Steak ‘n Shake

Today was probably the worst Steak and Shake experience ever. Bad enough that I can’t forsee me spending another cent there and I’m usually pretty open minded and willing to accept mistakes happen. There’s always a problem with waiting and it never seems to run smoothly but everyone likes it enough we return. Today was a complete disaster! This business should not have a drive thru. It was a long wait to get to order (10 min). It was my turn to order and was told to look at the menu and decide and they’ll be with us soon. Been in line long enough, memorized the menu, order is ready to be taken. Finally a young kid proceeds to take our order. I had to repeat myself over and over and over, never had a problem ordering a burger with nothing but ketchup and he’d turn around and say something different… no, I didn’t say cheese and everything, just ketchup. The order process was an extreme struggle. And we had 2 orders so that just made things even worse. After 15 min of just ordering, we proceed to the window. The experience just got worse. We pay for both orders only to get questioned 3 times if we paid. We were asked to repeat our orders multiple times only to have them then hand us incorrect orders, multiple times. This young kid who shouldn’t of been even taking the orders or $ starts freaking out. We’re watching him lose it, even swear, it was obvious something was lost. Of course it was our order slips. We were handed so many items that weren’t ours in attempt for them to just get it right, then we get ours and it was a joke. I’ve never repeated my order so much and then 2 minutes later handed a vanilla shake… I just told you it was strawberry banana 2 times and you hand me vanilla? Shake dripping off the cup and all over me & the car, bag covered in black, sticky stuff on the bottom, fries cold, inedible and dumped throughout the bags, burgers soggy like they took a bath and we still were missing a drink. I threw my food out when I got home. There was no apology, no remedying the situation, nothing. We know calling would get no where, the place is a huge mess so they couldn’t answer a phone because that’d screw up even more. 10 people standing around trying to make sense of food orders and just throw food at people to get them to leave. Cars were honking behind us. Not sure what honking was going to do, your food is still going to be cold & incorrect.
I have more than enough food/​customer service/​mgmt experience so there isn’t one thing this company can say that is a viable excuse for the poor service exhibited today. This restaurant has always had a lack of strong management, untrained & unmotivated staff, slow service and at most times poor food quality. In the past, I’ve seen some employees stand around, gossip, and not deliver orders that were sitting there, while others bust their asses and try to do their jobs and pick up the slack. The owners need to do a complete overhaul of this business and fix the major issues, quality of service and food. Until they can properly train their staff and handle the business inside, they shouldn’t open the drive thru. In the end the business you lose and the costs in wasted and reimbursed food has got to surmount any profit. Not to mention the negative word of mouth that all the bad service has created. We will tell our story to everyone we know, that’s what people do. Prevent our family and friends from disappointment. We will call at a more convenient time to attempt a conversation with management but foreseeing this conversation will not be handled properly or issues ever addressed. The service has been declining for a long time, not sure what it takes for them to actually remedy the problem. Anyone choosing to go there needs to not attempt the drive thru and hope it’s not the least bit busy because it’ll be an experience you won’t enjoy.

Scott Enterprises sold this business cause it was a dump and made his name look bad. Guess what? It still is! I just went here last night for a V-​day dinner. Huge mistake on our part. We sat in seats that we could clearly see our food on the display with the heat lamp. It sat there for 7mins… every staff member walked right by it. About 3 servers touched the slip and realized it wasn’t their table and left our food sit. Finally a waitress not our waitress but a waitress delivered out food. Of course we said something… but it wasn’t her fault. After picking up my half hot onion ring… there was caked on food on my plate. Long story short: my waitress «locked herself outside» (supposedly).
The management in this place must be in the back playing on his DS. Cause clearly that place needs some serious help and training of staff!
Bathrooms smell like month old piss. Don’t touch anything!
The food is good, the milkshakes are killer but I’d do drive thru. By ALL MEANS

I came here after a long day at Splash Lagoon near by. The place was pretty spacious and they had breakfast and regular food options. The food was nothing to write home about. I mean, for what it was and considering the price, it did the job. But I don’t have this place on my list of places to go when I return to Erie. Overall, for a quick cheap bite to eat, this place came through.

Went here for breakfast with family and was excited to see a Steak and Shake because I went to one in Myrtle Beach; and the food there was so good.
The décor looked the same, server looked uninterested in her job and the food was an awful disappointment. I ordered the Portabello and Sausage Skillet — eggs were undercooked, sausage was not fully cooked either — I can still see red and the whole dish looked thrown together. The biscuit I got with the meal wasn’t fresh, it was hard and tasted bad. I barely could eat anything on the plate.
My sister got the Breakfast Shooters and hash browns. The sausage in the sandwiches were undercooked as well. The only thing decent were the hash browns.
Overall the service wasn’t very pleasant and the food was even worse. The water was equally as bad if that’s even possible. I would not recommend going here — I would however recommend Eat ‘n’ Park for breakfast.

The real milkshakes are a five star! All kinds a great flavors. My son had a grilled chicken sandwich that he liked. The menu has quite a variety of burgers and sandwiches as well! The french fries are really skinny, sort of like McDonald’s. We got an order of cheese fries they were OK but nothing to write home about.

There’s nothing to save this one for me. I hated this place the moment I walked into it.
The setup is extremely awkward. Or maybe it’s just where the host put us, but it was straight up right in front of the hostess area (or maybe it wasn’t the hostess area, not sure, don’t really care either). It was after much traveling that we landed here, a quick meal before finishing up the last couple hours left of our driving. I don’t know what I was expecting. I didn’t read any of the reviews before landing a table, so I’m not sure.
Waitress was decent. Her name tag said «trainer», so you know you’re dealing with the best of the best ;) She checked in on us periodically to make sure we were doing okay. She was the lovely part.
The not-​so-​lovely part was the hostess table/​waiting area/​whatever you call it behind our table that the hostesses/​hosts and waiters conglomerate to. Mostly to talk badly about other employees, the company itself, or what-​have-​you. Things I didn’t really want to listen to. When their conversation rings louder in your ears than the one you’re currently having, it’s such a turnoff. To everything.
The food was subpar and lacking. The burger wasn’t fantastic, although the guacamole on it was good. The fries were horrible and minimal. The milkshake was okay, but I’ve certainly had better. The peanut butter cup wasn’t evenly mixed throughout so most of it ended up on the bottom. My friend had the chicken strips and he was presented with what looked like a kid’s meal. All we could do was blink at it.
I guess you get what you pay for. Prices were dirt cheap (are-you-sure-that’s-real-meat cheap).
What Steak N Shake seriously needs is a reinvention of everything. Setup of the place, menu, employees, food, etc. Then you call me and get back to me, ‘kay?
Until then, I think this review all taught us a valuable lesson in life: cheap, chain meals aren’t necessarily good meals.

The hours posted on Unilocal are inaccurate. They’re not open for late night, not tonight at least.

LOVE Steak n Shake. Please bring this out to San Diego!
I’ve been eating at Steak n Shake since I was about 8 years old growing up in Chicago. The burgers, shakes & fries are SO good. I introduced my 19 year old son to this place on a recent trip to Erie & he loves it just as much as I do.
His favorite is the guacamole burger & I stick to the classic steak burger w/​cheese. My son had the peanut butter cup milkshake & I had the Nutella milkshake. Both were excellent — very creamy, not too thick & full of flavor. And the fries are unbelievably thin, hot & fresh. I can’t think of another place that does fries as well as Steak n Shake.
To gage how great this place is, there was a 30 minute wait for lunch one day when we were there.
I enjoyed the Steak n Shake seasoning so much, I had to bring home a bottle. It’s fabulous on fries or your burger.

A great place to grab a quick burger, fries and shake… They are usually pretty busy and seem a bit under staffed, but never had an issue as they are always friendly and the food is great!

Service was extremely slow. We ate our meals and had to wait another 20 min for our shakes!!! 2 thumbs down

Worst service I’ve ever had at a restaurant! My food sat in the food pass for over 10 minutes, 2 managers and several servers walked by the pass numerous times and did nothing about the food sitting there. My food still was not brought to the table until I went up and spoke to the manager and told him I have been watching my food sit there for several minutes. The staff looked as though they were in a competition to see who could display who wanted to be at work the least, including both managers.

I really liked this place. It has a 50’s diner theme to it, and the food was a very good value. The peanut butter cup milkshake I got was massive and delicious. Staff was friendly. Overall a great place!

Drove from Buffalo just to eat here. Great food, excellent service, and a very friendly staff. They even stayed open a little late for us.

I hate to do this because I used to always enjoy steak and shake but the one on peach street in Erie, PA has gone down hill for sure…
I have been a semi frequent annual patron of this establishment once or twice a year for the past 9 years when in town for work. I used to love it!!! No where could you get a warm great tasting burger and a shake not only quick but for under 10 bucks a person.
When I walked in this time was what I thought at least would be the beginning of the lunch rush about 11:45am during the week. Much to my surprise I walked in to only three tables sat. I walked up to what appeared to be a hostess area to see an employee doodling on what appeared to be a seating chart. She paid me no attention at all completely oblivious to her surroundings. As I awkwardly stood behind her I looked around for other employees that would hopefully help me… Waited… and waited… Finally a staff member walking back from serving one of his tables walked up. He said nothing to me, but smacked the woman I was standing in front of letting her know I was behind her waiting to be sat. She did not greet me or apologize but simply said right this way and took me to a table.
If that first impression wasn’t enough after I sat down she greeted me stating she would be my server today… GREAT!!! Can’t wait! Just as expected the service she provided was inattentive, inconsistent, unfriendly, and slow. She was great at trying to up sell me anything she possibly could but I was only interested in getting in and out at that point.
When the food came I was thrown off??? Every time I had ever come to steak and shake even if the service was piss poor I was at least getting a product that was delicious and looked appetizing. This burger and fries was horrible looking. The product delivered to me would best be described as a kids plastic toy set of food dipped in grease and served on a plate. If you have ever been here you know the fries are tiny but does anyone think it is acceptable to give me 18 of those tiny little fries and consider that a side? Yes, I was that pathetic to go ahead and count them because of how few were given I though it was comical. The burger was a «double burger» cajun style which supposedly meant dip the top of the bun in grease and throw some cajun seasoning on top of that… horrible just horrible I ended up scraping it off with my knife.

Came here on Sunday with a few of my friends on the way back from Detroit to Buffalo around 9pm. To me their set up is a little confusing as they have counter service and a hostess stand. We chose the former as we did not see a line. I ordered the garlic burger with fries for FOUR DOLLARS!!! Great price, but I was a little weary at what the size of the burger would be. It took about 10 minutes to receive my food, and my friends and I decided to eat a the restaurant instead of in the car. The waitress told us she did not mind if we sat at a table as they were not too busy as long as we cleaned up after ourselves. Seriously? Is paying for our food not enough? On to the food: the burger was very tasty and had a garlic bun. The fries were nothing special and I wish they would preseason the fries instead of having to shake your own seasoning at the table on them. Overall it was a cheap meal and filled me up for $ 4, can’t complain. We had to ask the same waitress where we could throw out our garbage as there were no garbage cans to be seen in the restaurant…

Was there for lunch on 8÷29÷14− services was sloooow… the gentleman seating us was in one gear — low. No one was bussing tables consistently and many were left dirty until someone finally came while people poured in.
Overall, very very disorganized and inefficient. Our waitress apologized a lot, as she was doing the best she could and looked frustrated. Where were the managers?
On a positive note, our food was very good !

Man. This place has the «ick» factor. It needs the floors to be replaced, and then the entire store steam sanitized. I’ve been to many S&S’ before… Ohio, Florida (Orlando area near UCF.) They were all clean and prompt. It’s just really really slow. Even to get a darn coke it took 10 minutes. We will not be going back.

Sorry, Steak ‘n Shake. Your burger was dry as dust and the french fries tasted like they had been sitting around for longer than my drive from Cincinnati. Your shakes still got it though. I am afraid that is not enough to make me pick you over my fast food bff, Wendy’s.
You’re the weakest link. Goodbye.

Second time we have been to this location… First time they hadn’t cleared the tables in hours and dirty dishes sat everywhere. We had hair in our food… It was a mess. Decided to try again, at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The line was out the door… Dirty tables everywhere and no one even trying to clean them. Didn’t stay, went to someplace better.

This was my first Steak ‘n Shake experience and I was certainly not disappointed. There was a large selection of low-​cost meals for me to choose from (I’m a medical student and my wallet is a bit empty these days). I ate the Jamaican Jerk Burger and it was VERY good. My meal consisted of the burger with fries and water, all for $ 4. I then decided to grab a Caramel Apple milkshake on my way out and it was a treat!
In addition to the excellent food, the booths were very comfortable and clean, my waitress was very kind and brought out our food relatively quickly, and the other employees were kind. It is also a great place for families to bring their kids. The only negative I had was that when I ordered my milkshake to go (after I had my meal), I had to wait about 10 minutes (I went up to the counter to order it because my waitress already gave us our bill). My cup ended up being a bit sticky too. So other than the long wait for the milkshake on my way out, it was a fine dining experience in Erie.