Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Marion

Not impressed at all by this particular Steak 'n Shake. Didn't bother talking to the manager since the entire operation seemed to be sub par. Walked in, waited ten minutes, with plenty of empty tables, to be seated. Server took drink orders for my family, took nearly another 10 minutes for three fountain drinks and a couple bottles of chocolate milk. Food did not take overly long I suppose, but the fries were lukewarm at best, two of us were missing food and no silverware was brought for 3 dishes that required it. Waited a few minutes for our server and finally went to the server station. Had three employees walk right by me and another lady up there several times. I get so mad I go sit and ask my wife to handle it before I make a scene. She waits a hot minute with another employee walking by and ignoring her before another server (still not ours, haven't seen her in a hot minute) gets her some silverware and my wife points out our coleslaw's sitting there. Our server finally deigns to come back and we remind her of the cookie my son was supposed to get. And then didn't see her til check was handed to us, without being asked about milkshakes, which we originally wanted but were so frustrated at that point we just wanted to leave. Turns out that was a good idea, since the two teenagers standing up front who I'd thought were just hanging out had been waiting 20 minutes for two milkshakes. Mind you, I saw about a dozen people working the place just in areas I could see.

That was just my personal experience; I also saw about 8 to 9 tables from where we were sitting that needed to be bussed the entire time we were there (almost an hour). A random guy came in barefoot, with at least one server noticing him, wandered around eating food off the unbussed tables, then hopped in his car and left. Saw most people that stuck around to be seated wait 10 to 15 minutes for that to happen. I've worked similar restaurants and been to several Steak n Shakes.... I have never seen such a poorly managed shift (I'm settling for shift, but if one shift is this bad then the restaurant manager needs to do some self-assessment about how they are managing), never had such a bad experience in any restaurant. There was one young lady working there, who's name I'm sorry I did not catch (she was pregnant and I believe maybe blonde) who seemed to be working harder than the rest and have a better attitude, impressive given she looked quite far along.

I called the number on the receipt and left feedback, but I feel its worth throwing on here since I hope the locals push for this place to improve. I hate seeing places get bad reps because of poor management or poor employees (though, again, if the entire place was this bad on even this one shift, it's a reflection of...

Good food, Bad review. The food at steak and steak was good as usual. One of my favorite places to eat when I'm on the road or out of town for any reason. Unfortunately this location was just a let down. The bathroom had a trash can that was completely overflowing with paper towels that spilled out all over the floor near the can. The bus boys/girls did pretty poor jobs of cleaning, if you can even call it that. My wife and I watch them wipe a table into a seat and call it good pretty much and sat the next guest. Never took the time to clean the seats. The cracks and gaps between and behind the seats were gross and had crumbs from who knows how many meals. Straw wrappers, plastic from toys or crayons and the walls of the booths were just riddled with old food stains and could have used just a good wipe down. We also watched three employees walk by a huge used napkin in the middle of the floor between patrons, one guy walked by it twice. Finally someone stopped to pick it up and take it away. They also walked by our table numerous times with overflowing food carts from cleaning tables. Which of course can be expected sometimes in a restaurant but it was fairly sparse in there and they could have taken a less populated route to the kitchen. The cooks did not have beard or hair bets and it was just a really unsettling experience this time. One thing just threw off the whole vibe and everything from then on was just easy to pick out. Our waitress was great. The food came timely and was hot, just the visuals could make you lose your appetite. Shame really do love steak and shake. Hopefully they'll take a little more pride in the upkeep of their restaurant and the appearance of their dining area. Was just over it by the end of the meal, wish i had taken pictures but I was just...

So I took my elderly mother here this past Sunday. Already the entry was packed with people waiting to be seated. After standing there for about 10 minutes, we began to notice that NOBODY was being seated...at all. The staff was just shuffling around and completely ignored the 12 or so us waiting at the entry. After a while, myself and another fellow who was waiting asked to see the manager. In a few minutes, this little redhead girl came out and said she was the manager. We pointed out to her the dozen or so empty tables and the staff just wandering around doing 1 thing at a time...and even that VERY slowly. We never yelled although it was pretty obvious we were kind of miffed. We advised her that at least 10 potential patrons had come and gone in just the time we had been there. Her response? She muttered "Have a nice day" and then started crying and turned around and walked away. Instead of taking charge of the situation and getting guests seated - she just ran away crying. Are you kidding?!?!

I think Steak and Shake corporate has some SERIOUS problems. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes...but ALL of the Steak and Shakes we've been to in the last year or so - in multiple states - are just a sad joke of their former selves. Whoever is running this company is running it into the ground. They clearly aren't training the staff at all and their standards are plummeting. Biglari Holdings Inc. owns this company....but I suspect they won't have it for much longer. Companies this poorly ran just go under once they have lost the trust of their...