The ‘Shroom Burger Deconstructed. Shake Shack Dubai.

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I walked over to the Shake Shack opening at Mall of Emirates, Dubai with one, and only one singular purpose – the ‘Shroom Burger.

I’d stumbled upon this veggie masterpiece at their original location at Madison Square Park, NYC. The location that gave rise to a cult following and hour long queues snaking around the park for a simple burger and fries. The memory of that particularly piggy day sticks out in my mind like it was yesterday…I walked up to the Shake Shack counter and ordered The Shack Stack – the two-in-one burger that combined their regular beef patty with a ‘shroom (as in, mushroom) one. I sunk into the layers, mentally cross-checking against the description I’d read on the menu:

bun, check, lettuce n’ tomato, check, cheese, check, sauce, mmmm. check, beef patty, check, ‘shroom patty, che…omg. oooMG. O-M-GGGG. SO-INSANELY-AMAZI…ZzZzZaAaP~~~~!!mental short-circuit.

My tastebuds had been blown out of this world. The veggie option totally trumped the beef burger, and I vowed to become a ‘Shroom burger loyalist – no beef patty, just the ‘shroom – from then on. As I sat in the Shake Shack in Dubai, nostalgically stuffing my face with an favorite from my past life in NYC, the awesomeness of this gobstoppingly fantabulous burger came flooding back to me.

The Deconstruction:

You know that feeling people get when they want to squeeze a chubby baby’s cheeks? That’s the feeling I get when I look at this bun. Not your usual sesame seed rounds, but a super soft and slightly sweetish potato  bun. Rich and dense and pillowy beyond belief.

Lettuce. Imported all the way from the US to Dubai. A bit excessive no? Who even really tastes the lettuce on a burger bun? As long as its fresh and crisp, it’s done its job. And you get fresh and crisp in Asia as well.

Tomato. Next.

Mayonaissey Shack Sauce. Salty, creamy. I’m going to ask for them to slather it on more generously when I next visit the Dubai joint.

…and then, the moment that I’d been starving myself for the entire day until dinner time, the ‘Shroom patty.

That patty is a devilish portabello grenade, disguised on the outside with a deep brown shell, crisp fried in some places and chewy mushroomy in others. Crunch into it, and it explodes in your mouth with thick bubbling molten cheese.

Once I was done gorging on my cheese-oozing ‘shroom patty, I actually did sample some of the other menu items…

Cheese Fries. They start out as a worthy accomplice of the ‘shroom burger for a few fleeting minutes…until the cheese congeals into a plastic sheet over the fries. And they could have been a tad bit crispier. Quite a few tad bits actually.

Shack-Cago Dog. nnneaah. Nothing special.

Great White Way. Frozen vanilla custard (aka dense super creamy and rich ice cream) with rice krispies and marshmellow sauce. Sugar shock is a side-effect of this baby I’m sure, but I couldn’t help but giggle with girlish happiness at every spoonful of this childish indulgence.

The Shack Attack. Overdose of chocolate, with chocolate custard and other chocolatey fudge things, topped off with chocolate sprinkles. My brain suffered chocolate frostbite after one spoonful. It was way too much chocolate clomped together without any interesting flavor variations to spice things up.

Upper West Slide. Frozen vanilla custard with banana and strawberry bits. A little bit of fruit at the end of a meal can aright all the cheesy excesses of your recent past.

Salty Caramel Custard. I loooove salty caramel. Far less ambitious compared to the tall glasses of thick shakes with all their fixin’s. But the perfect mellow way to close out a ‘shroom burger that’s already given you your dose of cheesy opulence. <no picture, but trust me, it hit the spot.>

[I-Don’t-Know-What-It’s-Called] Custard with Peanut Butter and Chocolate. Good, but not memorable enough for me to remember what exactly it tasted like.

(Disclaimer: I had been invited, along with fellow food bloggers, to the opening night of Shake Shack in the Mall of the Emirates. It was an evening of free food and lots of photography. Whether the experience and food remains consistent past the opening date is still to be seen.)


Shake Shack
Location: Mall of the Emirates (next to Ski Dubai)
Phone: +971 (4) 409-9000

CategoriesCity Dubai Restaurant Review Sponsored eventTags,

Author: InaFryingPan

With a family legacy of ingenious cooks, a nutritionist and chef-extraordinaire mother, and a father who introduced me to steak and caviar when I could barely reach the table, I had no choice but to acquire a keen awareness of food during my childhood years in Dubai. But it was only after I found myself on a college campus in Philadelphia – far away from home, too cheap as a student to spend on anything other than pizza, and with dorm rooms that had little rat-holes of kitchens if they even had them at all – when I developed a heightened appreciation of food. An appreciation of food that I once ate every night at the dinner table in Dubai, but that was now an entire ocean away. I lusted for the culinary treasures that lay outside the stale walls of my college dining hall, hijacked friends’ kitchens to try my hand at something, anything , remotely edible, and greedily raided different websites in search of highly-rated restaurants. With my move to New York to work for a consulting firm that secretly harbored self-professed foodies, my appreciation transformed into a passion, an addicition. I felt like everyone around me in New York was talking about food: where to get the best cupcakes, pizza slices, banh mi, kati rolls, pho, fried chicken, and every other food item out there that is just a plain old dish in some part of the world, but that’s become hyped to unforeseen proportions in New York. What fuelled my addiction over time was travel to different cities, both for work and play, which gave me unfettered access to the culinary havens of not only New York, but also of DC, Virginia, Chicago, Houston, Vegas, Austin, Seattle and even a little city called Bentonville (Arkansas!). After 9 years away from home, I’ve finally taken the leap to come back to Dubai – with not just an awareness, but genuine appreciation and passionate addiction for what I’d taken for granted as a child. Mom, I’m back to reclaim my seat at your dinner table, and to rediscover this city with its ever-expanding menu of international flavors.

13 thoughts on “The ‘Shroom Burger Deconstructed. Shake Shack Dubai.”

  1. FooDiva says:

    If only I wasn’t allergic to mushrooms – for now it’s beef patty all the way!

    Reply
  2. CompleteFoodie says:

    Wouldn’t have expected anything less but amazing pictures that we have now become accustomed too on this amazing site! That cheese dripping one is my favourite.. some might find it too much but for some reason it just speaks to me and it says "Must Eat Shroom Burger" & at Shake Shack. Brilliant as usual!

    Reply
  3. radZ says:

    Definately going to get my teeth into the portabello grenade..tomorrow it is :)

    Reply
  4. Sidiqa says:

    I still need to try the custards!!
    And that picture with the oozing cheese is HEAVENLY

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      @FooDiva – ack, the horror! Sorry to hear lady, beefie burger it is!

      @CompleteFoodie – hahaha…one can never get enough of cheese dripping, that’s the only way to go. Thanks for the flattering words!

      @radZ – did you try it? gotta tell me how it was!

      @Sidiqa – what?! the dessert mamma went to Shake Shack and left without trying the custards? Blasphemous! You must go back!

  6. saleem says:

    Looking at the photo’s, tempted to try – take us their to explore

    Reply
  7. Sally says:

    It’s good that we all have different tastes – I thought that the mushroom was completely overwhelmed by the cheese and breadcrumbs – it could have been tofu for the lack of mushroon taste. The hotdog was the tastiest thing in my opinion. The pickles are apparently artisan (whatever that means) but there was decent depth and contrasts of flavour to make it interesting. Your pictures are AAAAAWWWESOMe – tell me they are not all on location!

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      @Rajani – indeed, a veggie burger that’s not just good, but that (by my 2 cents) actually surpasses the beef burger…this one’s got your name written all over it. In cheese. ;)

      @saleem – consider it done!

      @Sally – ah, you’re stabbing me Sally, pushing the knife right through my portabello-enamoured heart! ah well, you’ve got a point – not everyone goes gaga over exploding cheese. :(
      yes, all photos are on location :) …(or at least till the day I build a lil’ Shake Shack in my backyard, popping out burgers at my beck and call!)

      @shafeena – thanks!

  9. Yasmin says:

    LOVE the oozing cheesy photo, so very artistic and well thought out. I’m currently drooling all over my keyboard, must go back and have more burgers soon.

    Reply
  10. Marta´s Kitchen says:

    I absolutely love your pictures!!!
    Haven´t tried shake shack yet bu after reading about the shroom burger i can´t wait! I just finished lunch and i actually feel like going there right now and trying it!!

    Reply
  11. coco says:

    These photographs border on lewd pornography! I love it and can’t believe I take shake shack for granted here living in NYC…that burger really is one hot dish!
    Thanks for tiding me over while i’m going semi-vegan & gluten-free in January 2012. Congrats and keep posting!
    http://onehotdish.blogspot.com/

    Reply

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