Shake Shack has a line of desserts that are exclusive to Singapore I tested them all to see what the hype is about
- Shake Shack launched in Singapore in April 2019 and now has eight outlets in the city-state.
- It has a Singapore-exclusive menu of desserts, including one shake and four concretes.
New York City fast-food chain Shake Shack opened its first Singapore location in April 2019.
Shake Shack, led by Danny Meyer, started as a hot dog cart. The menu expanded to offer burgers and shakes, becoming a huge success with diners. Its first international location was in Dubai.
Shake Shack opened its first restaurant in Singapore at Jewel Changi Airport. The outlet was the chain's first in Southeast Asia. It now has seven more restaurants across the city-state.
As of the end of 2021, the company has 103 restaurants overseas.
Shake Shack's Singapore launch was met with much fanfare, with around 300 people waiting in line when it opened its doors for the first time.
The man who was first in line waited for six hours, starting at 4.30 a.m., per local publication 8 Days.
While the Singapore Shake Shack menu is similar to most menus in the US, the chain does have four exclusive desserts with a local twist: Pandan Shake, Jewela Melaka, It Takes Two To Tango, and Shack Attack, which is made with local brownies and chocolate.
The desserts are all permanent menu items.
"At Shake Shack, we always strive to Stand for Something Good and its part of our mission to work with local purveyors and give community support to our surroundings," a company representative told Insider. "As such, we worked with local brands such as Plain Vanilla, Lemuel Chocolate Bean to Bar, Tarte by Cheryl Koh, Mrs Kueh and more to create unique locally inspired concretes, exclusive to Shake Shack Singapore."
On a recent weekday evening, I took a short bus ride to the airport to try the desserts and see what the hype was all about.
To kick off my taste test, I started with the Pandan Shake, which was served in a plastic cup.
The shake is made with vanilla custard blended with coconut and mixed with pandan, a fragrant herb commonly used in Asian cuisines.
The shake is topped with gula melaka crumble — a sweetener made from palm sugar.
While I enjoyed the first few sips of the fragrant blend of vanilla and pandan, I quickly found it too cloying.
While I appreciated the generous serving size, the shake was too rich for me. I like the taste of all the ingredients individually, but the mixture of sweet ingredients was too much.
In all, the shake failed to live up to my expectations. I couldn't get even through a quarter of the cup.
With a hefty price tag of 8.30 Singapore dollars ($6), I wouldn't try it again.
I was more hopeful for the first concrete I was tasting for the night: It Takes Two To Mango.
Shake Shack calls its desserts "concretes," which are frozen custard with toppings.
The single concrete costs S$7.50 ($5.50) and the double costs S$9.50 ($7).
This tropical dessert had mango and sago pearls mixed into the custard, and it was topped with shortbread and freeze-dried mango.
The mango custard was refreshing and balanced — perfect for Singapore's hot weather.
The dessert was served in a palm-sized cup.
As a huge fan of sago, the dish really hit the spot — it had just the right amount of sweetness.
I liked the crunchy shortbread too, which complimented the softness of the mango. And the mellow flavor of the vanilla custard really let the tartness of the mango shine.
Suffice to say, I recommend this tropical twist on the classic concrete.
Next was the Jewela Melaka, which was named after Jewel Changi Airport, and gula melaka, an ingredient in the dessert.
The concrete is made of vanilla custard mixed with coconut salted caramel. It's topped with shortbread, gula melaka, and chocolate chunks, which are from Singaporean brand Lemuel Chocolate.
Gula melaka is made from the sap of a date, coconut, or sago palm, and it tastes like caramel or butterscotch.
The gula melaka gave the dessert a delicious lift, and wasn't overpowering. It was my favorite of the bunch.
The salted caramel balanced out the sweet ingredients.
The chocolate chunks had a bitterness to them, which offered some complexity to the dessert. And the gooey goodness of the gula melaka was also satisfying, especially because it blended well with the chocolate.
The dessert lived up to the hype, and had a deliciously authentic Singaporean twist to it, thanks to the gula melaka.
Last but not least was the Shack Attack, a concrete commonly found in the US but with locally sourced ingredients.
While the other concretes on the menu had a vanilla custard base, this one was made of chocolate custard.
The chocolate custard was blended with Shack fudge sauce and Lemuel chocolate chunks, and brownies made by Plain Vanilla, a local bakery.
The super chocolatey dessert wasn't my cup of tea, but I loved the brownies mixed into it.
I found myself hoping for something to cut through the richness of the chocolate —after a few bites, I had to guzzle down some water.
One thing that redeemed the dessert was the locally made brownies, which were soft and chewy.
Overall, the desserts were a mixed bag, and on the pricier side for fast food.
In comparison, McDonald's Hot Fudge Sundae costs only S$2.20 ($1.60), while Burger King's Hershey's Sundae Pie costs S$4 ($2.90).
Of course, it's also worth noting that I ordered four desserts in one sitting, which is basically asking for a sugar overload.
While I thought the Jewela Melaka was delicious, I won't be trying the Pandan Shake and Shack Attack again. They were simply too sweet and too chocolatey, respectively, for my tastes.
I still recommend giving them a try, but make sure to bring a bottle of water to wash down the sweetness.
READ MORE ARTICLES ON
Popular Right Now
Advertisement