I love their chili mac and chili three way. Chili mac is spaghetti covered in a sweet, mild chili sauce and seasoned ground beef. The chili three way has beans also. It’s excellent with parmesan cheese and the jar of vinegar loaded with hot peppers on every table.
Generally, if you grew up with it, you like it, if you didn’t, you don’t. I grew up in Central Illinois, where you can’t go anywhere without running into a Steak n’ Shake. I’m pretty disappointed that there aren’t any in Chicago.
Regarding the fries, they’re not meant to be eaten one at a time. They’re so thin that the proper way is to eat 4 or 5 at a time.
The last time I visited, I was really, really drunk, and I still couldn’t stomach the food.
I prefer Waffle House.
Here’s the menu. I’ve had about a third of the items.
http://www.steaknshake.com/menu/the-original-steakburger/
Done right, they were mostly good.
The theme of consistency and quality control does seem to come through here. Most of their stores are company-owned too so they can’t blame it on rogue franchisees (which is never a good excuse, anyhow).
ETA though they do seem to have aggressive franchising ambitions, and may be coming to a neighborhood near you if they aren’t already:
http://franchising.steaknshake.com/franchise/franchisebystate.asp
I like it OK. It’s funny, though, that Steak ‘n’ Shake engenders the same amount of love-it-or-hate-it debate as any other “once regional, now national” chain. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because it originates in another region. Same with In ‘n’ Out, Fatburger, Krispy Kreme, Waffle House, etc.
Sounds like people have really different experiences depending on the restaurant.
The burgers are okay, better than McD’s/BK/Wendy’s but worse than Five Guys/In n Out. Shakes are about on par with Friendly’s - they’re good. The two Steak n Shakes I’ve been have been clean, but have somewhat slow service even when they’re empty. The one closest to me closed down when Sonic opened up next to them and put them out of business.
I like it, but my husband doesn’t, so we hardly ever go.
I had the worst toasted cheese sandwich there ever.
Sometimes it’s just a case of something being hyped beyond what it ever was meant to be. No one (that I know) ever claimed years ago that Krispy Kreme were “good” doughnuts, more of a greasy guilty pleasure or school fundraiser staple, certainly bake shops and good supermarkets were where you’d go for “good” doughnuts. Taken out of this context, I can see people saying “what’s the big deal?” because that’s what people would have said in the original market (not that they wouldn’t recall them fondly, just that no one would wait in line or pay a premium). Five Guys struck me as a decent local chain when it started, I can see backlash against them as the food is certainly not transcendant in any way, which is how their groupies, and their super-aggressive expansion strategy, present it.
Meh. I think Krispy Kremes are much better, especially fresh, than most any other chain’s doughnuts, including Dunkin’. They’re fantastic hot, with a cup of coffee, late at night.
(a) almost all doughnuts are good hot, so I’ll agree;
(b) you’ll notice my comparator were not chain stores, and I think I’ll agree on Dunkin. Neither strike me as as good as hot doughnuts from a good supermarket bakery or pastry shop (I guess I was/have been lucky to be exposed to a lot of those options).
Yeah, you are lucky. I’ve never had good supermarket donuts. The best donuts I’ve ever had were homemade yeast-leavened donuts made by my aunt. Otherwise, around here, everything (now that Krispy Kreme is pretty much completely gone) is the cake donut variety and I prefer the yeast-leavened varieties when they’re hot from the oil. Otherwise, I can live without donuts, so maybemy opinions doesn’t really mean anything.
Best. Shakes. EVAR.
I like the fries too, but I like skinny fries.
Probably closer to a diner (as GythaOgg notes) than a “casual dining” restaurant. I used to have a casual dining chain for a client; while sit-down service with plates and cutlery are part of what distinguish a CDR from a fast-food restaurant, some of the other typical hallmarks of a CDR (fairly wide menu, serving alcohol) aren’t there for S&S. My clients didn’t consider S&S to be in the CDR category, and the research companies which work with that category tend not to, either. S&S would most likely be lumped into the “family restaurant” category, which’d also include Denny’s, IHOP, Bob Evans, etc.
I used to get a giant cherry or vanilla coke there through the drive through several times a week as a teenager. Nothing like a coke with flavored syrup added- super sweet and yummy. I rarely ate there though because I was constantly watching my weight. Yeah, I was pretty ignorant about nutrition- I proably could have had 2 burgers for that 32 ounce soda with added syrup!
Ooooh…do they still make Cherry Cokes with syrup, do you think? Now that it’s available by fountain, I assumed they didn’t, but now I want to go check it out!
Looks like they do!
It’s not even in the same galaxy as In-N-Out.
The burgers are steak-burgers, which is kinda weird. Gives the texture something different. The sides are nice, but all told it’s like a $8-10 meal, which, for that I can get a big heaping bowl of Thai noodles or Greek or Middle Eastern etc.
I like the place. Their shakes are pretty good, and I usually order chicken fingers with fries. Skinny fries are good.
I don’t live in the Midwest anymore, but I will be back in the Chicago suburbs this week for Thanksgiving, and I admit I thought once or twice about going back… Another Midwest chain that has good fries IMHO is Portillo’s. I miss that one too!
Their shakes are great, their sandwhiches are decent and varied but their fries are horrible. It might not be a fast food restaurant per se but their menu and prices match regular fast food places.