Shake Shack

Although there are now 3 locations, the original Shake Shack is situated in Madison Square Park. It is, as its name implies, a burger stand, serving the best milk shakes around. The shack is surrounded by small, rickety tables and that's pretty much all there is to it. I hear the burgers are pretty awesome, but as a non-beef eater I always get either the chicken hot dog or portabella mushroom sandwich. None of the food here is very good for you, but it all tastes pretty darn great. Amazingly, the line here is usually an hour long or more, but somehow I never seem to mind. This place is usually so busy that they have a "shack cam" on their website that lets you preview the line situation before you go. It's a great place to spend a lazy afternoon basking in a sunny day and the food is always solid. I highly recommend the french fries (Ankur votes them as the best he's ever eaten!) and, of course, the milkshakes. Go only when you have time to spare and you are with someone you wouldn't mind spending a few hours with. After lunch at the shack, we wandered around, did a little shopping, and enjoyed the Fall colors in Union Square as you can see above.

If you look really hard at the picture at right, you can see Ankur waving. He's happy because he's almost made it to the front of the line :)