Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Louisville

While having bad experiences at other Steak "n Shake places, this one is the worst to date. The hostess/waitress that seated us dropped the menu on the floor and did not pick it up, but rather waited for us to pick it up to use it. No she did NOT bring us another one to use either. The person that finally came over to take our order had been running the cash register also and seemed to be very busy with running other things around the place. After taking and bringing us our order, he left to take care of other duties. After finally stopping by to see if we needed anything more, we stated that we could use silverware to eat with. He did bring the standard silverware wrapped in a napkin, but this did not include a spoon or better, a long handled spoon to reach the bottom of the shake glass (I thought this was the reason for the SHAKE portion of the name). We than went to find our own spoons to eat the shake with (no straw was given either) but were only able to find 1 standard spoon and 1 soup spoon. At this time we started to eat our meal when the waitress that seated us, knocked over all of the contents of the table next to us and proceeded to look at us as if we were the ones that caused this. She then refused to pick up any of the stuff laying on the floor, again (remember the menu?). After about 15 minutes, the now very busy waiter that took our order, proceeded to pick the stuff up off the floor and put it back on the table, with out wiping any of it off. The Ketchup was still running down the side of the bottle when he set it on the table along with the salt/pepper dispensers running out on the table. I'm sure by the way he acted that this was the least of his concern at the time. We finished our meal and proceeded to the check out area. We waited another 7 minutes before our waiter (and the only one we saw checking anyone out) came up to the counter. I then asked if he happened to be the Manager and his statement to me was, I don't know were he is. He apologized profusely for the wait and then rang up our bill. If the manager was there at all and had not left or quit, I do not know were he was either as I did not see him in the 45-50 minuted that we were there. I was very tempted to ask the waiter that took care of us (and everything else so it seemed) if he cared to eat off from the floor because of the menu and table incident. I will mention that the floor appeared not to have been swept or mopped in days, if not weeks. I then decided to keep my mouth shut as by the looks he did not need any more things to try and explain away. In our 7 minute wait, I also was able to observe that 2 of the persons doing the food preparation were not wearing the standard hat or hair net, while one of the others was very busy laughing at his phone for 3 minutes. All this while orders were stacking up. Having previous disappointments and the experience of today, we have sworn off EVER going to another Steak 'n Shake again. I gave it a 1, only because this review will not let me give it a 0 or negative numbers! Yes I would have given...

After Steak ‘n Shake announced they were doing some “huge” remodeling and structural changes when they were closed for a long time, I expected it to be at least an improvement. Not much to say. Just really sad and disappointing now.

You walk in, there is no longer a hostess/waiter to seat you. Instead you order at one of the several kiosks, get your receipt and sit down. On the screen you’re prompted on a separate page to tip. Not sure who you’re tipping exactly. You now order from a tablet, food gets dropped off, then you eat and clean up the table yourself.

Main counter has now been turned into a diy station where you get your own sauces, drinks, etc., typical of most fast food establishments. This wouldn’t be a negative, but after the way the restaurant ran previously, this is a massive downgrade. Condiments were all completely out except for mustard, which tells me they don’t have someone checking the front lobby often.

Food came out somewhat quickly compared to their old speed of 7-10 business days. I don’t know if it was nostalgia, even if it was only 3 or 4 years since my last visit, but I will never again eat at this restaurant. It has taken some of the highest dips in quality I have ever seen. The burger was absolutely atrocious. I remember actually enjoying the burgers and fries even several years ago, and now I fought to even finish half of mine.

Then we come to the milkshakes. The disappointment is immeasurable. They still come in a large glass cup, which is surprising as they’ve gotten rid of most other nice amenities, including plates in lieu of baskets, plastic silverware instead of metal, etc. So now instead of getting the long metal spoon with the shake you get a plastic one you get yourself. Not a big deal, but again, a downgrade to save money I guess. My wife and I both got the chocolate shake. I’ve had their shakes dozens of times in the past, always have gotten chocolate. I don’t know if they’ve changed the recipe or suppliers or what, but I couldn’t even finish a quarter of it. I thought for sure they put some kind of low quality peanut butter or something in it because it has an overwhelming burnt peanut taste. They assured me there was not peanuts in it.

This restaurant has chosen to eliminate staff, massively downgrade the quality of their food, and make massive changes to their restaurant that made it unique. Why would I waste that much money to go here when the food is bad, service is literally nonexistent other than them bringing the food from the kitchen, and having to ask for normally stocked items? There is a Freddy’s and a Jaggers within driving distance that is miles ahead of them on everything. You have a barren restaurant that is going to eventually fail because this huge restructure you’ve done was just a way to try to eliminate as much cost as you can in every aspect, mainly staff and food quality. A real shame because this used to be one of our favorite spots, now we will just wait for it to go out...

Steak'Shake is a venerable chain of restaurants specializing in fast food, especially burgers and shakes.

We've been fairly frequent visitors at this location for about a decade. Food has been consistently adequate to good, but can't say that for the service.

This location appears to be understaffed and poorly managed.

Our visit tonight was typical. When we arrived, there were people standing and waiting to be seated but no one greeting them. A number of vacant tables had not been cleared.

We waited our turn and were seated. A server greated us promptly and took our orders. Our food was served in a reasonable time, but without the chocolate shake I had ordered. My wife requested catsup and the server acknowledged, but didn't bring catsup. There was a catsup bottle on our table, but it was empty.

After a reasonable time, my wife went to a vacant table to help herself to catsup, only to find that the container there was empty too. She tried two more vacant tables with the same result.

I finished my meal while my wife waited for some catsup. Still no chocolate shake, nor was the check brought to our table in a timely manner.

While waiting, I observed an employee whose job was apparently clearing vacant tables. He was wandering around aimlessly with one hand in his pants pocket while a number of tables had not been cleared. When he finally did begin to clear a table he went about the task in a most inefficient manner, slowly carrying away only a few items at a time. It took him at least ten minutes and multiple trips to clear only one table. Between trips back and forth he sat down and rested. After clearing one table, he disappeared for a while

My wife had left the empty catsup bottle lying on it's side at one table. The employee picked up the empty container, shook it as if to see if it was empty, then placed it upright on the table, still empty.

Our server eventually came to our table and I asked her to bring my chocolate shake and the check, which she did. There was little or no chocolate in the shake, it appeared to be a vanilla shake, not chocolate. Wasn't bad, but not what I ordered. The same server was waiting on numerous tables and was working quickly, but couldn't accommodate everyone. It appeared that they didn't have enough servers working to provide good service to all their customers.

The entire time we were there, I saw the employee who cleared tables clear only two tables. At times, people were waiting to be seated and there would have been tables available if they had been cleared.

At least, I didn't need to wait very long to pay for our meals once I finally got the check. The man at the cash register was pleasant and appeared to know how to do his job. I believe this man is the manager, which begs the question; why is he tending the register and not supervising...