Shake Shack's West Coast Menu Left Me California Dreamin'

The culinary team at Shake Shack often infuses flavors from around the world into its fare. It borrowed spices from Korea and pimento cheese from the American South, and the end products yielded very, VERY tasty results. Now, it's taking customers on a trip to the West Coast. Before you start having visions of salmon everything or vegetarian pizzas — some of the foods the West Coast does best — Shake Shack's focus here is still sandwiches and fries, just with a Californian spin.

This new West Coast menu is headlined by a burger with its own secret sauce, caramelized onions, and honey mustard pickles. The menu also includes a chicken sandwich topped with another Cali-staple — a slice of avocado — and finished off with a sour cream and onion sauce. But wait, there's more: fries topped with American cheese, caramelized onions, and Shake Shack's Secret Sauce, as well as the return of Spicy Fries. And if that wasn't enough, the massive Big Shack burger is back for an encore as well.

So, is Shake Shack's interpretation of the West Coast inspired bites worthy of toast or a roast? I pulled up a chair to Shake Shack's table to try its new offerings. Now all can be revealed in this totally saucy and oniony chew and review.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer. Prices and availability will vary by location.

A day before the release of Shake Shack's West Coast menu, I was invited to the chain's Innovation Kitchen in Manhattan to hear all about the new items from its culinary team and taste-test the items onsite. The following items were served in the following order: West Coast Burger, West Coast Chicken, West Coast Loaded Fries, and encore presentations of Spicy Fries with Ranch and Big Shack.

This review is a summation of my own personal tastes and opinions. I also took into consideration my previous experiences with Shake Shack, West Coast burgers, loaded fries, and how these new items resonated with those past experiences. The ultimate criteria for this review were flavor, presentation, smell, texture, temperature, familiarity, originality, freshness, value, West Coast-ness, and ultimately, whether these items are worth your time and your dime.

When I heard "West Coast burgers," my first thought was of In-N-Out. When I saw that Shake Shack's take included a secret sauce, as well as caramelized onions and honey mustard pickles, I took that In-N-Out notion and tossed it "out" the door.

Even as a single patty, the West Coast burger looked like quite a mouthful, with all its elements sloping below the potato bun. The secret sauce's orangey, pale yellow color almost made it look like melty cheese. It tasted like creamy yet sharp Dijonnaise. The sauce had completely coated my pickles, so I was unable to tell if there was honey mustard flavor in tow. While sewage-y brown caramelized onions are never going to win a beauty pageant, I couldn't help but stare at how they looked resting on a melted slice of American cheese.

Without further ado, I took a bite in full, and the early returns were promising. The sauce was devoid of sweetness, and its pungent mustard flavor really rang through with each subsequent nosh. It wasn't something I was used to, but I liked this new flavor challenge. The caramelized onions, not to be outshone, did their usual job of bringing together a wide range of flavors: sweetness, butteriness, and even nuttiness to the party. The pickles are a key element here, as they are the lone veggie-like ingredient to help cool down this super savory affair. I didn't really get a taste of any honey-mustardness, as the onions and secret sauce were hogging the microphone.

After getting my hands full with the West Coast Burger, the West Coast Chicken Sandwich proved to be a challenge. This sandwich was bursting at the seams, with a XXL fried chicken patty taking up so much real estate. Resting on top of it were three generous slices of avocado and two slices of tomato. It was all so much that I almost didn't want to disturb the beast, but alas, duty calls. My fears became a reality when I found it hard to keep all the elements in place. With each attempted bite, either the avocado or the tomatoes kept popping out from under the hood. The sour cream and onion sauce was spread on the top and bottom of the sandwich, but perhaps it would have worked better as a glue had it been meshed in with the avocado slices and tomatoes.

Despite being a mess to handle and conjuring up the sounds of Paul Simon's 1977 hit song "Slip Slidin' Away," my mouth quite enjoyed the creation. The West Coast Chicken Sandwich proved more subdued than the pungent West Coast Burger, with the creamy and smooth sour cream and onion sauce almost acting as a salad dressing. It added a nice fluidity that paired well with the extra crunchy and flaky skin of the fried chicken. While a chicken sandwich, or any sandwich for that matter, deserves pickles, I didn't mind their absence here thanks to those nice avocado slices, which definitely brought a dash of fresh California flavor to the table.

The combo of caramelized onions, secret sauce, and American cheese worked quite well on top of a Shake Shack burger, but how would it translate to a pile of its awesome crinkle-cut fries — hold the pickles? Without the dark tones of the burger, the sloshy onions' brown got to visually pop on its own, and was practically the cherry on top of this side dish, if cherries were covered in cheddar and American cheese. Normally, I'm all about getting handsy with my fries, but the sight of those savory onions told my brain that it's better to use a fork.

Like with the burger, the piquant, Dijon-y sauce and caramelized onions were two dominant tastes that kept vying for my mouth's attention. My mouth didn't mind all the back and forth, as each forkful was a pleasurable one. While I liked it just the way it was, I don't think it would have hurt to have a few pinches of diced pickle strewn on top.

Out of all the new three items on the West Coast menu, the one that had me truly "Californian Dreamin'" was the West Coast Chicken sandwich. The fresh avocado and light and bright sour cream and onion sauce were perfect partners for the stellar Shake Shack chicken. This is definitely worth trying, even if you have to keep playing defense to prevent the slices of avocado and tomatoes from escaping from the bun.

As for the West Coast Burger, well, I'm not exactly sure how coastal it is. One of the chefs mentioned the idea of the burger was like one you'd maybe encounter along the famed Route 66. When he said that, it hit me — the burger is certainly Western, but it perhaps only goes as far as Oklahoma. The Sooner State is home to some of the best burgers in the country, thanks to its renowned and revered onion burgers, and I like how those flavors were infused into a Shake Shack burger. The secret sauce was also a bit of a deviation from the Thousand Island-y ones that top other California burger I've had. Instead of the same-old-same-old, Shake Shack delivered something that was new, surprising, and a welcome change of pace and taste.

No matter where it hails from or what it's called, the West Coast Burger was both unique with its strong flavors and was just all-around tasty. However, if cooked onions aren't your thing, this burger won't be your thing. It's my thing, and I also liked them on top of the West Coast Loaded Fries, and on a patty melt I hope Shake Shack makes one day.

Starting July 14, the West Coast menu items, and the Spicy Fries and Big Shack will be available at participating Shake Shack locations. They are limited-time offerings and will be available while supplies last.

The West Coast Burger comes with a single patty and is tagged with a suggested retail price of $9.99. The burger can have its patty count doubled or even tripled for an additional cost. The single patty sandwich contains 620 calories, 41 grams of total fat, 1,990 milligrams of sodium, and 30 grams of protein. The West Coast Chicken sandwich goes for $9.99 and contains 570 calories, 32 grams of total fat, 960 milligrams of sodium, and 34 grams of protein. Lastly, the West Coast Loaded Fries sell for $6.99 and contain 880 calories, 59 grams of total fat, 1,610 milligrams of sodium, and 13 grams of protein.