What To Know About Shake Shack's Bestselling Menu Items

Shake Shack, which has a fine dining origin story, is known for its top-quality smash burgers and crinkle-cut fries, but there are some less obvious ways in which the chain stands out. For example, the chain sporadically releases data on its sales, highlighting details like its most popular stores and its most-sold menu items.

The lastest report Shake Shack published on its customers' preferences was in 2023, and there are some interesting nuggets of information to be gleaned from it. First up, the most popular combination of menu items that Shack customers ordered together: Iconic crinkle fries, the classic Shackburger, and a cookies and cream shake. For the uninitiated, the Shackburger is a quarter-pound of beef with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and Shake Shack's slightly tangy signature sauce, all stacked onto one of the best buns in the fast food industry. The shake is a stand-out, with the chain making each with house-made vanilla frozen custard.

There are some less-obvious details in Shake Shack's trends, too: The chain regularly cycles through limited-time-only menu items like special burgers and uniquely flavored shakes. In 2023, the most popular temporary food item was its white truffle burger, a cheeseburger made with fontina cheese, crispy sweet onions, and a white truffle sauce. On the drinks side, the Oreo Funnel Cake Shake was the most popular, featuring a rich combination of frozen vanilla custard, Oreo and funnel cake pieces, and chocolate whipped cream on top.

Shake Shack's trend report also offered up details on the popularity of some now-abolished permanent menu items. While you might think of Shake Shack as a place for burgers, its "most missed" food item — the items it no longer offers but customers wish they could still order — was its Shack-Cago Dog. This was a flat-top hotdog (meaning it's sliced lengthwise) with a host of toppings like celery, pickle, onion, and relish; Shake Shack now only serves regular hot dogs as one of its few neither-burger-nor-sandwich food items. As for drinks, the "most missed" is the Coffee Fair shake, effectively a coffee-flavored shake. It's unclear whether these "most missed" labels mean these items might return, though.

Finally, the trend report also points out some regional tastes across the U.S. It seems that there might be at least a little truth to "granola" stereotypes of the West Coast, as the region that ordered the most avocado items was the Pacific Northwest, while California ordered the most non-dairy shakes (these are made with NotMilk, which is made from peas). Yet California didn't order the most Veggie Shacks, the chain's veggie burger — that honor went to New York City. Meanwhile, the area that ordered the most frozen custards or shakes was fittingly the scorching deserts of the Southwest.