what I would have received at White Castle.

The burger was juicy, and tasted good. It had a fair amount of pink inside, which isn't my favorite, but after spending more than $7 for it, I was going to enjoy it, darn it. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger. I will say this. The bacon was done to perfection, nice and crispy, not the soggy, underdone bacon like what you find on most McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. The burger reminded me a lot of a Culver's hamburger. The white cheddar cheese was the best part. It was soft and melty, and quite creamy - absolutely delicious. The burger was fairly greasy, which the bun soaked up.

The ordering and picking up process is a bit funky. Even if there are few, or no other, people there, they'll hand you a buzzer. Still, most people stand around the counter waiting for their food, rather than sitting down. They ask your name. When my burger was ready, my name was called, but my buzzer didn't go off. Perhaps they should just use one system - the buzzer or the name-calling, and ditch the other.

I probably ended up waiting about five minutes for my burger.

While I wish I could say that the service was pleasant and friendly, it really wasn't. There were no smiles, or thank you's. It didn't feel like the employees put much care or service into their work. It was merely a job they were doing. Here's your burger.

The seating area is nice enough...kind of a casual trendy with tables made from reclaimed bowling alley wood. It's attractive. There's seating both inside the restaurant and in the mall itself. I saw one TV on the wall; there may have been more. Whether you're in the restaurant or outside of it, you'll have that ever-present ambient mall hum of noise and music.

I'd have to agree wholeheartedly that this restaurant and these burgers are over-hyped. I mean, we have so many burger choices - from casual chains like Burger Burger, Five Guys, Culver's, and Freddy's to the local places like The Nook and others, to fast food joints. This is just another burger, only it's more expensive and smaller than a lot of other burgers for the price. I came away disappointed. I expected...

Hip... well to me it's hard to say. I'm solely evaluated this place for the food and atmosphere. It's unfortunate with all the hype I was overly excited and they in my opinion under delivered.

I came here twice expecting it to open soon but missed out, this weekend being the 4th and busy I was excited to have burgers here for lunch. Surprising not busy at all. Just one other party ahead of us in line. The menu was fair a little confusing for first time goers. [So instead of having someone right by the garbage throwing away your food, maybe welcome them in the front - my opinion. ]

In line I was a little disappointed that they had a line to ring out employees as 5 of them pooled on one register but line was short it was fine [have another system in back or have a sign out that just says closed? customer facing perception would be different]. I had ordered the shake shack burger originally ordered a double to find she had only put in a single and fries. Ringing out you're handed a buzzer - took about 7-10 minutes which wasn't too bad.

The burger itself was small - which is fine. But it tasted like a typical burger and for those who know me I've had a fair amount of burgers. I give props to the bun it was soft, the cheese was well melted together, the taste typical. Then come the fries, they're the curvy but type. It was good, like other fries. So to sell a higher price tag on this for their claims - which I'm certain are true, I can't justify it for a small burger.

I would call this place typical but over hyped. If i had a choice of something else near by .... Johnny Rockets on the other end of the mall I'll be there next time. In the end someone's standing by the trash to take your tray. In my opinion side by side Johnny would be far superior on food taste, portion, and 1/2 on the service.

Atmosphere: 4 - Part of the mall but have their own seating as the bigger end of the food court. Overwhelming menu. Cleanliness: 5 - Very attentive floor staff. Food: 3 Food tasted good, but not justifiable on the price and very typical burger for what I would consider "fast casual." Such as Panera Beard. Small portion. Service: 2 Bad start, fair finish. Messed up order.

~$10 Stars: 3.5 round down. Being hungry at the mall I'll most likely walk to the other side for a burger. But do try it out and not...

In two words: Poorly planned.

Food is still delicious Shake Shack food. However, the service isn’t up to Shake Shack standards.

I had googobs of time to watch the line, because it took about half an hour for me to get my food.

This has nothing to do with the staff, per se. The staff isn’t given enough tools to handle large crowds. Since it’s in the MOA, one would think that the restaurant would be designed specifically for high throughput.

Input is great…there’s three ways to put in your order…output? Pfft. There’s a need for someone to come down from corporate and have a good look at this location. I’ve been to the SS in Denver International, for example - same amount of rush, but that location gets the job done.

The gal packing the orders often had to hesitate or really focus on the task at hand - which tells me that the information she is presented is confusing, or not instantly recognizable. She also was tasked with the customer end, which further detracts from her potential to succeed.

Keep this in mind - I do not blame the staff. I watched them knuckle down and heave - but frankly, it wasn’t enough.

Update

I was contacted by the Shake Shack team. They handled the issue with tact and professionalism.

To be transparent here, I was offered a refund via the Shake Shack app in response.

I must decline that. I do not find it necessary to have an application on my phone to purchase a hamburger. I am also quite disappointed that an offer to rectify the situation was shaped in a way that I had to become more deeply involved with the brand (acquiring an application) in order to receive recompense.

Update 2

I was eventually refunded the money. Would have saves us both time and effort to have done this the first time.

Again, to be fair - I was still treated professionally by the SS team. I cannot fault them for that. Process need a...