I tried Chick-fil-A’s banana pudding milkshake so you don’t have to. Here’s my review.

The newest addition to the Chick-fil-A menu is here. And this time, it’s not a sandwich—it’s a dessert.

Yes, the honey pepper pimento chicken sandwich is back in stores as of Monday, August 26. But that’s old news, and not good news either. But the Georgia-based chain is introducing a banana pudding milkshake? That catches my attention as a frozen fast-food treat.

This isn’t the first time Chick-fil-A has turned the popular pudding into a milkshake—the banana pudding shake was on the menu 13 years ago. But that was eons ago in fast-food terms. Still, it seems like a logical and delicious move when it comes to dessert. Chick-fil-A makes incredible milkshakes (the peppermint chip shake is especially excellent during the holidays). And if any chain can make banana pudding, it’s a Southern one like Chick-fil-a, right?

I was excited about this. Not as excited as I was about Wendy’s Creamsicle Frosty, mind you, but excited enough to go to Chick-fil-A on opening day and try it out. Maybe it would make up for the lackluster Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich.

It wasn’t. Just like that sandwich, the banana pudding milkshake is less than the sum of its parts. Bananas with vanilla ice cream and vanilla wafer cookies sound objectively delicious, but something’s not quite right here.

As much as I was looking forward to a banana pudding milkshake, I had my concerns. Whenever I hear about a milkshake with too much going on, I get suspicious. It’s one thing for a sundae to be fancy and over the top because you have a spoon at your disposal. But even a few oversized Oreo pieces can ruin a cookies and cream milkshake, no matter how big the straw.

And yes, the straws that come with the banana pudding milkshake are not big enough. It took me several tries before I could try it for the first time because the shake was so thick and there were always bits of waffle stuck. When I finally got a sip, it was overloaded with crunchy cookie crumbs and didn’t taste like banana pudding at all. The nice thing about banana pudding is that the waffles become soft and almost chewy. Since the waffles are mixed into the ice cream just before serving, that doesn’t happen here. The consistency is completely off, somehow reminiscent of the Granny McFlurry from McDonald’s.

I’m not saying the shake tastes bad, but it doesn’t taste good enough to make up for the unfortunate consistency. Even though Chick-fil-A promises that it’s fresh bananas, it tastes kind of artificial. And artificial banana flavoring stinks.

I love banana pudding, but this did not satisfy my banana pudding craving at all. If anything, it made me want to get the real stuff. I could trek into town to try Magnolia Bakery’s famous version of the dish, but Baonanas in Jersey City makes damn good banana pudding of their own.

Maybe we never needed to make a milkshake out of banana pudding. It’s kind of perfect, isn’t it? Sorry, Chick-fil-A. See you at the holidays for your peppermint shake.

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