After I recently bemoaned a certain burger chain’s lack of legitimate vegetarian options, another one answered my prayers. Tuesday, Shake Shack announced the debut of the “Veggie Shack,” a veggie burger made with mushrooms, sweet potatoes, carrots, farro and quinoa.
To me, it came as a shock to see a fast food chain opt for a veggie burger made out of not the omnipresent Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat but actual vegetables.
Really, it shouldn’t have been shocking. The writing has been on the wall for these tech meat companies ever since McDonald’s McPlant mcflopped. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat also recently laid off 16% and 19% of their workforces, respectively.
Signs are pointing toward a societal shift back to good old-fashioned veggie burgers. Shake Shack, at the very least, seems willing to bet on that.
The Veggie Shack, Shake Shack’s new veggie burger, comes with American cheese, crispy fried onions and pickles.
Charles Russo/SFGATEAs a mostly vegetarian for nearly a decade, I’ve grown tired of the ubiquitous Impossible and Beyond burgers you find on every menu in San Francisco. Instead of crafting their own delicious veggie burger variations out of mushrooms and black beans, chefs everywhere have taken the easy way out: frying up a frozen Impossible patty on the grill.
I don’t mind the taste of Impossible (although if I think about it too hard, its extreme similarity to actual meat grosses me out), but I do miss the creativity. So to see Shake Shack craft its own veggie burger out of some of my favorite vegetables was exciting.
The Veggie Shack doesn’t officially debut nationwide until Friday, but you can order it right now if you go through the Shake Shack app (it costs $8.89). When I picked up mine, I was surprised by the sheer size of the thin veggie patty protruding from the comparatively tiny bun.
Topped with a slice of melted American cheese, crispy fried onions, pickles and the chain’s signature ShackSauce, it was much less picturesque than the promotional photos I’d seen, but it still looked enticing enough, for a fast food item.
A promotional photo of the Veggie Shack, Shake Shack’s new veggie burger.
Courtesy of Shake ShackThe patty itself had much better structural integrity than I’ve seen in some other veggie burgers, but the flavor left something to be desired. In my opinion, it shared a common downfall with the Impossible Burger: It’s a little too salty. And I’m someone who really likes salt.
The saltiness of the fried onions may be to blame, although the acidity of the pickles helped cut through it a bit. Overall, though, it was a nice change to sink my teeth into something that actually tasted like carrots, mushrooms and grains rather than soy protein masquerading as beef. And it was definitely better than the McPlant.
That said, the Veggie Shack doesn’t hold a candle to Shake Shack’s existing vegetarian option: the ‘Shroom Burger. The breaded and fried portobello mushroom patty stuffed with cheese is definitely on the heavier side, but it’s infinitely more delicious.
Regardless of the OK-ness of the Veggie Shack, I’m still delighted to see a true veggie burger on the menu of a major fast food restaurant. Chick-fil-A also recently tested a fried cauliflower sandwich, which gives me hope. Maybe this is the beginning of vegetarians finally getting what they actually want from fast food restaurants: vegetables.