Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in St. Louis

I've been eating at Steak n Shakes since I was little. So, it's sad to see only a few left. But if they can't get their times fixed, they will ruin themselves.

With that being said, I understand that they are a cook to order style restaurant and it was intended originally for a drive in / dine in settings. But, it seems no matter the location, they always have time mgt issues, in respect to their online orders.

The expected wait time is always a good 15-25min, regardless of drive thru, carry out or dine in with Steak n Shake.

We ordered online yesterday. Pickup was 6:21. We finally walked out with our 5 meals and shakes at 6:50.

They always seem short staffed, so considering, the few employees they did have working, performed in decent time, given their circumstances. So I do not put the blame on the employees bc honestly, they were killing it, but mgt needs to hear this, especially in this day and age, keeping up with the times is essential to your business! Hire another one or two people 🤔? Fast food should be a 10-12 min wait max.

Aside from that, the food was good and fresh. The shakes were alright but they used to be better. The shakes were actually the deciding factor on us going to Steak n Shake in the first place, so that was a slight disappointing. I got the black raspberry chocolate chip shake. I think it just didn't have enough chips. My son was disappointed with the new Kit Kat shake, saying it just wasn't very good either and didn't have much of the candy in it. Also, his burger 🍔 was missing his condiments, lettuce and onion, so it was just a cheese and bacon burger, said it was a little dry. But, overall, we enjoyed our burgers 🍔 and fries 🍟.

But, for a $75 meal at a burger joint, they could've done better.

We eat out a lot and Steak n Shake could still give competition for all the new pop up burger and shake joints. BUT Steak n Shake, you MUST get your times and shakes up to par, if you expect to stand the test of time!

Your customer should never be waiting this long.... ask Chick-fil-A how they do it?!🤷‍♀️

Their wait time is never longer than 5 minutes and we've ordered just as much food from them, going thru drive thru.

Hope whoever needs to hear this listens bc I'm not the only one who enjoys this restaurant for the food and nostalgia. It's an American staple and I'd like to see it here for another 50...

Good food; abysmal service.

Case in point: This afternoon, when I walked into this location to collect a pick-up order. The portly worker behind the counter attempted to refuse me service because I was not wearing a mask.

Here are some facts about mask requirements at Steak 'n Shake and in St. Louis City:

1. The sign on the restaurant's door says "Please wear a mask." It does not say "you must wear a mask" or "service will be denied if you are not wearing a mask." In fact, I have been to this location several times over the past few weeks, never wearing a mask, and have never received any sort of reprimand until today.

2. St. Louis City's "mask mandate" is illegal. Mayor Jones issued it in the dark of night; the Board of Aldermen renewed it after it had expired, in violation of Missouri state law. The Attorney General of Missouri has filed a motion to dismiss the mandate, and has encouraged citizens to disregard it. Moreover, the St. Louis City Police have said they will not be enforcing the mandate, so there is no point for restaurants to harass customers who choose not to comply.

3. I walked into the restaurant in about five seconds, and would've walked out just as quickly if the above-mentioned employee hadn't given me such an attitude. I'm not sure whose life she thinks she's saving, but she seems to have forgotten the golden rule of customer service. By keeping me in the building longer, and making me speak up to defend myself, she greatly increased the odds of Covid-19 transmission (even though I am fully-vaccinated, and hope she is too).

Let's be frank: If Steak 'n Shake cared about public health, they'd be selling smoothies, not steakburgers. If the woman who scolded me cared about her health, she'd join a gym instead of flapping her gums at strangers.

Let's all cut the virtue-signaling nonsense, and get back to...

My son and I stopped in after a Cards game on Tuesday night. We each went to a Kiosk and placed our orders for dining in and then went to find a booth to sit in. We only found one that was fairly clean enough to sit in.

After a few moments, my number was called and I went to get my food and drink and sat down. I decided to wait for my son's food to arrive before I would eat. Well, we waited and waited and waited some more. His ticket said that his order was to go, which was wrong, and he politely told a woman working there that he was waiting for his food. She immediately snapped at him that there were at least four or five orders ahead of his and that it would be at least twenty more minutes before he would get his food. He was taken aback by her rudeness but still tried to politely explain that his order was NOT a "to-go" order and that I had received my food within minutes of ordering. Again, she snapped out the same response. She was not interested in the problem... and she wasn't interested in fixing the problem. My son had had enough of her attitude and asked for his money back. She said fine and refunded his money without another word. No apology, nothing.

We both work in the service industry and we know that places get busy. But no matter how busy you get, if you have paying customers, you try to provide them with the best possible service. And if there's a problem, you sincerely apologize to the customer and offer to make it right...right then, right there. The woman running the place on the night of the 28th (I assume she is a manager as she seemed to be the one in charge) did absolutely nothing to try to rectify the situation to my son's satisfaction. And all he wanted was an apology and the food he paid for. Needless to say, we weren't happy and left. And I don't think either one of us will patronize this...