Shake Shack Pasadena — Restaurant in Pasadena

I really like burgers and for the past few months I've been really excited for Shake Shack to open. For a few weeks I've been running past the location to see if it's open. I was quite happy see it had finally opened yesterday!

This evening after the gym, I excitedly went down to Shake Shack and saw a lot of other people were just as excited as me. At this point it was about 7:00 and I was already pretty hungry after my workout. Once we got through the line and ordered and we were told they would text us when our order was ready. They actually texted us with the confirmation of our order which came in at 7:39.

We got our seats and a few minutes later, I was checking my phone for the text saying that order was ready. I noticed the couple who were before us in line getting their food and it was 7:46. I expected ours would be out within a few minutes but it was not.

By 8:01, 22 minutes after ordering, I was starving starting to feel dizzy and was anxiously waiting for our food. This is partially my fault for coming here on an empty stomach after a workout; partially the fault of the long line, and partially Shake Shack's fault for taking so long with our order.

At that point a server came out with somebody else's food who had ordered after so I asked her to check on her order. She came back shortly after saying that they had "forgotten about it" but it would be out soon. I was starting to get delirious and feeling low on blood sugar, so I soon went up to server at the door and asked him "I'm really hungry I just need anything to eat I'm going crazy out here can you bring some fries or something?" He said he'd see what he can do and I went back down to my seat and was watching through the window while he was talking to his coworkers trying to figure out what to do.

As I watch through the window, I saw them preparing fries and putting them in bags for other customers, but they weren't able to just take one and bring it to me even though I had been waiting for so long. At 8:07 I couldn't wait any longer and I went inside to ask them myself. At the same time, the manager had come outside to see me so I went back out to talk to him. But he didn't bring any fries!

The conversation went something like this: Me: "Please can you bring some fries or something. I'm starving" Him: "Sir, I need you to sit down so that we can talk about this" Me: "It can be anything. I don't care what it is. I'm so hungry. I just need to eat something. Please I'm begging you I just need some food. Whatever you have just bring it and I'll eat anything. I'm about to pass out. Can't you give me any food?" Him: "No!" At this point, I snapped and yelled: "GIVE ME FOOD" He immediately said "That is completely unacceptable. You need to leave" to which I replied that I was still waiting for my food that was already half an hour late and I was delirious from the hunger. He then told me "Go wait in your car". But I don't even have a car.

Fortunately my wife was able to stay at Shake Shack and wait for the order at the patio. Meanwhile, I ran over to CVS across the street to get a banana to replenish my blood sugars. When I got back, she had received a refund at 8:12 which was 43 minutes after we placed it. She still didn't have the food. A few minutes later, it did come and we ate it on a nearby sidewalk bench because the manager would not let me back in.

Finally having some food in my belly, I was able to see straight and realized I had probably had the worst fast food experience of my life. I shouldn't have tried going to a restaurant during its opening week on an empty stomach, but they should have been able to at least bring me a basket of fries once I had been waiting for a long time. Instead they gave me $35 back before they even gave us any food. I can't eat $35 and I was starving. I didn't care about refund I just needed any food and the manager refused.

Given the emotional trauma inflicted by that manager, I don't think I was in the right mental state to...

Ordered the Black Truffle Burger, ShackBurger, SmokeShack, fries, and a vanilla shake. This was a pickup order and I arrived right on time, my order was ready at the pick up shelf. It may be due to the order being a pickup order instead of ordering at the counter that they did not resemble the more flattering images in their advertising, especially at the elevated premiumness of this fast food chain. Across each of these burgers, the angus beef is tasty if a little thinner and flattened to beyond the edges of the bun than I expected. And the choice of using a potato bun was great, creating a different mildly sweet bread to hold the burger together. The Black Truffle Burger does have a nice gruyere cheese and lovely truffle sauce, though just a bit disappointed the crispy sweet onions seemed quite sparse. The ShackBurger was a great take on the classic cheeseburger style. This is a great easy choice however my order was disappointing because the bun came up short, literally. The bottom bun seemed to be missing 30% of it, please see the attached photo, and I hope they do better during any QC of making sure the bottom bun is a complete bottom bun. The SmokeShack burger is great for bacon lovers, this bacon was done well and the chopped cherry peppers were barely spicy, only accentuating how good the rest of this burger was. The crinkle cut style french fries here were definitely something to add to your order, good texture and consistency and a nice light crunch to these. And of course, it’s in their name, the Vanilla Shake was creamy, nice and light to drink, the taste of real vanilla in here is very pleasant and would be a great starter to their line of shakes. Ultimately, I’d like to revisit this location and try a sit-down experience or at least order at the counter. I think it was great but perhaps my order happened to luck out this once. The pricing is a little on the higher end for fast food but based on their use of ingredients, it’s justified. Employees were really kind and quick to get me in and out during their lunch rush. Interior looks really modern and clean, medium foot traffic. There is plenty of parking behind in their parking lot but it might be tighter for...

Their shakes and ice cream desserts are really good, the custard ones, its like malted. Their hamburgers and hotdogs are good too. The only thing that baffles me is their service. The staff are ok, but it seems thst they don't have their process nailed down. In every shake shack we went to there was always a problem with our orders. In Burbank, they forgot one of the ice creams we ordered. In Glendale, one of the hotdogs was missing and becausenit took them a while to help us, we cancelled the missing item... wrong move! it took them more time to give us a refund. And then here in Pasadena...one of the shakes was not prepared, actually its a float, the purple cow float or was it the shake we ordered? Well whichever, its the purple one. Good thing i learned from the first two visits we made in their stores. I checked the items before we left and lo and behold, no float/shake. Of course we had to wait a long time to finally get the missing float/shake. I cant lie though, we will still come back because of the shakes and floats and malts and ice cream.. not so much for the burgers or hotdogs there are other specialty burger/hotdog places here in California that is comparable to what they offer. And then their price... its really expensive for a burger place. But as the name indicates, its a shake shack so ill go...