Steak ‘n Shake

The absolute worst drive-​through experience I’ve ever had in my entire life. Employees are so slow it is not funny

Very poorly managed, obviously. Was seated in about 10 minutes on a Wednesday night, 8:30. Not much of a crowd. Waited at my table for 20 minutes. Server never appeared, so I departed abruptly in disgust. Complete waste of time!

Wow I have never been to a place like this. This place needs help. No service and never got the food. Please someone help! We left without ever getting food. After waiting on our good setting in the window we left. I don’t know if I will ever return to this location.

We went to this place on Sat night and were very disappointed. The servers were very unfriendly. They were busy at the time but the type of service was unacceptable. The food quality was ok. But the place itselfnwas very crammed. Overall a bad experience.

This is absolutely the worst place. Sure their burgers are good but the service and lack of customer service is far extreme. I ordered carry out and it took about an hour. A couple times I have been in the drive thru and it takes about an hour as well. Steak n’ shake is a great chain, just don’t go to the one on pleasant hill.

Service is always slow. Have been sitting here for 10 minutes. no drinks… no acknowledgement… nothing. Poor service at its best.

I understand the two star. This place is at best a half star. Walked in and No one acknowledges you. Had to ask if I seat myself or wait to be seated like the sign says. They said someone will seat you. Go to sit down and was greeted by the lovely gem of someone else’s pubic hair. Not sure why I stayed. Took forever for some one to take our order. Bring cup of water back with caked on left over food on the rim. The order was wrong of course. They didn’t bring pickles on side until after we were done. Didn’t bring mayo as requested. Chili was not even warm enough to melt the cheese. Spoke to manager. No comment. Excuses. Said was going to take off burgers. Nope. They brought me receipt in full. Place is a joke. Disgusting. Repulsive. Never again!

I used to come here all the time to handle my milkshake cravings. However, the quality of the food, the service, and the wait are all absolutely terrible. The employees are all pretty rude. Drive thru and inside and it takes forever just for your order to come. Several times the cashiers have given me the wrong change back and I believe it was on purpose to. Do yourself a favor and don’t come here. There are plenty of great other places to go for all the sand menu items.

Service so slow… Nobody has clue whats going on… Its funny to watch… Its surreal…

Horrible service the place is empty seen the waiter once the tables are a mess there is a guy filling up the salt and not cleaning tables dont even bother

There customer service sucks, they have a few good employees, but tonight the manager who took my order was so busy rushing me he fucked up my order. Forgot our lemonade and was just unpleasant

Omg! Never go here. I usually never eat fast food but I was craving a burger and milkshake. The drive — thru was the only thing open at 6:30pm on a sunday! They got order completely wrong and didn’t give a receipt. My milkshake was «made up» … Not what I ordered and the burgers were cold. When I called back to complain, some ass answered the phone and wouldn’t give it to the manager. Then her bitch ass got on the phone and told me to come back, with the food and the receipt! Stfu… U will be looking for a new job soon. Close this sh*t hole down ASAP.

Terrible service… unbelievably rude and inconsiderate employees. We’ve been ignored twice when trying to dine in. More recently, we were given attitude and spoken down to by a man working the drive thru window simply for asking for extra cheese sauce for our fries! Won’t put up with it anymore… officially never going here ever again.

If there’s one thing driving Steak ‘n Shake’s business, it isn’t their dirt-​cheap food or their milkshakes. It’s the tendency of many diners to forget a past experience – or, in this location’s case – *forgive* a past experience. At least this particular Steak ‘n Shake is a place I’ll always remember too late I had sworn off before. The problem is that realization only occurs when I’ve been sitting in their booth for yet another forty five minute wait for short-​order food. Thus, I have the opportunity to feel oddly guilty about the situation, as if I brought it on myself.
To elaborate, Steak ‘n Shake’s wrangling of my dinero happens in that moment when the arrival of their coupons coincides with my memory lapse concerning my last experience at their establishments. The location here, in Duluth along Pleasant Hill Road, is everything that reminds you why the chain has to bombard potential customers with fliers. Some businesses send coupons to market their presence, but others send coupons because no one would frequent their establishment otherwise.
Inside the building, it’s as if those who didn’t meet the lofty standards of the TSA or MARTA are hard at «work» in some mandatory punishment program, though I’ve never seen so much effort lead to so little. It’s like twenty people somehow manage to condense into five, and from what I could tell three of them were wait staff and the other two were in the kitchen. I don’t know if this is the fault of the staff – if there’s actually enough people there to get the job done, but apathy has killed their ability to do so – or if corporate is asking too much of their team.
Either way, outside of a few bright spots (the occasional well-​meaning, but frazzled waiter), there’s a sense of an establishment that isn’t so much in business as it is under siege. Grillman doesn’t want to do anything but shout at the guys in the back kitchen. Waitresses congregate, as if in the London Blitz, somewhere back in the far left. Drinks arrive late. Silverware arrives late. Orders of food arrive late, cold, and wrong, followed by their remedy five to ten minutes later. It is amazing how this place swallows time.
Customers at the main counter getting pickup often find the level of service is directly proportional to how loud they have to shout. I weep for the drivethrough experience, which must be something like a bread line in the USSR’s «best» years.
A pall hangs over this place, like a mid-90’s Hardee’s. There’s a sense this is the despondent elephant graveyard of food service.
But also like Hardee’s, Steak & Shake can turn things around for the better.
The problem is obvious, even to an outsider: like another overrated restaurant chain, Zaxby’s, Steak ‘n Shake is trying to be all things to all people, but S&S wants it done dirt cheap to boot. They’d be much better off focusing on one experience – I’d say sit-​in dining, with occasional to-​go orders – and go from there. In other words, they could emulate a Denny’s, but with cheaper food, and slot nicely in the market between McDonald’s and Waffle House. If they brought in more people or attracted better help, they might even start to compete with Chick-fil-A’s market share. They’d have to address the issues in the menu, too, starting with those pitiful burgers and lukewarm chili.
But all this would involve an injection of both competence and enthusiasm, and if the Duluth location is any indication, the chain as a whole long since thought coupons were a worthy substitute.
SMALL CHILDREN SECTION
— — — — — — — — — — — –
Scream away, kids. I know you’re starving, but yells won’t make the food arrive quicker. The cooks are trying to figure out how to make a burger.
Seating flexibility: ²⁄₅
Extra Napkins: I *think* there were table dispensers. It’s like trying to remember details during torture. You sort of block everything out but the baton.
Inevitable spill \ dropped crayon tolerance: Highest

Steak ‘n Shake is a place for low-​cost drunchies. My friends and I came here after hanging out at a nearby Dave and Busters to celebrate a friend’s birthday and to grab a quick bite. We got here about 12:30am and was seated with our large group. They had been pretty busy all night, but our server came quickly to take our food and drink order.
I had some fries and a strawberry banana shake (the one with real bananas). The fries are scrawny and not that great, but this is steak ‘n shake, I wasn’t expecting anything more than what we were paying for (~5 bucks for burger and fries). I did enjoy my shake though, the chunky bananas added texture and made me feel less guilty for having a milkshake in the middle of the night.
Kudos to our server who had to deal with some disruptive customers while getting us all of our food quickly.

As I was eating my burger I thought to myself, why did I come here? The hostess was very nice but the «server» did not even offer me a refill. The food is basically McDonalds food but they just bring it to your table. I am sure everyone else already knew this. Maybe other locations are better? To be fair, if my waitress had offered me a refill I would have given 3 stars. Refills are one of my «pet peeves» I guess. Food was «meh». A «double» cheeseburger at Steak and Shake is still smaller than a single burger anywhere else.

The burger was good and it’s a pretty good deal for a burger and fries for $ 4. Know that the fries are smaller than they appear in pictures. The shakes were just not my cup of tea.
Service was okay. The waiter was nice but they got the wrong shake order for my friend.
Overall and okay place. I’d only go back for the burgers and fries though.

Man, a two-​star overall rating? People are being a little hard on Steak ‘n Shake! I got a double burger and fries for like… two bucks… Are you expecting fine gourmet? :)
All right, so I was emptying a storage unit down the street (don’t ask, long story) and I was starving at about 10 PM. I decided to stop in to Steak ‘n Shake with my girlfriend. She had never been to one and was a little hesitant but I assured her it was decent.
We went in, and she was astounded by the prices and variety of shakes! I ordered a double burger and she had a guacamole burger with the seasoned fries. They were both really good! We liked that the portions were kind of small, because we didn’t feel guilty about eating burgers at 11PM.
My girlfriend ordered a kids’ size peppermint shake and it was really tasty. There’s always good people watching, too. Overall, don’t be so hard on this place. It’s cheap and quick, and you can do worse. We thought it was pretty good!

The question isn’t «why is the drive thru line always so long?» The question is «why do I sit in it every time and complain?»
The food is what you would expect from a Steak ‘n Shake. It won’t kill you, but it’ll serve as some sort of sustenance. The customer service here is non existent. The employee at the drive thru always hands you the wrong order, and always complains about it when you tell them you have the wrong thing.
Tip for the management: hire quality employees that actually care about their job and will provide decent service at a fast pace. After all, you are fast food. No matter how 50’s you decorate your stores.

i absolutely LOVE Steak n shake, but this is hands down the worst one I’ve ever been to!
First, let me say that I have never been inside this restaurant. Every time I have visited it has been through the drive thru. Every single time I have waited over 10 minutes just to get from the speaker to the window, and every time they have gotten my order wrong.
However my last visit with them took the cake. They did get my order right this time, but it was about a 15 minute wait to get to the drive thru window, and the steak patties on my Frisco melt tasted terrible… like they were old or overcooked or something. I will not be going back.