Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Franklin

It has been a while since we have been in a Steak 'n Shake. It is not the same place anymore. It always seems empty and now we know why. We walked in the door to be greeted by 4 touchscreen ordering kiosks. No hostess, no waitresses, no bat seating. This is definitely set up to cater to the new dine and dash or Doordash paradigm. It is not set up for dine in eating. There were maybe 3 employees in the entire building. Ordering was easy enough on the touchscreen but it definitely felt disconnected. One plus side to the kiosks was that i felt there were more options obviously available than i remember having with a waitress that just took your order from the menu. Then we self served our beverages while we waited for our food to be called out like at a food truck. The food was good enough. It seemed to be the only thing that hasn't changed much. Smashburgers, shoestring fries, etc. I don't have anything good or bad to say about the food. It was pretty much as it has always been. Now here is the truly disgusting downside. I had to use the restroom so I headed back that way. As soon as I opened the door I was struck with a wall of stench that nearly knocked me over. I closed the door and took a breath of relatively clean air to hold on to while I handles my necessary business. I walked back in and you could almost see the odor hanging in the air. I completed my transaction as quickly as possible so as to remove myself from the putrid bouquet of what can only be described as pure raw sewage. I nearly vomited twice upon my exit as it followed me out the door. I wanted to tell the manager because, maybe she didn't know. She dismissed me with a couple of noncomittal "Thank you"s and nods of not really acknowledgement. I can't say I have been in a worse smelling restroom in my memory and I can't say I will be eating Steak 'n Shake again anytime soon. Good luck to anyone...

This location is my family. These people here are always understaffed and do two persons worth of work everyday. They are always overworked, tired and yelled at. Employees in street clothes are managers. They do their best to smile at you and give you the best experience they can with what they have, usually after being screamed at by the person in front of you. They can’t control the kiosk change or the removal of chicken tenders. They are just trying to make a living and your lucky they are there. Nobody wants to do this with the treatment they receive. That girl who is always in a dress smiling and complementing you is going completely blind. The tall guy who is always racing around is so smart, hard working and kind. He genuinely cares about the quality of your food. The fun to talk to GM with the amazing dreads is trying to set his family up well. The female manager in the morning is pregnant and constantly struggling from illness and her complicated pregnancy but she bends over backwards for you. They are people. They can’t help Covid, inflation or lack of people. They are just trying to live. Be kind. They try to do that for you even after having a panic attack in the mop closet. It’s not an easy job. No one is just “flipping burgers” they are flipping burgers, building bags and trying to hold your orders in their memory because multi tasking is not a...

Very disappointed in this particular branch of steak ‘n Shake. My kids and I used to frequent the steak ‘n Shake on a weekly basis when I didn’t feel like cooking after work.

The server (blonde male) got my order incorrect, wasn’t very personable and I was not shy about letting him know. Upon letting him know, he goes back to the back and starts talking about me as I watched people in the back come back to look at myself and my kids while he was talking to them.

The swing manager then approaches my table and asked me what the problem was. When I explain to her what the issue was, her exact words to me were “OK, what do you want me to do about it?“ Not just steak and shake, but customer service everywhere this is no way of treating those who compile your paycheck.

I watch every week as the crowds get smaller and smaller. I’m sure you can credit that to the poor management and lack of commitment from the crew. Commitment so lacking, that one of the servers there admitted to me that the swing manager there has been having their crew posting phony 5-star reviews on this thread. I would assume if it doesn’t have a profile picture, those are the reviews that she’s...