Steak & Shake

Steak & Shake's GCB

Let me start by saying that I usually try to avoid reviewing chains.  Not because I don't eat at plenty of them, but because they are everywhere, and the general public has usually tried most of them already, so what's the point of a review?  (Okay, yes, I also did one of Waffle House, but I felt the need to advocate for it.)

But when I heard that Steak & Shake was offering a Garlic Double Cheeseburger, I had to try it myself and then share the results.  You see, I went to a certain university here in Indiana that's near a restaurant named Marvin's, which is famous for its Garlic Cheeseburgers (GCB's, for short).  They're a bit of an obsession for most of us alumni.

The original GCB

As you can see from the pictures, Steak & Shake's version is pretty different from Marvin's good old GCB in the looks department.  I will give S&S props for a pretty good bun (not their standard steak burger bun), and the meat is probably of higher quality than Marv's.  However, at S&S  butter is the featured ingredient on top of the bun (and throughout, really), rather than the garlic salt.  The original is much more dry and garlic salt heavy, in a good way.  S&S's was greasy and strangely tangy, possibly from something in the garlic butter spread they put inside.  Kind of odd. Both had standard American cheese on them, although I couldn't really taste it beyond the butter on S&S's burger.

Overall, the S&S burger was pretty good, even though I could feel my arteries clogging as I ate it.  But it was really no substitute for the original GCB, which in my unbiased opinion, is perfection.

Website:  Steak & Shake and Marvin's