Steak 'n Shake
Reviews and Complaints

My wife and I went for breakfast at the St. Augustine restaurant (#361) this morning (Sunday, October 13th.) There were two cooks but only one waitress who had to work the floor, the cash register and the drive-thru. The service was, as you would expect, horrible. There were only three tables occupied. One table had to get up to get their own coffee refills. We never even saw her again after she gave us our breakfast - so no offer to refill drinks, "how's your food" (which was a little overcooked, by the way) or anything. When we left, there were two people waiting to pick up food at the cash register and one other old guy waiting to pay. We just left our money on the table and left. Not a good experience and we're certainly not satisfied.

Ordered a garlic double add onion with onion rings and a jalapeno crunch meal with fries and a coke. Received a garlic double with fries no onion. And a jalapeno crunch with fries and the coke. The guy that gave me my food asked me to pull up and he would bring my food out. He came out, handed me my food, and lit a cigarette. Extremely unprofessional.

This is my 4th time buying at this stupid location. Always takes me more than 20 mns to get my food here ! U need to fuc$&& close this location, it sucks! Give some priority to the drive thru as well. Definitely not coming back . They alway saying they short . I was always coming back thinking something was going to get resolved but its the same issue .

Its been 2 years since I last visited this location but I dont complain unless in 2 years I cannot get over the horrible experience. The restaurant was dirty, tables sticky, trash on the floor, the waitresses (both men and women) stood around talking person crap instead of cleaning up the space. The bathroom was disgusting. When the food arrived it was cold and horrible. We left the food, paid the bill and left. The wait staff did not follow up on how things were nor care to deliver the food in a timely manner when all they wanted to talk about was partying between themselves. I always wanted to try Steak n Shake since a customer of mine, spoke highly of your company and he was a vendor for you with a product we sold him. I would never recommend now would I ever go back.

October 7, 2019.
No: 301
I was behind 2 cars at the drive through and noticed that every car in front of me had to pull up to wait for their food. I also was told to pull into a parking spot and waited so long that I eventually turned off my car. The next 2 cars also had to pull into a parking spot. I've never waited so long for food from a drive through before.

But I'm submitting this b/c the lettuce on my burger was rotten - something I would have thrown away at home. I attached a photo.

And not related to THIS visit we got frozen fries (yes, frozen) in our box of fries on another visit to a store in Lewis Center, OH.

I was very happy and looking forward to our area finally getting a Steak n Shake. I have now eaten there twice and both times I have been very dissatisfied and disappointed. On both occasions the food was cold and it took an exceptionally long time to get my food and drinks. My most recent visit was today 10-6-19 at 3:30 pm. Upon entering the restaurant there were very few customers and alot of vacant tables. We were told it would be 10-15 minutes to get a table, and at the time there were no more than 10-12 people in the restaurant. While we were waiting two customers told us while sitting at their booth waiting on their food for over a hour. They stated that there were two tables of customers that came in after they did that had already received their food and they still had not received theirs. Upon delivery of their food and after they complained they got up and walked out abandoning their very late food. We observed at least 6-7 waitresses working and the table behind us had three parties come in a sit down, and due to the delay in even speaking tone waitress they got up and walked out. It took us almost an hour to get our cold food and over 30 minutes to even get our drinks and then almost that long to get a refill on our drinks. As I said out food was cold when we received it. My bowl of chili was barely warm and almost too cold to eat. My fries were cold, burnt, and simply broke when I tried to eat them with a fork. After waiting for as long as we did I dare not complain about the delay and food quality. One customers across from me got so tired of waiting that they finally went to complain to the manager. They came back very upset that they were told" they didn't know who or where the manager was at". They eventually did get their order but their fries and food was cold as well. Throughout this entire ordeal the table where the customers that abandoned their food was never cleaned up or had the uneaten food removed, etc. that was unchanged even as we were leaving!

Upon paying the check(also had to wait a long time to do) we finally saw a woman that had a badge that said store manager, I mentioned to her that we were very disappointed and that they had some serious issues to resolve. She didn't even acknowledge me or ask me to explain anything. She basically ignored me and turned around and walked off. This was virtually the same issue that happened on my first visit. I know that during our visit today I personally witnessed minimum of 15 customers walk in and then walk out due to the delay in any resemblance of customer service or their severe delay in receiving drinks or food or both. This is not a large town and word is getting out very quickly that the food and service is very bad at this very new location. I would hope that you would want to address this problem. I will be glad to speak to anyone regarding my issue in the hope it may be resolved in the future. I really like your food and would love to enjoy it in my town. I am also a local restuarant OWNER and can honestly not understand why this is such a problem.

My name is Ben Burnham and my contact number is [protected]

I look forward to any hope of assistance in resolving this issue.

Thank you.

Approximately 4-6 weeks ago, we went thru the drive thru and it took over half an hour to get our food with 3 cars ahead of us. So the next time we went, my friend ran in instead. That time took 25 minutes with one person ahead of him. We love the food but quit going because of the long waits. Today we thought we would try it again. We pulled in the drive thru, ordered right away, 2 cars in front of us, and it took over 20 minutes. This is not fast food! Although Steak n Shake is our favorite "fast food", we will not be going back to this one. We have never received an apology for our long waits. This location was not always like this. It is just in the past month and a half to two months. People we know have experienced the same issue.