So what's the deal with Steak and Shake?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

(No, this isn’t a bad Jerry Seinfeld joke, it’s a lame rant/informal poll)

For the first time in a few months, my girlfriend and I went to Steak and Shake, because I wanted some ice cream and coffee.

Now, I’ve been to plenty of Steak and Shakes in plenty of cities around here, at pretty much every time of the day, slow periods and busy periods, and I’ve noticed one unifying factor: 90% of the time, the service sucks.

When we arrived, there were two other parties ahead of us. We waited for them to be seated first, and then sat down next two one of the parties (I had my back to them). We actually get waited on pretty quickly, place our orders, and get the desserts. Probably 10 or 20 minutes pass, and we’re ready to leave. As we’re getting ready to leave, though, I notice the lady from the party behind me is talking to some of the staff members very enthusiastically. She sits back down and says to her husband and son “Someone will be here soon. And it’s free.”

That’s right, the whole time we were eating and being waited on, they were just sitting there, in plain view, without anyone taking care of them.

Now, this wouldn’t merit a ranting if it was just a one time occurance. This happens alot at Steak and Shake, though it’s usually to me and my party. In fact, one time we were actually being waited on by the manager, who failed to come by and refill our drinks, and we had to go up to the check out counter to get our ticket to pay. And it’s not like we could complain. Who do we ask to speak to in that case? (After that incident, it was almost a year before we had S&S).

In another instance, me and a few friends went to S&S at about midnight. We were one of two parties in there, and it was a good 5 minutes before we were taken care of. Then it took nearly 30 minutes to get our checks, with no staff in site to even ask about it. There’s been numerous other occaisions where the service has been just as bad, but chronicling them would take way too much effort.

So is this a problem with everyone who visits S&S? Or is it just limited to Middle-TN locations?

2

It happened to me once. Came in, sat down and waited. After no one spoke to me or approached my table for over 10 minutes, I got up and walked out.

I’ve been back, mainly because I was with groups of people who wanted to go there. Otherwise I don’t think I’d bother. The food is meh at best.

3

Steak n Shake is only the most awesomest restaurant ever. Then again, I know most of the staff at the Lafayette location I normally go to by first name. I’m sort of a junkie. :frowning: But the milkshakes are sooo good. . .

4

Once at a Steak and Shake here (the one on Manchester in Maplewood), I went in to pick up an order I’d phoned in. There were 6 or 7 workers standing about 10 feet away, and instead of attending to me or the 3 other people in line, they were telling one person what they wanted from White Castle.

It was awesome to behold, I tell you.

5

Obviously, it’s easy to keep a job at Steak and Shake if you don’t provide service. Upper management doesn’t care, so why should the employees?

The Steak and Shake here in town is awful. Food is good, ice cream is divine, but the service is truly terrible.

6

The service there is usually not that bad, inside. The drive-through, however … That place is walking distance from my house. Just a matter of blocks.

7

Too true. I have never had problems at the Lafayette location.

8

Have you ever complained? Your post doesn’t mention it. That’s what the comment cards are for. I don’t know if I was just lucky, but the restaurant where I worked for a while took complaints fairly seriously, and I saw a few changes instituted just over one summer.

99% of my Steak 'N Shake experiences have been good, most of these have occurred in Illinois. I rarely eat in the restaurant, though. I usually go in and order for pickup.

That said, sometimes the service is bad. They have a habit of not calling in enough waitstaff unless they know it’s going to be busy (Saturday, Sunday evenings, weekday lunch), or at least the one I worked at did.

My worst Steak 'N Shake service story: I was working second shift at a newspaper, and wanted to pick up some food on the way home. I didn’t want to have to wait once I got there and ordered, so I used their fax-in ordering system. Why I did that instead of call, I don’t know. I was looking at the menu on the Web site and I saw it, so I used it.

When I got to the restaurant, they hadn’t even SEEN it. It was lying there in the tray, they just hadn’t bothered to notice.

Overall, though, their food makes it worth it to me. Great stuff.

9

The Steak and Shake by my place is pretty good about this stuff, actually. It might be limited to the ones you’ve visited.

It’s you. They don’t like your type around there. Because you’re a Doper, that means they don’t like MY type either.

Dopers of the world, unite!

10

Initially, I’d just chalked it up to confirmation bias, then I started thinking “maybe I’m just not that noticeable.” After the incident last night, I’m just assuming it’s a part of their training to ignore every fifth customer :p.

And yes, I’ve used the comment cards on a couple occaisions.

11

Um, Steak and Shake! I haven’t been there since 1973!

Do they still serve the yummy baked beans?

12

When I worked there, we closed the inside every Saturday (or Sunday, I don’t remember) from about 1:30 a.m. until 5. We locked the doors, didn’t let anyone in. We did still serve from the drivethrough. The server(s) and manager just sat in a booth and ate and talked while I took the drivethrough orders and cooked them.

I didn’t like this policy. The given reason was that they wouldn’t deal with the problem of drunks coming in after the bars closed (we were the only 24hour restaurant in an area with lots of bars) without a police officer there, and the city didn’t have an officer to station there. Apparently other people didn’t like the policy either, and wrote in. The managers would still try to get away with it once in a while, but we usually stayed open after that.

Also: I wrote the original Steak N’ Shake article on Wikipedia! It has since been redirected (I wrote it under Steak 'n Shake, and it’s now under Steak n Shake) so if you look at the article and history, you won’t see me without a little digging, but the original version (a year and a half ago!) is here.

13

Of course!

[sub]beancrock.[/sub]

14

There are two in Lafayette. I’ve been to the North Sagamore Parkway store several times. The floor always appears dirty, but the food is okay. I did once order a fish sandwich platter and get a fish dinner (two loose filets as opposed to one filet on a bun), but the error was rectified as soon as I pointed it out. I’ve also eaten at the Lebanon location a few times, and it seems as though the staff there takes a bit more pride in the operation.

15

I’ve been to SnS at two Pittsburgh locations, a Memphis location, and in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The service has varied widely (from stunningly good at the North Pittsburgh location to downright poor at the other PGH location). That being said, I’ve never been ignored.

I love the food and wouldn’t let poor service drive me away, but I would bitch up a storm (not just on comment cards either…call the national number, you’ll do much better).

16

I don’t particularly care for it. I don’t eat steak and I rarely eat ice cream so…there you go.

I do have one interesting experience with Steak and Shake, though. I was walking to the restroom and a lady was mopping the floor. Right as I walked by she let out the biggest fart I think I have ever heard in my entire life. Yeah. I think that was the only time I’ve been to a Steak and Shake.

17

To try and answer the question of why this could be consider this, Steak n Shake is probably the cheapest restaruant around that actually uses waitresses. Even cheaper than Denny’s and Perkins IME, and with most customers using the standard 15% tip rule that’s not going to amount to much in the way of pay for the servers. Considering they do just as much work as a server at a Applebees or Fridays, for maybe half the pay, they aren’t likely to attract or retain many competent servers.

Just a thought. As always, you get what you pay for.

18

Everytime that I go down to S&S the service is horrible. The time that it takes to get me seated and served is ridiculous.

19

I think Omniscient might be on to something. Makes a lot of sense to me.

20

'm not a S&S regular, but the various ones I’ve been to in this area all seem to be OK service-wise. Not spectacular, but I’ve never been ignored.

The worst experience I can recall was when I went to pay just at midnight and the checker said he hoped he could get it into the computer/cash register before end-of-day started. Apparently the machines automatically lock up at midnight for about 5 minutes. He didn’t quite get my process finished & we got caught. if I’d had close to correct change I’d have left it, but I didn’t want to pay $20 for a $7 ticket. The manager was all sorts of apologetic & I got a free milkshake to make amends.

As far as I can see they do a decent job given the craptastic wages & customer base. No complaints from me.