Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I have just written a review to the home office for the franchise. There is no zero option so one star is all I can give this location. We will never, ever go to this location again. The waitress never introduced herself to start with and from there it only got worse. We stayed to eat as we continued to have hopes of how the food had been in the past and at many other SteakNShakes across the nation.

This was unfounded hopes. My coffee was lukewarm upon arriving at the table. I was given only 2 creamers after the waitress asked if I needed cream when ordering. I guess they are rationed out, or their budget is tight. Maybe these things are charged to her if they go over too many, who knows there. Well, I tried to wait for more coffee. I overheard from the kitchen that it was not going well on that end.

When we were ordering, immediately it was mentioned the fryer was down. Well, my husband ordered loose hashbrowns rather then nice little fried discs that I would have ordered if available. He ordered the Burger Royale - it came out with no seasoning whatsoever. Now on the table is a shaker of their seasoning and it use to be that it was cooked into the burger. Oh well, things change we guess.

Back to my coffee. I replaced it with Coca Cola which came out and it was way too sweet, the caramel syrup was too much to the carbonation. At this point I sipped it and figured well there goes drinking anything. My eggs were scrambled and just cooked enough by food industry standards. The bacon was chewy and cold. My pancakes were definitely not fluffy, very flat and also not warm enough to melt the scoop of butter on top of them.

As were waiting, the cook was seen waddling back to the kitchen. The man care barely move. He made it known he does not touch chemicals to do the floor. Well, he honestly cannot move enough to wash anything. This had me worried about cleanliness in general.

This is open 24 hours and it seems the best time to break out the Pinesol and wash the floor is yep - after 7:00am on Saturday morning. Not between midnight and 5:00am. I am sitting there waiting for food and getting more nauseous from the smell of the cleaning. I was asked if it would be a bother for the driver through lady - the nicest person there - to mop next to the our booth? We were fine with it as we were focused on eating to get out of there.

The manager came around and asked us how every thing was, never ever came directly over to the table and gave her name.

We are people that do not like in person confrontation so we said nothing at the location/time. All I can say is - DO NOT GO TO THIS LOCATION IF YOU LIKE STEAKNSHAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go to the one on Phillips Highway or any other. Stay away from this one. We will never be back...

I'll try to enumerate the negatives and positives behind this review.

Negatives: -There is no counter service. Only several questionably sanitary kiosks. -The kiosk prompts for a tip without a 0% option unless select "other". I admit that I naively hit 10% because the last time I went to Steak and Shake, it was full service, so I expected... something. -After placing your order, you get a receipt that you had better not throw away. Or else. -The eating area wasn't particularly clean. The sun was setting and the blinds were torn down, so there was nothing to block the blinding sun that drenched all but two tables (which, of course, were taken). At least the windows weren't clean, which helped block a bit of the sun. -When I tried to get my Diet Coke, the machine didn't work. Thankfully there was an employee restocking straws who told me I need to scan my receipt to dispense soda. What?? Good thing I kept my receipt handy. There were no obvious instructions so if he didn't happen to be there, I'd have had no idea. -The food came out with a female employee yelling my name and then scouring off into the kitchen. -Of course, she forgot two bottled waters. Getting anybody's attention was near impossible since the kitchen is walled off and when I yelled toward the same woman, she didn't hear me because she had ear buds in. I had to wait until another employee wandered within earshot. -Oddly, despite supposedly having been made on the spot, the hamburgers were cold. I think they take buns straight out of the fridge, meaning the whole burger seems cold and the cheese doesn't melt. -Maybe because of the temperature, the burger was just meh. I'd prefer pretty much any other fast food burger, I think. -While eating, an employee walked by the garbage can, picked up a red basket, and for some reason threw it down pretty hard into the basket receptacle. Yes, despite the tip, you are expected to clean up after yourself. -After eating, I went to wash my hands, and neither the automated soap nor paper towel dispensers worked. Wait, do employees wash their hands? -The lone urinal was located by the restroom entrance such that anybody who entered would surely see you whizzing away. -As I waited in the dining room while my son nervously whizzed away, I could year the kitchen staff dropping f-bombs.

Positives: -The fries were acceptable. Not great. Not hot. Under salted. Not as good as McDonald's but probably better than Burger King. I'm listing it here as a "positive" only because, compared to the rest of the whole thing, it seemed positive....

It's been a while since my husband and I have gone to Steak 'n' Shake. We decided to go tonight before going to a concert around 6:15 on a Saturday night. We walk in, and there's only a couple of people eating. The staff behind the counter never said hello. We found that they no longer take your order. You go to a kiosk and order your meal. We've never have used one before and had trouble using it. No one behind the counter said a word. We figured it out and ordered our food.

The only thing that was ever said to us by the staff was my name when our order was ready. All the tables were dirty so my husband wet some paper towel and wiped our table off. You must scan your receipt to get your drink. My husband wanted 1 sip of Sprite to see if it was good or if it was too syrupy. We had to rescan our receipt 4 times before it would allow him to put more Sprite in his cup. The hamburgers were good but they put one big globe of mayo right in the middle of my hamburger and didn't even spread it out. The lettuce wasn't crisp, so I took it off along with the globe of mayo, that didn't taste like a good quality mayo. Also, you could tell the buns were not fresh.

What really got me when ordering was it asked if I wanted to give a tip!!!! For what???? I had to place my own order and clean a table to sit at in a restaurant that had only a couple of others eating. Why did none of the staff clean all the dirty tables, and why couldn't anyone working there say hello, or enjoy your meal or goodbye?????

Worst customer service we've ever had, and the ordering at the kiosk is not what I want to do. We eat out often, and this location on Hartley Road will never be on our list again. Neither will any of the other Steak' N' Shakes if they all have the same customer service as the location did. Hire people who want to earn their paycheck and teach them how to greet customers and have a personality. Otherwise, you just need to shut the store and put a For Sale on it, because your day's are numbered with the don't care staff you have. I don't know what you pay them per hour, but it's wY more than...