Bottom Line: The Shake Shack burger and fries get a nice kick from teaming up with the Hot Ones™ and the Apollo Sauce takes things to the next level of hot!
The Hot Ones™ show on YouTube has been getting more popular lately, and they are increasing their exposure by teaming up with other well-known brands. Their basic schtick is that they interview celebrities while said guests are eating wings with ever hotter sauce (including the Hot Ones™ proprietary selections). You might have thought that I would have caught their show, but I haven’t gotten it on my watch list yet. I have been checking out their crossovers when I can find them, though (like the Scorchin’ Pringles), and most recently I sampled the burgers and fries using their sauces at Shake Shack.
That casual dining joint is offering a Hot Ones™ burger and chicken sandwich along with two types of fries (full details on those here). I went with the burger (because I am getting tired of chicken sandwiches) which includes a 100% Angus beef patty topped with our Hot Ones™ Spicy ShackSauce, crispy, applewood smoked bacon, and Monterey Jack cheese on a toasted potato bun. I paired that with the cheese fries which are comprised of crispy crinkle-cut potatoes topped with cheese sauce and dusted with Aleppo Pepper, served with more of that Spicy ShackSauce on the side for dipping. (My lawyers have advised me that I have now used the ™ enough times that I can drop it for the rest of the post.)
The Shake Shack burgers are smaller in size than you might expect (especially for the price), but they are still quite satisfying. The patty is thin, but it is plenty beefy and cooked to perfection. The bacon adds a touch of smokiness and a bit of salt, but it is not as crispy as advertised. They were not very generous with the Spicy ShackSauce (next time I will order extra), but since I got the Hot Ones fries I borrowed from that. It is a thick mayonnaise-based sauce that adds some nice creaminess and a little bit of a tang, and the bites with it were the best ones.
The heat does not hit right away, but it is a deep and full heat that fills your mouth and that lingers a while. The burger is above the Medium level but not quite approaching Hot. If there was more sauce included, this might be hotter. But I didn’t really need that because I added on a packet of the Last Dab Apollo Pepper Sauce to my order (for $1.99), and that amped things up.
That is the hottest of the Hot Ones sauces and it is rich and peppery in taste, with similarities to ghost chili and/or scorpion chili sauce, along with a fruity punch. As for the heat . . . buckle yourself in! It approaches the Insane level on its own and just a few well-placed drops kicked things notably up on the burger. It got to the point that it was numbing my senses, but it definitely engaged the endorphins and I found the burger quite enjoyable with that added.
As for the fries, they are crinkle-cut and crispy and quite good on their own. In fact, they were ranked best among eight chains in a taste test by one particular reviewer. The Aleppo Pepper seasoning brings a nice zing to the fries, but not too much heat. The cheese sauce is a fairly standard processed cheese topping and adds a nice creaminess. When dipping those into the spicy sauce, though, the creamy factor became almost redundant. I would have preferred regular fries with that sauce and will probably do that next time. Throwing on a few drops of the Apollo sauce amped things up as expected and turned my lunch into a fiery feast!
Calorie-wise, the burger itself is not too bad at 590 cals. (I couldn’t find the full breakout on the Hot Ones burger, but I assume it is similar to their bacon cheeseburger). When you add on those fries, though, it’s time to loosen the belt. The cheese fries themselves come in at 710 cals and I’m going to guess that sauce adds at least another couple of hundred. And no matter how much you tell yourself you are only going to eat half of the fries, it ain’t gonna happen. You’re going to keep munching until you are scraping the remaining cheese from that little cardboard container. So throw away your diet when you go to try the Hot Ones selections and schedule some extra hours in the gym afterwards.
This all came out pretty pricey at twenty bucks for the burger and fries (with no drink!), but that included the two extra bucks for the Apollo sauce and a tip for the people working hard to prepare and serve my order. You will pay a little extra at Shake Shack, but they use higher quality ingredients and I find them to be worth it.
Shake Shack is a fast-casual restaurant that specializes in hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, and of course those shakes in the title. It actually started out as a hot dog stand in New York City in 2001, but has since expanded far beyond its origins. It has locations nationwide and across the globe, and you can check to see if there is one near you at their website. The Hot Ones offerings are limited-time-only, so head to a Shake Shack near your soon if you want to give them a try.