The Best Massachusetts Burgers - Part 2

Shake Shack (430 Calories per cheeseburger)

Shake Shack is brand new to Boston; or more specifically the Chestnut Hill Mall area in Newton. This chain comes directly to Mass from New York and preaches great things about their food including, 100% all-natural Angus beef, vegetarian fed, humanely raised and no added hormones and antibiotics. These things are important to my generation health eaters who want to splurge on a good burger every once in a while. In addition to their high quality food source, Shake Shack also boasts 100% of the electricity used is offset through window and renewable energy, waste is properly recycled, most structures inside each location has been constructed from recycled material (table tops are repurposed from old bowling alley lanes), food properly composted and 5% of sales are donated to charitable organizations (think Costco). It’s clear, Shake Shack makes a point to go out of their way to differentiate not just by their food offerings, but by their presence in the community. Ok Shake Shack, you have my attention.

                 These burgers are fantastic. Probably the best tasting burgers I’ve ever-- well they are good! Perfectly cooked, juicy, with the perfect melted cheese to patty ratio. When you take a bite, it’s exactly how you would want a cheeseburger to taste.  You do not need to order a double cheeseburger here! A single patty burger will suffice.  Sure you can order a double, but there is little advantage in doing so. If you are worried about the amount of food you’ll receive, order two single cheeseburgers. The double patty is just big enough to be annoying to eat, especially when it comes directly off the grill. Your first bite will throw hot scorching juices to the back of your month, destroying your tongue in the process. Of course, the alternative is just waiting a few more minutes for your burger to cool, but when you’ve been waiting for 30 minutes for your food, there’s little patience left.

Fries are awful (as awful as fries can be… does that make sense?). They are tolerable fries because there’s nothing really special about them (especially when put up against the rest of the fries on this page) and it reminds me of the fries I used to get in middle school. Feels like they took the fries out of the freezer and threw them in the oven for 10 minutes and served them. In fact, I would go as far to say they reminded me of the old Burger King fries before BK started copying McDonald’s fries. But let’s face it; you don’t come here for the fries. 

Another big differentiating factor that Shake Shack has from other “burger places” is the hotdogs and frozen custard and shakes. All three are delicious menu options that allow Shake Shack to appeal more to families with different tastes in food and deserts. And I mean all members of the family. Want to bring your dog to hang out at the outside patio? Shake Shack offers “treats with those with four feet”, several different types of dog biscuits. The Dapper Dog, an all-beef hotdog with American Cheese and shallots will leave your taste buds drooling while the Concretes and Shakes are the perfect pallet cleanse to finish off a meal. Not a desert lover? Then Shake Shack can offer a verity of beers to wash down your burger and fries. Beer with burgers was once only dreamed of when watching Pulp Fiction. Everything on the menu should be experienced at least once.

I’m not going to say I was “let down” by Shake Shack…the food was definitely good… but when you walk up to the Newton establishment and see a line out the door for a restaurant that you need to order by a counter, it kinda takes the wind out of your sale. So that’s standing in line for 20 minutes, ordering, then finding table to wait for 10 more minutes. Would I drive all the way out to Rt 9 for their food? Not with my other options like 5 Guys and Bobby’s (Review soon to come). If I was passing by would I stop in for their food? Not if I saw the line out the door… like it is EVERYDAY. Your move Shake Shack. 

The Best Massachusetts Burgers - Part 1

I’m proud of my generation, making a stand against the fast food restaurants that have dominated the region for decades. McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s were the only quick burger options in Massachusetts. But because of this refusal to eat processed meats and the desire for more options than just “would you like fries with that?” the result is dozens of premium burger places popping up around New England and hopefully staying for good. We saw how quickly food fads die when Krispy Kreme came to Medford back in 2003 and promptly left in 2005. Are these burger joints here to stay? I hope so. I also hope their presence makes In-And-Out, Whataburger and Sonic think twice about expanding in the Bay State. These options do not hold a candle to the burning inferno that is the new burger places talked about on this page.

               

I’ve sampled a few of the new burger places and graded them on the three things I like to see in burgers. Quality of the beef, price, time to wait for a burger and a bonus grade of how good their fries are. Each grade is out of a 5 star system and each cheeseburger was sampled without any toppings or condiments to not skew the reviews. Because let’s face it, if you’re ordering a hamburger over a cheeseburger you have bigger problems than “what do I put on my burger?”

DISCLAIMER: What I am not talking about here are the specialty Boston Burger joints that have been around for a couple years now. That goes for most of the Boston/Cambridge and Somervile Burger places like Park Restaurant, Grass fed, The Gallows, and Charlie’s Kitchen. This write up is for the new chains that will hopefully push out the places listed in the first paragraph.

5 Guys - (840 Calories per cheeseburger)  

I first had 5 Guys back in 2006 down in South Carolina and I was blown away. We just don’t get this kind of burger back in Mass. Since then, there have been 15 establishments that have opened up within 50 miles of Boston and the burgers are just as good as I remembered them. 5 Guys prides their burgers on two facts: no freezers exist in their buildings and there are 250,000 ways to order a burger at a 5 Guys. So that translates to the beef is never frozen giving a fresher, juicier burger and even folks with food allergies can get in on the 5 Guys experience. When ordering a burger, employees will have no trouble cooking a bunless burger for those that have celiac disease and whom are gluten intolerant. They recognize that folks who love burger and do not want to deprive them of good beef. So that means as they are building the burger which you can watch from the counter, they will carry the patty to the tinfoil and pile on the lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles before wrapping it up for the customer. Customers can choose to bring their own glutenfree bread or carry out. There is a great selection of toppings to choose from including different sauces (personally I eat my cheeseburgers with ketchup on the side, dipping the edges of the burger as I choose) including Hot sauce, BBQ Sauce and A1 Sauce??

Cheeseburgers start around $6 but the cost can quickly escalate when you start adding fries and drinks. Don’t be surprised when an order for two order is in the upper $20s. Add Bacon to an “All the way” (meaning all the toppings) Cheeseburger (920 Calories) can cost up to $7.80.A large frie is $4.99 and believe me, a large is freakin huge. I’d recommend sharing even a regular order but boy are they good. Most 5 Guys have a white board on the wall depicting where their potatoes are from. Which doesn’t really add anything to the taste but it’s a nice nod to local produce (where available). The fries always catch me off guard because they are typically smokin’ hot when they are served to you. Crispy on the outside with soft innards. It really is the perfect frie. The other great thing about 5 Guys is the wait. Even when they are busy, standing for your order is not a tiring, aggravating event. There's definitely a reason why it's called "5 Guys Famous Burgers and Fries".

I started with 5 Guys because they have proven to be an all-around great experience in the four areas I mentioned above. Delicious trans-fat free burger, short wait, decent price and Fuxin fantastic fries.