Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Ocala

We stopped for lunch at this Steak 'n Shake in July, 2024. Most fast food restaurants have things that make them different from the competition. I'll start with the good. The food in my opinion is better than most burger places because it is actually cooked to order, fresh for you. Although it may take a little longer than the most well known brands, the food is night and day better, again, in my opinion. This is a similar business plan to Freddie's and Culver's , which both are good and very close near by. One in each direction on Rt200. As I said, Steak 'n Shake was enjoyable. We had burgers, fries and a soft drink. Then we followed it up with a shake. Although we didn't need the shake, they were still good. Prices were not cheap. But they were not overly expensive either, considering what you got compared to the most well known brands. So I guess it all depends on your personal opinion. Now the down side items. As soon as you walk in the door, you are expected to do everything yourself. There are no employees to assist you. You must figure out how and what to order on one of the kiosks that replace human beings. You also must pay attention to how you're able to pay on certain kiosks. No human to ask or suggest in anyway. Then it forces you to acknowledge and wants you to tip. But who am I supposedly tipping? There are no employees other than the cook in the back. So no, I am not paying a tip when I take my own order, get my own drink, pick up my own order and clean my own table, and throw out my own trash. Then you must get your own drink. But you don't know that since there's no one to tell you or read it anywhere. You are not handed a cup or such, because there is no human being. One would assume that it's coming on the tray with your order. But when you are waiting at a table and notice the fountain with cups already there, you must figure out that you need a code on your receipt for the fountain to work. You must also figure out how to make it read the code, because it would only read in a certain spot. Then you cannot stop the flow to let the fizz lower from the carbonation. When you try to restart the fountain to finish filling your cup, you must again deal with the scanner. But of course there are other customers in the way awaiting their turn. So you must now ask them to move so that you can get back to the scanner. It was a fiasco. I never had it so difficult for me to have to serve up my own drink, all because a company insist that I do the work for free. All in all it was a decent meal. We even enjoyed the 1950's style decor. But the experience was hurt by the corporate profit maximization, by hiring us without pay to do almost all the work. It was also insulting by the nerve to demand a tip. The food was good. But so are the similar Freddie's and Culver's both close by. Both of them are serve freshly cooked food, and actual custard. Not only shake's. And Culver's not only take's your order. They deliver your order to your table. And neither make it so difficult just to pour...

I was very disappointed at not only the service but the food as well. Me and my daughter got to the restaurant around 8pm on Monday and luckily it was not to busy. We both stood by the sign which said to wait to be seated. Close to 10 minutes later while me and my daughter are still standing there waiting another gentleman came it and stood by the fron counter at which time the waitress went over and asked if she could help him. We were just skipped after waiting so long but we let that go. We finally were seated after she finished taking the other gentlemans order.

We ordered our food which we both got mushroom swiss burgers and paid the upcharge for parmesan seasoned fries. I specifically asked for my bun to be made the way the garlic burger is with butter and garlic salt on it. When the food finally came out the bun was not how I asked and when I brought it to the waitress attention she stated that was the bun that came on the garlic burger. Also the fries were not how they were pictured on the menu and instead had a very tasteless dusty parmesan on them and barely even at that. Definitely not worth the money we spent and not the type of service me and my daughter we have seen from Steak n Shake ever. The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 is because the Milkshakes were amazing.

Other than the shakes overall his was a very disappointing experience and I hope that the issues improve before they start losing customers. We have been long time customers and may come back but for now my family will not be visiting...

The food was good and the couple of employees we briefly interacted with were nice. However, the other patrons were loud/roudy and the bathrooms were not clean. The whole vibe of the place gives the look of a cute vintage style diner, but EVERYTHING is electronic: order food from the screen, go through a bunch of prompts, have the correct QR code to get your drinks (if they even have the drink you want) and use that code EVERY time you want to refill. My mom's order was still incorrect despite using the screen and all the customization prompts. The whole time we're seated, not only are the customers being roudy, but the one employee kept getting on the mic and trying to explain how to use the screens or drink machine or answering questions to the people across the room instead of someone going to help them or just serve them like most register/checkout tills. If we never eat at a SnS again, I wouldn't feel it as a loss. And the icing on top was they (the store, not the specific employees) still want you to tip...before getting the food you ordered YOURSELF, and get the drinks YOURSELF, and refill and clean up after everything YOURSELF. Like...what is the tip for...??? If the food or employees had been less than good, this rating would be lower, but they were the ONLY things that made...