i worked at steak n’ shake for a few years, and despite that harrowing experience, i still love their food. over the past three or four years, they’ve been revamping their menu, and adding new items left and right. ordinarily, i stick to the classics (what steak n’ shake consistently does right), but every now and then, i venture out and try something they are sure to mess up. enter:
flanked by a score of fries (which i seasoned with the new salt on the table, and i highly recommend), this burger was actually alright. honestly, there wasn’t too much going on here that you don’t get in a regular steak burger. their allure seems to lie in the preparation of the meat, and how it joins up with cheese on the bun. and it was much the same here. the only real exception to this rule are the specialty burgers like the old mushroom and swiss (no longer available) and the philly, both of which were smothered in extras that dominated the flavor. and they had that sweet bun to boot. that being said, the chipotle mayo on this thing was decent, and everyone loves bacon and pepper jack. it was missing jalapeños, which i had thought came standard on the burger, but in actuality did not. as a result, i wouldn’t give it the spicy label, solely the chipotle. even that is kinda hard to pull out. oh but it has red onion slices rather than their standard white, which was a nice touch. all in all, filling and satisfying, but nothing to write home about.
i foolishly brought in on the assist one of these special items:
yeah… just reading about those makes you sick. i know. well, the appearance of such outlandish shakes piqued my curiosity early on. ordinarily, i wouldn’t go for such a disgusting combination of fruit and dairy, but… i figured that if it actually made it to the menu, it must have something redeeming about it.
so, after months of knowing about its existence, and finally being sold on it by a friend’s younger sister’s repeat purchase of the thing, i went for the grape kool-aid shake. it was alarmingly… gross. sad. i should have seen it coming, of course. really, i guess i did. but i was disappointed nonetheless. i went ahead and drank the whole thing anyway, and as i neared the bottom, i began finding small, dark chunks of some unidentifiable somethings. i picked one out of the shake, worrying it was something that did not belong there. after discarding it, i continued shake-ing, until i found another such piece. this one, though, was huge. it was a little rubbery and about the size of a raisin, but it was pliable in a way that raisins are not. as i played with it, i made the bold decision to taste it. come to find out, it was like concentrated kool-aid mix, sour and grainy. and it wasn’t bad. i would say that was the highlight of the shake.
needless to say, i won’t be buying one of those thins again.