Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Woodstock

I only do 5 star or 1 star reviews. This location gets the extremely rare 1 star from me thanks to the manager on duty. We pulled in the parking lot at 9:31 and saw him stacking the last of the chairs. We literally saw him roll his eyes. I get hating when a customer comes in 30 minutes before closing, but don’t let it get you that upset. He came on the speaker and wouldn’t let me finish my order or listen to the other orders I was getting. I have never been rushed that bad. We knew what we wanted. So it wasn’t a case of us saying uhhh and making him wait. I would say fris and he’d interrupt and say a Frisco melt what drink? My order went fine that way. But then he kept it up. I really couldn’t hear my daughter’s order for him saying you want 3 meals?? In hopes that he would accept that he might not get to walk out at exactly 10:01. Normally, I would take a much longer time to order in response to his attitude. But instead, I let him know other cars were already behind me because a ball tournament just ended so he’d have a few more orders. He said “No I won’t. Because we close in a few minutes and I care about my employees health and safety”.

I don’t stop at fast food places unless there’s at least 15 minutes to close. And an hour for a sit down place, specifically because I don’t want to make anyone stay later than necessary. But it was 30 minutes before closing at a fast food place. I still kinda understand the internal thoughts. But that’s your job. Don’t get mad that we wanted to patron your establishment, and then not even give us an opportunity to place our order. I didn’t review the food since I know enough to not let someone with a terrible attitude directed specifically at us to make our food. But I’m sure it’s fine and the normal S&S stuff. Photos were taken at 9:39pm. I don’t mind stacked chairs. But I would if I was the manager. That sends a visual message that you’re probably closed and if not, you’re not wanted. Maybe it was just a bad day. We all have them.

Editing today after reading other reviews: How is the District Mgmt / Ownership team allowing customers to be treated like this????!!!! Sounds like the manager is on a power trip and the aggression gets emulated by the rest of the staff. Hopefully this location isn’t one of the many that’s shutting down cause I promise your attitude won’t be accepted in any...

My wife and I had a bad experience at a drive-in SteaknShake located at 120 Lauren Woodstock Georgia 30189. On July 30th—just a couple of days ago--we went to the take-out menu board in an attempt to place our order over the speaker. The person taking the order, in this instance the African-American manager, was very short with us, telling me that he would not repeat our order as requested and to abruptly move forward to the window, conversation over. I felt blindsided and so did my spouse. I only wanted the order repeated because my wife is allergic to onions and peppers and wanted to make sure that there would be no onions on her single steak burger, not to mention she, unlike myself, wanted lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes. In contrast I only wanted ketchup and pickles. We were not trying to be difficult or unfriendly. To make things worse the young Caucasian man (a teenager I believe) at the pick up window was about to articulate or repeat the order of his own volition and in conformance with normal protocol, not at our request but to validate the order, but was angrily cut off by the manager (alluded to earlier) who in a very hostile tone of voice stated to his helper that “we don’t need to repeat the order seven (7) times”—these were his very words—at which time the young man looked at his boss with disbelief as we did, I quietly whispering to my wife “Did you hear that?”. The young man was very polite and customer-friendly, the antithesis of his supervisor/manager. We were then told to park our car in the reserved pick-up space and we did so as instructed and when the young African-American lady delivered the two steak burgers and French friends to our car, I let her know that we were shocked by her bosses’ attitude and felt he needed some additional training in interpersonal skills. She was exceptionally nice. As we were leaving the parking lot he waved to us, out the fast—food’s store window—as if to say I got your message and in response I’m ignoring you. In addition to the rude behavior of management at the Steak and Shake referenced below, the order wound up wrong, namely I ordered a bowl of chili, but only received a cup (unless the size of a bowl of chili has been compressed similar to cereal boxes reduced in size at a typical grocery store like Publix or Kroger’s to use...

Steak and Shake used to be the bomb. Cool place, cool food, etc.

After the pandemic they are now different. First impression? Ghost town. I went there with my family recently and the whole place was empty (zero guests) at 7:30 on a weeknight. It used to be you could go there at any time and the place was always nearly half full.

So, we place the order and the kiosk immediately asks us to leave a tip. They dont serve you anymore, so you have to get your own drinks and pick up your own order at the counter. So, what are we tipping? Also, since when do you tip BEFORE you can rate the service?

Anyways, my kids guilt me into leaving a 20% tip for people who arent even serving me or traditionally even work for tips. We sit down, and I had gotten a shake. They made me the wrong shake. So I go back, and the lady asks me if Im sure. I show her my receipt and it shows i ordered the banana shake. I show her the shake, its chocolate. She signs, takes it from me, and walks away. After standing there like a stooge for a few moments, i eventually went back to my kids to wait. A bit later my son went to get some ketchup, and came back with my shake. It was just sitting there. On the counter. Noone around it. Its not like it wasnt obvious who it belonged to, WE WERE THE ONLY ONES IN THERE. She couldnt have either a) walked the 20 feet to bring it to me, or even, i dunno, said something like "Your shake is ready!".

Anyhoo, the food was so so. The fries were good, the burger were a little over cooked. I have 5 kids. 2 were happy, and 3 were not. My food was lame, so thats 4 out of 6 were unpleased with our meal. Too late now, suckers, you tipped before you ate the food.

Steak and Shake has been in my life since I was a kid. And now? I dont think I'll be going again. What made it great is gone. And with how many people were there, it seems...