Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Champaign

I enjoy their food well enough, but I believe this location is neck deep in a death spiral. They still don't have their dining room open, which, besides their later hours and marginally lower prices, is really the only leg up they've ever held against their competitors.

McDonald's has the better location, accessibility, and brand recognition (Despite not being the best McDonald's). Culver's has the superior burger, an open dining room, remarkable consistency, surprising speed, super-friendly service, and the best root beer ever. All Steak and Shake seems to offer is an empty drive through during their competitors' lunch/dinner rushes.

Unfortunately, despite their perpetual lack of business, their drive through still operates at the pace of an arthritic dog. And due to their perpetual lack of business, they seem to struggle to sell ingredients before they spoil, so every order is a game of food poisoning roulette.

Yesterday, I was served a burger with visibly rotten lettuce that should've been thrown out at least a week ago, along with some chicken strips and fries, which were relatively unremarkable, beside the fact that they were both served in generic 20oz drink cups. The cup that my fries were served in had been jaggedly trimmed down to size with a pair of scissors. For a hole-in-wall BBQ joint, that might actually be somewhat endearing, but from a nationwide burger chain; not a good look. Supply chain issues, or a last ditch cost-cutting measure? Hard to say.

What's easy to say is that I can't really recommend any reason to go here unless you REALLY enjoy their food and/or you want to try your luck against botulism. I honestly hope they find a way to pull through, but eeesh. I'll be surprised if they're still...

TL;DR Avoid at all costs, especially in large groups or at night. Restaurant policy is to hold you hostage if one person in your group needs to leave/pay early and you're splitting the check. Service 0/5, Food 3/5.

Went here with a large group (~25 people) a few days ago in town for a university conference, and boy, where do I begin. It took 40 minutes before the waitress working even showed up to take our orders, and another 30 minutes after that for us to get our drinks. When the food finally showed up, the fries were cold and tasted like cardboard (as cold fries tend to do), but the burgers were decent. Now, the real fun begins as we try to pay. A few of us needed to head back to the conference to pick a few things up before it closes for the night, so we get up to pay a bit early and leave. The lady at the cash register refused to allow us to pay until our entire group was ready to leave. An alumn traveling with us had to agree to float the entire order on his credit card for them to allow a few of us to leave. After agreeing on how we would pay, we begin to leave the restaurant. The waitress shows up and chases us outside, accusing us of dining and dashing. She makes us come back in and explain the whole situation... again. I was in the group that was leaving, so I'm not too sure what happened after I left, but I'm told one of our group members didn't even get his food, and when everyone got up to pay, his order had been forgotten about.

He had ordered it almost 30 minutes prior.

I sure hope that alumn left a $0.01 tip, because being treated like a criminal at a restaurant is definitely a...

I have been a long-time fan of Steak & Shake since I was a kid (4 to 5 out of 5 stars most of my life). It used to be that, though they took a bit longer to get your meal together, it was a noticeable cut above, quality-wise, than what other fast food places (like McD's) had on offer. That no longer appears to be the case. I waited to post this review so I could try a few locations around town a few times, to see if this was a one-off problem, or perhaps location specific, but after multiple visits to this location and the one on Prospect, I can say they have both fallen victim to becoming more like McD's and less like a "fast casual" restaurant. The last five meals, spread out at the two locations over two months have resulted in the same quality problems consistently at both locations-- food no longer appears to be made fresh or to order anymore. Burger patties are so cold and overcooked (and over-warmered) the meat is bone dry, and too cool to even begin to melt any cheese. The buns are similarly problematic now-- they often come out with the edges (or the entire bun) feeling like styrofoam. In short, they seem to be using the exact same prep-as-much-as-possible-save-for-final-assembly that McD's and other cheap fast food places employ. Sadly, they are not as good at this "truly fast food" approach as McD's is, so now you get lower prices (Woot, I guess?) at Steak and Shake for lower quality products that aren't even as good as the McD's equivalents. Sad. This may be the end of an...