Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Berkeley

After my wife and I drove six hours to get to the hotel across the street, we were starving. We noticed that there was a Steak 'n Shake within walking distance so we walked over to it. All the employees and their friends, I suppose were hanging outside. No customers were inside or in the drive thru. As soon as we walked up they all berated us about whether we were going to stay there and eat or take it with us. After having worked in the restaurant industry before, I know the feeling of being slow and wanting to stay that way, so we decided to be nice and take the food back to our hotel. The girl, "Monikqu B" as the receipt reads, allowed us to go inside. We then played 20 questions about what we could and could not order because some things weren't prepared. We finally ordered (my wife had to tell the girl she wanted chocolate pancakes 3 times),then played 20 questions again about our personal lives, which after driving that long, was not what I had in mind. They had to make the pancake batter before they could make my wives pancakes (of course) and decided to just make regular pancakes instead of chocolate pancakes. After waiting god knows how long, they shoved our food at us and yelled something as we were walking out of the door. Get back to the hotel room and there was no syrup for the pancakes (of course) and no plastic wear (should have guessed). The food was cold and the fries were more than likely made 6 hours ago. But, being the nice husband I am, I walked back over there and asked for some syrup, and also told the girl the pancakes were made wrong. She kind of apologized and took about 10 minutes to get me the syrup (still no customers inside or out). As I'm walking out, someone yelled something at me, again. So to say the least, I'm assuming Steak 'n Shake went to a local high school job fair and asked the principal what students weren't going anywhere with their lives, and the principal presented Steak 'n Shake with these "employees". Because I could have made the food faster and been a whole heck of a lot nicer about it (even after the long drive). My 8 year old son could have done a better job. This was hands down the absolute WORST worst worst (did I say worst?) Steak 'n Shake experience I have ever had. My mind is blown. I will be calling tomorrow to speak with a "manager" (I guess we will see if they have one) to let them know how absolutely terrible the whole thing was. I don't even want my money back, free anything, nothing. I just want to make sure that someone, hopefully who cares, knows how crappy those employees were towards my wife and I. But with that said, they probably already know that. And with that said, I wish I had read the reviews first before going. But, since I've literally never had a problem before I figured reading reviews for a fast food chain wasn't necessary. I was terribly, terribly wrong. So, if you're in St.Louis, go anywhere...

Last weekend as we were leaving town for a vacation, stopped at Steak and Shake on Natural Bridge Rd for a late dinner with five hungry kids. It was just before 940pm. There were three customers seated, two were having their orders taken and one was already served. The hostess (taking their order) made eye contact with us as did another waitress (who went behind the counter twice to find her headphones) and the grill cook. The kids all went to the bathroom and after more than 10 minutes waiting to be seated, the hostess finally comes our way and asks how many of us there are. Six, I say. (We’re all standing there in front of her.) “Six? Well, you know we close at 10 pm. It’s awful close to closing time.” Again, we had been there for more than 10 minutes without any acknowledgement and she had handed the grill cook an order only seconds before she approached us. We told her we would just find another place to eat and she acted engratiatingly apologetic that they couldn’t accommodate us as the kids all walked out. I’ve worked in the food service industry, I understand everyone wants to go home, but I also know that the way to keep customers is to serve them if they walk in before the doors are locked. Multiple people wouldn’t even acknowledge we were there, repeatedly. The hostess didn’t apologize for our wait, just blamed us for coming in too close to closing time. If I had any question about whether I’d come back to Steak and Shake, that has been answered. We went to Applebee’s down the road, they absolutely made up for it ten fold. What a shame, if it’s your corporate policy to let customers wait without acknowledgement, unapologetically, and then tell them that arriving 20 minutes before closing was really too late for them. Even the kids commented about the way it was handled. Customers lost, even if the food is...

Normally, I have no problem with this location. I’ve lived close to it for years, but the last couple times that I have gone have been horrible. Tonight I ordered two meals and a kids meal. They handed me my bag and I proceeded to check my meal before driving off. The woman at the window asked me to move up and check my bag. I told her I was missing my kids meal. She told me that it was in the bag and asked me to move up. I told her the kids meal was not in the bag as I proceeded to double check my meal she again told me again to move up and check my bag that there were cars behind me. I told her there was no chicken in my bag for the 3rd time and she gave me a two pieces of chicken. This happened last time my sons cheese dip was not in his bag so I drove back up to the window to be told that I was wrong when my cheese was sitting behind them on the counter which is why I sat and checked my order while still at the window tonight. Once I got home and fully checked our meals it turns out my son’s kids meal was not at all in our bag like I tried to tell them so he didn’t get his fries. I tried to call the store and explain what happened and resolve the issue and get a refund for such terrible service to be told that I can drive all the way back to get our missing food but can not get a refund when if the staff would have listened to me in the first place we would have all of the food I paid for and I wouldn’t have to drive back…I’m not going back just terrible...