Steak ‘n Shake

To corporate management,
On my last visit I downloaded your new app while dining. We dine regularly at your 3232 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY 40 205 store.
My mother and I frequently lunch here on Thursdays. At our last visit (2016-​02-​04) I saw the advertising for your pay app. I was excited to get a free milkshake for paying with your new app. I connected to your free Wi-​Fi and downloaded it while we ate. I tried several times to link my debit card with no success. I called the manager to assist me thinking I was doing something wrong. However she was of no assistance only saying many people have been having problems.
If your app doesn’t work, you should pull your advertising until it does. It’s simply poor representation of your brand. Especially a pay app. I’m now concerned if your tech staff can’t create a working app, why should I think it’s secure with my financial information? I’m definitely not willing to risk that for a free $ 2.99 milkshake.
I’m already becoming more and more disenchanted with your products, service and your facilities. This app fail only adds insult to injury.
Recently your brand has added so many new menu choices. I would imagine it’s in hopes of drawing in more customers. In my humble opinion, it’s at a very high cost to your brand’s over all quality. I would cut back on the chinky variations and focus on making your staple items and service better. All these choices are choking your staff and service is suffering.
Bring it back to the way it was 35 years ago. Making sure orders are correct before they are brought to the table or served out the window. On every dine-​in visit at this location at least one (and many times all) of our orders are incorrect. I never dare go through the drive-​thru anymore as my orders have consistently been incorrect.
Please strive;
To keep your restrooms and dining room clean, which I find the restrooms consistently disgusting. (At this location).
Insure the fries are hot when served and the buns are soft and fresh.
In-​service your wait staff on the staple points of service. ie: Keeping drinks full, checking if anything is needed and asking if everything is satisfactory.
In-​service your kitchen staff on prep and accuracy and your management on maintaining fresh product. ie: Better tomatoes and pickles.
I understand wait staff works for tips. I never cut back my tip to reflect on unsatisfactory service. I don’t feel that sends a message of lacking service to the server. It’s only seen by them as a cheap customer. I prefer to pay the 20% tip and express my discontent to the management. But at this location management is always too busy behind the counter doing prep. I don’t feel my criticisms could be discreetly expressed in this environment.
At my current age of 53 my wonderful childhood memories of dining with my godfather at Steak n Shake are doused when I dine with you now. The nostalgic images in the store only make me long for those days once again.
Please, clean up your act. On all fronts. I don’t know how much more disappointment I can withstand before I stop patronizing your brand.
Most sincerely concerned,
James William Armstrong, III

I’ve been visiting this Steak n Shake since I started college here a few years ago. We come back because it’s the closest one to where we all hang out, not really because of anything else.
Greasy burgers: check
Shoestring fries: check
Big shakes: check
Good service, though? Not really. It used to be in the middle of the night that we would come here so we were okay with poor service. Now their hours have changed (they close at 10:30pm) and no matter the time of day the service is still «meh.» When we’re craving Steak n Shake we have no problem coming here but if I’m craving a burger there’s a list of places I’d go over this.

This was my first time there and the sandwich was great but the fries were horrible. And then I didn’t have napkin after driving off. The person taking the order didn’t even ask me what type of drink I wanted before I got rushed off.

I walked in at 10pm and 5he place wasn’t busy but we were waiting to be seated for 30mins. I walked out

This place should just burn down and start over as anything else. Anything. The only waitress that’s good is Paula. She’s a sweetheart.

We walked in at 9:45pm on a Saturday night and the waitress said they were closing the inside due to only having one waitress on staff. There was 2 other couples that came behind us and said this location always closes early. If that is the case, why keep this place open? Never will come to this location ever again.

I have lived in this area my entire life and gradually the quality of service and food have gone downhill SIGNIFICANTLY! I don’t see how the owners can keep the doors open. If you have a complaint about service, don’t waste your time asking to speak with the manager. Talking to the manager about an issue, you would be better off talking to the WALL!

It’s all good. Sriracha steakburger & fries with small chocolate shake & water. Fast service, low price, clean facilities.

What a disappointing experience. My sister and I wanted lunch, and living in Alaska with no Steak ‘n Shake, this is what I wanted. We chose this location as it was closest to the zoo.
It took 10 minutes before someone would seat us. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me as I would attribute it to being busy, but when there are only 2 tables of people and employees are sitting around and looking at you, it’s an issue.
After we were seated it took a considerable amount of time for us to be waited on. We ordered our drinks and our food all at once. Our drinks came pretty quickly, but that was all. When our food finally arrived, it was lukewarm at best. I didn’t feel like complaining and was starving so we ate it anyways.
Now, we were ready to leave. We were looking around for our waitress so we could flag her down and ask her for our check, and much to our surprise, discovered her eating a burger in the corner. Later we discovered she had been taking her lunch break.
After 15 – 20 minutes of sitting, we decided we would ask for our check at the counter. Once given the check, we were ignored. I got multiple stares from employees while I was waiting at the counter and not one offered to help. Another woman was also at the counter trying to complain about the service but no one was paying attention to her.
I finally said something about how the manager enjoyed pretending like customers weren’t waiting, and if we tried to leave they would pay attention to us. I guess a lightbulb went off at this time because he finally came over and let me pay for my food.
Also, I did see the look you gave me when I crossed out the tip section. Thank you.

In the past, steak and shake has always satisfied any fast-​food cravings I’ve had. That being said, you can’t expect that much out of a fast-​food franchise. My most recent visit to this location has proved that this particular franchise has gone completely downhill.
I pulled into the drivethru at about 9:30pm, and the line was overwhelmingly long. When I finally approached the ordering box (about 15 mins later), the attendant was inattentive and could not accurately remember my order. I asked him to read back my order, and low and behold he had screwed it up. I had to clarify three times.
I waited to pull up to a window for an additional 10 minutes. At this point my boyfriend got out of the car and walked next door to rally’s. He ordered and ate his rally’s all before I pulled up to the window.
When I got to the window and received my food, I checked the bag and noticed they had messed up my burger (giving me only the meat and bun). When I asked for another burger, they took back my burger (health violation) and slapped some cheese and lettuce on. The fries were undercooked and cold. And a worker was eating a cookie (with no gloves) as she prepared other orders.
I called corporate to inform them of this incident and they responded immediately. I even got a $ 5 gift card. I probably won’t use it though, unless I go to a different steak and shake location. This location effectively scarred me.

We all know fries are frozen before they are fried and served but here
, at Bardstown’s Steak n’ Shake, that truth is brutally honest. They are served cold and barely salted. If that wasn’t bad enough, our server didn’t even apologize for the food’s poor condition. The manager was even worse.
One of my friends went up to him while he was paying and gave the manager our grievances. Couldn’t even meet my friend eye to eye. No apology, no nothing. During this «scene», the manager found it appropriate to check on the drive thru order. Apparently, that comes first before the dissatisfied customer directly in front of you. I tipped my server at least a dollar because I can’t blame her for the poor instruction she must’ve received from her manager.
Hopefully, Steak n’ Shake will review and repair the damage this part of the chain is causing. I love Steak n’ Shake but not this one.

Oh. wow. after 5 minutes of waiting at the door, someone finally comes and asks if I need help (well yes, not standing here for appearances) I say I need to make a carry out order. Go to the register they said. Okie dokie… walk to register, 15 minutes pass while I watch people flipping burgers around in a stressed out manner. Eventually, a guy comes over and apologizes for the wait.
I decided to give this place 2 stars only because this guy was so friendly about everything. He did say «we have a hundred people working here and no one wants to do their job» …it shows.
I would have been more understanding had the restaurant been busy, but it wasn’t. maybe 5 tables plus the drive thru crowd. The food was what you would expect, but really, unless you have time to kill, don’t bother coming here…
I think its worth noting also, that the restaurant was out of gloves, so I got to watch employees fumble with various ways of coping with this. I must have heard every employee apologize to a customer at least twice while waiting on my food.

This was a bitterly disappointing experience. Poor customer service, long wait at the drive thru and the food quality was subpar. So why one star? The Nutella shake was good :)
Sorry guys for a bad review.

This Steak and Shake location is hit or miss for me. Sometimes the experience is absolutely fantastic and other times it leaves something to be desired. With that being said, the servers are very personable and the food is usually very good. I would definitely recommend not stopping by when it’s busy inside because that seems to be when the most mistakes happen. If you’re going to dine inside, wait until it’s not crowded.

I love Steak And Shake. But this visit was not good at all. I came in with my boyfriend to get a late lunch, we waited at least two minutes for someone to acknowledge our presence and give us a seat. Didn’t start good, so after that it took a long time to get our drinks ordered. And the man who was helping our waitress seemed distracted like us being there was interrupting his conversation with his coworkers. So our waitress finally comes over because she was the only person doing her job, Nina, was excellent. Very pleasant and prompt with getting our order taken. However the food took forever to come out and it wasn’t very warm upon arrival. I watched three other couples get their food who arrived after we did. Then when we checking out after tipping Nina, the guy who seemed distracted when taking our drink order, took our check and as we were paying seemed distracted again with his conversations with coworkers. When I went to grab a contact us card he said I can take one as long as I say something good. Like do you expect something good after this service? Two burgers some fries, a salad and two cokes should not take almost an hour to be served. So I don’t recommend this location. If you go then hope Nina is your waitress because she is the only one who does anything there, even if she is overworked.

I enjoy Steak ‘n Shake. The dining rooms are nice, with a classic retro diner feel.
Steak ‘n Shake offers a lot of different hamburgers, all at very reasonable prices. The restaurant also offers a huge milkshake menu.
Servers are usually pretty friendly, and food arrives quickly.

Delicious steak burgers every time. The fries are excellent as long as you get them hot. Solid milk shakes and a decent kids menu makes this one of the regular rotations for me and the family.
Try the Royal burger which has an egg and bacon on it!

No… Just … No.
My husband is from the Midwest so he has some weird attachment to steak and shake. But I’ve been at least 3 times and I’ve never been impressed at all. The milkshakes are actually pretty good but everything else is just barely okay. I can’t get behind this place. My husband is obsessed.

The food is decent I get three pepper double steak burger and i haven’t been disappointed but Drive thru is horrible, waiting in line for about 15 to 20 minutes the hours are bad and when I get to the window there is an employee that is always complaining and it is very unprofessional. My friend gets the m&m shake and it barely has m&ms in it its just a regular shake.

While service is nice, they are never staffed enough and service is slow.
Food is ok. No better than White Castle truth be told. Difference, higher prices.
Place is dirty. I went once after moving near the area and haven’t been back.