Is the Shake Shack Burger on Delta Any Good? (Review) - Eye of the Flyer (2025)

Back in November 2024, Delta Air Lines announced they would serve Shake Shack burgers on select domestic routes from Boston (BOS). This was a surprising partnership: serving branded chain food (and fast food, at that) on Delta flights, as the airline is usually known for partnering with independent eateries for special catering.

After seeing all the rave reviews, I finally managed to hop on a flight from Boston to Atlanta (ATL) to try one of these Shake Shack burgers for myself.

It started about a week before my flight, when I received an email from Delta to preselect my meal for the flight. It’s worth noting that you must preorder the Shake Shack burger — as it’s not available to select onboard the aircraft. Any last-minute upgrades won’t be able to order the burger, and the preorder window closes 24 hours before the flight.

About 30 minutes after takeoff, I had the burger in front of me, and it looked good! It was probably the best-looking burger that I’ve seen on an airplane. For reference, I had the United burger awhile back, and it was an overcooked mess with cheese that melted out of the burger and all over the plate, as if it was cooked on too high of a heat for too long.

This burger was perfectly cooked, and the cheese was still mostly on the burger. For sides, the burger was served with a salad with Caesar dressing (in my opinion, the better salad dressing compared to the oil and vinegar you usually get), Miss Vickie’s Sea Salt chips, your toppings for the burger, and a dark chocolate brownie.

I loaded my burger up with the special sauce, pickles, tomatoes, onion, and lettuce. And if I do say so myself, I think that burger looks pretty appetizing. I think it’s perfect that all the toppings come on the side to help picky eaters (like Chris), and I think if they came on the top, they would turn the bread pretty soggy and wilt the lettuce.

The insides were perfectly warm and cooked through. I think due to the thinness of the meat, it is more easily cooked through while not losing any moisture or drying out. Everything was delicious.

The salad and chips were also very good. I much prefer a real salad dressing over the oil they usually serve in Delta-catered meals. I would gladly take that salad any day. Also, while I like Salt & Vinegar chips, the Sea Salted ones were perfectly acceptable. If you’re watching what you eat, this meal is very salt forward with a salty Caesar dressing, salted chips, and a brownie with salt flakes on the top. For a meal in the air, it extenuates the flavor of the dish but can leave you quite parched.

The brownie was a great end to the meal, it was moist and the dark chocolate and chocolate bits were perfect.

Overall, I think this is one of the best meals that I’ve had on a domestic US flight. It ranks very highly, even compared to Delta’s Fox Bro’s BBQ, which can sometimes be hit or miss. The Shake Shack burger knocked it out of the park on the first go. It’s the perfect burger choice for an airplane, and I hope it continues past 2025 and expands to additional markets. If I could, I would order this on every flight I take.

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