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Originally published by Catharina Cheung. Last updated by Corrine Cheung.
Thick, creamy, milky, sweet, and ice-cold—a milkshake really is one of the most indulgent beverages to ever have been dreamt up, bless the Americans. As the temperatures are starting to ramp up, we’ve sourced eleven of the best places in Hong Kong to get that sweet, sweet brain freeze. These milkshakes do bring the boys to the yard!
With a name like Fatties Diner, you can expect to get the creamiest shakes. Offered alongside tasty pastries like croffles and pancakes, the diner has milkshakes in six delicious flavours, including the banana chocolate date night milkshake, the Lotus Biscoff caramel milkshake, and the Kinder Bueno milkshake. For those looking for a “healthier” option, try out the avocado milkshake for a relatively more mindful bevvie.
Fatties Diner, 22 King Street, Tai Hang, Tin Hau | (+852) 6114 7689
Serving American-style burgers and fries, Burger Joys’ menu is not complete without its staple milkshakes! Featuring classic flavours such as chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, and the crunchy cookies and cream, you can also add a taste of alcohol to your milkshakes for an extra cost with options such as Baileys and Kahlúa.
Shake Shack serves up a range of hand-spun shakes, with flavours like vanilla, chocolate, caramel, black and white, strawberry, and coffee to choose from. Pay just a little extra to make it malted (always the option we go for) or add a dollop of whipped cream. Shake Shack has also done a Hong Kong-exclusive flavour, the milk tea shake —a nod to our famous ice milk tea—made with vanilla frozen custard blended with black tea.
Much loved for its fresh, juicy burgers and delicious Cajun fries, the main thing that endears us most to Five Guys is its abundance of free toppings, meaning you can customise your burger exactly the way you want, giving birth to a robust secret menu creatively dreamed up by fanatic diners. Pro tip: You can do this with the milkshakes, too!
Five Guys’ shakes are hand-spun with vanilla ice cream, and you can then choose an unlimited amount of mix-ins to jazz it up. Our favourite secret shake menu is crunchy Oreo cookie pieces, salted caramel, and—wait for it—bacon! It’s a surprising hit combo that builds on applewood-smoked bacon to make your shake the perfect sweet and savoury explosion. You can take things even further and crumble in some complimentary peanuts over the top. Can you tell that our keyboard is covered in drool right now?
Milkshakes are normally part of the casual fast-food group, but The Langham has given the classics an elevated take at Main St Deli. Its deli shakes comes in three flavours: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. It also has four different kinds of shakes with a myriad of toppings, including the rainbow vanilla with fruity cereal and rainbow cake; cookies and cream with Oreo cookie crumbs; toasted marshmallow chocolate with toasted marshmallow and chocolate sauce; and the Elvis shake with crispy bacon, caramel sauce, peanut butter, and banana. With those choices, they are sure to make you crave for some milkshakes!
Main St Deli, Lower Lobby Level, The Langham Hotel, 8 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
In line with its American diner aesthetics, Burger Circus serves its shakes in old-school tall glasses for a throwback vibe. Choose from either a vanilla milkshake or a chocolate milkshake, or push the boat out for an intense sugar rush with the candy shake, with M&Ms, Kit Kat, Oreos, or Reese’s Pieces. You are also more than welcome to request for alcohol to be added to your milkshake for an extra cost. Its central location on Hollywood Road means this is the late-night place to be for cheeky post-drinking sweets!
Burger Circus, 22 Hollywood Road, Central | (+852) 2878 7787
Its legions of fans can’t be wrong; “No Milkshake No Life” should really be the mantra of summer. Its milkshakes, which come in 12- or 16-ounce portions, have been doing their rounds on social media, and luckily, this is one fad that matches its hype. Aside from your standard flavours, options also include the coffee Oreo milkshake, key lime pie milkshake or the caramel peanut butter with bacon milkshake. Boozy shakes are also available, such as the Guinness Oreo milkshake and the Baileys coffee milkshake.
We honestly don’t quite know why The Diner even does burgers or other food items because drinking one of these bad boys is already like having a full meal. Each of its nine flavours available is incredibly indulgent, and the most moreish ones are the malted Malteser milkshake —made with malted milk powder and crushed Maltesers then topped with whipped vanilla bean cream and a Malteser—and the peanut nutter butter milkshake featuring fresh bananas, peanut butter, ice cream, and Nutella topped with whipped vanilla bean cream and peanut butter chips. We haven’t ever been able to finish one of their shakes with a burger in hand, but hats off to you if you can!
The Diner, G/F, 48 Wyndham Street, Central | (+852) 3585 7455
You’re not going to get some watered-down shake at Beef & Liberty—what makes these milkshakes stand out is that there is no milk in them; they just use three scoops of artisan gelato with a shot of thick cream! We particularly like the Oreo milkshake, made with vanilla gelato, Oreo crumble, and cream. Alcoholic options are also available, such as the Midnight Wake-up —Kahlúa, chocolate liqueur, cookies, and chocolate gelato—and Southern Slur —bourbon, caramel syrup, and vanilla gelato.
Covering the hottest new eats, the best places to play, offbeat takes on local culture, and so much more, Localiiz is every Hongkonger’s destination for how to live a well-rounded life in our vibrant city. Why the strange spelling? Well, Localiiz is designed to be your “local eyes”—and for that, you need two i’s.
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