Shake Shack at New York, New York in Las Vegas

I have made it a point to dine at a Shake Shack whenever visiting New York (the first location opened in Madison Square Park), and I was enamored to find out that Shake Shack announced plans to open their first Californian location in the West Hollywood area of Los Angeles in early 2016. What drew me in and kept me an avid eater of Shake Shack was not only recommendations from New York friends, but the cheerful interior; commitment to community the easy to navigate and vast (enough) menu of hot dogs, burgers, fries, frozen custard (lots of rotating flavors), and beer & wine; and most importantly, how fresh all of the ingredients taste and work together to create scrumptious flavors.

Shake Shack uses 100% all-natural Angus beef (no hormones and antibiotics, vegetarian-fed, humanely raised, and source verified) as well as sourcing ingredients of the same quality and standards.

While visiting Las Vegas, my friends had organized a dinner for Saturday evening, and to my pleasant surprise, it was at the Shake Shack located in MGM's New York-New York Hotel next to Las Vegas' first community green space. I had no idea that there was a Shake Shack located in Vegas so my excitement increased ten-fold.

I ordered a ShackBurger with extra pickles (Cheeseburger topped with lettuce tomato, and ShakeSauce), and Scott ordered a Hamburger with Bacon and a Jackpot (Vanilla Custard, Belgian waffles, strawberry puree, marshmallow sauce, and crunchy rainbow sprinkles) for us to share. We stole some of my friend's Cheese Fries (topped with a special blend of cheddar and American cheese sauce). I thought that the Jackpot might be a bit too rich and sweet for my taste with all those ingredients mixed in, but I was blown away my how the flavors all married together; although custard is usually dense was balanced by the light crunch from the Belgian waffles (which tasted like sweet morsels of churro) and crunchy sprinkles, and the marshmallow sauce and strawberry puree broke up the thickness of the custard but complemented the vanilla flavor. The entire meal pictured was roughly $20! See their entire menu here.