Like any millennial New Yorker worth my salt, I've consumed enough Shake Shack that I downloaded the budgeting app during a rare week of fiscal responsibility this past January to passive-aggressively send me emails about it. email. Now that Shake Shack is testing a new veggie burger, it looks like the emails are going to keep coming because, my friends, these emails are a game changer. Once you try one of these babies, you'll be asking, "'Mushroom Burger? Who is she?'"
Not to gloss over the iconic "mushroom burger," but for the purposes of this article, I should be honest: I'm not a veggie burger girl. I love my smoothie shack with tons of meat, tons of cheese, and a sauce that's forgettable and leaves you blinking dangerously long enough that it might actually be a nap at your desk after lunch. That’s why, when we got the chance to try Shake Shack’s Veggie Shack — it will begin official testing on menus at Madison Square Park, the Upper East Side and Astor Place in New York City, West Hollywood and Glendale in Los Angeles , April 24th at the Domain location in Austin – I really didn’t expect to be impressed.
Instead, I'm actively breaking my promise to eat the new Veggie Shack, which, to be clear, is huge.
The burger patty itself is a combination of black beans, brown rice, and roasted beets, then topped with provolone cheese, lettuce, onions, pickles, and vegan mustard mayo. What's the first major difference between it and its predecessor, the Mushroom Burger? If you don't eat cheese, it can actually be made vegan by swapping regular bread for gluten-free. What's the second major difference? This new veggie burger transcends the concept of a “burger” entirely.
The patty itself was rich, smooth, and flavorful, but without the overwhelming feeling of one vegetable overpowering another, as veggie burgers can sometimes fall victim to. The consistency is very much like a typical black bean burger, but the beets give it an interesting purple hue, and I think the combination has a more appealing texture than most black bean versions - perhaps because it's paired with Shake Shack's bun, which is so soft . The ingredients gave it an incredibly satisfying crunch and the sauce held them together perfectly; honestly, I didn’t even know the sauce was vegan until after I finished eating it , because my life practice is as usual, "eat now, read later". I didn't think it really needed cheese, which didn't add much to me; the burger and sauce were tasty enough on their own, and this comes from a veritable cheese monster.
One Bustle editor who tried the burger is a vegetarian and a more experienced veggie burger consumer than I am, and I was also impressed with the texture and flavor of this new offering. Now, more and more burger chains are entering the veggie burger market, and it certainly has a lot going for it—most notably White Castle's "Bleeding" veggie burger, aka the "Impossible Slider." Shake Shack's version certainly isn't as "gory" as White Castle, but it doesn't want to be a meat burger either; it knows what it is, and that's delicious in its own right.
People will be able to order Veggie Shack on the app starting this week and in stores at test locations on April 24. Bring on your Instagram game—I regret to inform you that my first thought upon seeing this purple-tinged burger was not “Oh, look, a culinary innovation,” but “OMG, that’s so pretty!! "My shameless vanity aside, this is a veggie burger worth every penny.
