Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Davenport

BUYER BEWARE. You will not get what you paid for, what you do get will be terrible, and the employees will ignore and/or yell at you.

THE SERVICE Orders are placed through giant touchscreen kiosks now. You get your own drinks from the fountain. They'll yell your order number and leave your food on the counter (unattended). There's no human contact involved, which might be good for avoiding the spread of germs, but it's bad if you run into problems. We ran into problems.

Our order came out with two items missing: a shake and a cup of coffee. We took our food and waited a while, hoping they'd call our number again. After half an hour, I went up to ask about the missing items. The employees ignored me until I said "excuse me," then glared at me silently until I continued. When I asked about our missing items, they yelled at me that there were only two of them working the line, and then turned their back on me and walked away.

Yes, they stiffed us our food and then got mad at me for complaining. I deeply regret tipping 20% at the kiosk. They're lucky we paid up front, or we would have walked out in protest. It isn't the customer's fault if employees are being overworked. This belligerent refusal to give customers what they paid for is theft, and the aggression is... something else. But I'm getting ahead of myself, because this story isn't over yet.

After a whopping total 40 minutes, my mom got sick of waiting and went up herself. Other customers had been trying to get service. The guy before her had been waiting at the counter for ten minutes, and when he saw my mom come up he turned to her and said sarcastically, "Good luck." It took her actually shouting at the staff to get anyone's attention. The line cooks shouted similar things at her too, stuff about how understaffed they were, and she shouted back until she got a manager and he started making the shake himself.

We never received the coffee.

THE FOOD QUALITY The manager made the fastest shake I've ever seen a restaurant prepare. It was also the worst shake I've ever received. It tasted watered down, the candy was stale, and they've replaced their whipped cream with some kind of waxy fake substitute. (The table behind us also had to wait ridiculously long for their shakes, which eventually came out with no cherries, to the kids' disappointment.)

The menu selection has been cut way down. If you were hoping for anything other than burgers, hot dogs, fries, or chili... you're out of luck. The fries are just barely cooked and unsalted. The soda fountain had 3 different sodas out of order at the same time. The ketchup, salt, pepper, spoons, and napkins are all... somewhere near the soda fountain, if they haven't run out. Are you good at Easter egg hunts?

Burgers were okay. Not worth it.

Don't go to this "restaurant." If you miss the pre-pandemic Steak and Shake, try Freddy's on Kimberly. Nobody should be...

To preface this, we Love Steak and Shake! 😋 lol, Now this visit was Different than we've experienced before at any of them as we hadn't been Inside to eat in several months, maybe a year even. But this visit was a bit disappointing in the service recieved. They Only have ordering kiosks now, No live person available as a Choice even.. not even a live person to ask questions to if you need help ordering off the kiosk as every person is now only in the back cooking, running the drive through, washing dishes, etc. This fact is Ridiculous... this causes the restaurant's appeal to go way down as customer sevice cannot even be provided when ordering as there is No One there to offer or to Ask for help even. Smh... The food: Now our Milkshakes were just about as good as ever, the Fries were as great as ever , but the burgers.. I've never had to ask for well done butnI guess I'm gunna have to start now as mine was Not well done, a little bit of pink which I cannot stand but it wasn't terrible, just Not something that Any restaurant should do without the customer requesting anything but well-done. Seeing as that is the Safest way to serve any meat and so is usually assumed unless otherwise told. Also, I had the Frisco Steak Sandwich, which Ive had before and was delicious! 👌🏽😋, But this time, besides the underdone meat, I had the Tiniest bit of the specialty "Frisco Sauce" that is supposed to be on there enough to Tatse it and the unique flavor of it as opposed to a Regular steak burger, but not the case at all... I needed to go up and ask for more please and Finally was greeted by a live Person and then told that Id have to Buy more sauce as they are only allowed now to give the tiniest swipe of it that I had received on my Sandwich. Lol. She apologized and said that's just the way it is now... nice of her to let me know the real now, but Dang, Steak and Shake corporation, y'all need to get back to doing Better please! Please go back to having som Live Humans be available to take our order if that's what we choose to do. And I had Really had my heart set on the Mushroom Swiss Steak burger, Please bring it back! Like why was it discontinued y'all??? Please go Back to the way it was Steak and...

My fiancé and I have closely monitored Steak ‘n Shake’s decision to switch from oil to tallow for several months now. As advocates of tallow, we were thrilled that a restaurant chain was prioritizing the health of its customers. Online announcements indicated that the transition would be completed by today, March 1st, 2025, across all locations, regardless of their geographical position.

Noting the online announcements that all Steak ‘n Shake locations would be fully transitioned by today, March 1, 2025, we proactively called our local Davenport, Iowa, branch two days prior to confirm that we would be able to enjoy food cooked in tallow. Despite numerous attempts over two hours, we received no response.

The next day, we tried again, but once more, there was no answer. As a last resort, I contacted the Moline, Illinois, location, which is only about ten miles away, to see if they could provide information about the Davenport branch. On my second attempt, I reached a staff member who confirmed that they had successfully transitioned to tallow. When I inquired about the Davenport location, they assured me, “Yes, all locations must transition by March 1st, and both of our locations have.”

Eager for our tallow-cooked meal, we drove to the Davenport location at noon today. Upon entering, we were taken aback by the dirty smudges that seemed to be soda or another sticky substance on the front door and the booth walls (photos attached). Additionally, nearly every table was unclean, with crumbs and spilled condiments scattered around the trash receptacles.

Before ordering at the kiosk, my fiancé asked the cook if they were using tallow for cooking. The cook casually replied, “Nope, not yet.” As we began to leave, we overheard a patron requesting to speak to the manager due to a shortage of ketchup in the dining area.

Undeterred, we decided to visit the Moline location, where we were greeted by a friendlier staff, a cleaner dining area, and—most importantly—food cooked in tallow! The tallow fries were...