Costco's food court is testing a burger that's been called a Shake Shack ripoff — here's everything we know about it (COST)

The budget retailer has begun serving a burger at locations in Seattle and Southern California, SF Gate reported.

Even before the burger hit the menu, it was being called a Shake Shack imitator, with Eater LA noting in May that the two burgers looked "remarkably" similar. Made with organic ground beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and "special sauce," the burger's brioche bun and saucy topping seemed to borrow a couple tricks from Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer's playbook.

Now that the burger is actually available to purchase, customers are weighing in.

So far, the consensus seems to be that the burger is a far cry from Shake Shack's iconic menu item.

"This is nothing like a Shake Shack burger. So, that was a little disappointing," BuzzFeed reporter Crystal Ro wrote in her review. "It was kind of like, if your friend Joe decided he wanted to ~recreate~ a Shake Shack burger at home and he invited you over to try it, and you had to be like, 'Oh, yeah this is great. Nice job, Joe!' but, secretly, you wished you could be eating In-N-Out instead – it's like that."

While SF Gate's Chris Preovolos agreed that the burger wasn't a Shake Shack clone, he had a more positive take on Costco's fare, calling it a crowd-pleasing, slightly over-sized burger.

"I would happily lay down five bucks for one of these burgers on my weekly Costco shop should the company make them available more widely, just don't expect a Shake Shack-like cult following," Preovolos wrote.

Shake Shack comparisons aside, the burger's biggest flaw seems to be a dry patty and lack of distinguishing characteristics.

"Upon further inspection, I noticed that the burger was pretty dry. If you know me, you know that I like my burgers like I like my men, wet and meaty," BuzzFeed reporter Pablo Valdivia noted in his review. "It tastes exactly like a theme park burger, which means it was a bit bland, but tolerable."

"It reminded me of burger day for high school lunch," food blogger Teaspoon of Yum wrote on Instagram. "The meat was just a tad dry and I wish they would toast the bread... but overall, pretty good for the Costco food court."

The burger's size seemed to be a point of division. The 1/3 pound burger packs 1,140 calories.

"It's yum for me but...I just can't unsee the 1140 cal," one person wrote on Instagram.

Overall, it seems as though Costco won't have much trouble finding people to try the burger. Instagram has been flooded with photos of the menu item.

Even if it doesn't gain the cult following of Costco's chicken bake or hot dog, it seems that customers across the country are at least curious about the food court's latest menu addition.

Costco's food court is testing a burger that's been called a Shake Shack ripoff — here's everything we know about it (COST)

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