Steak N' Shake - Lousy Fast Food Served on China by a Wait Person
Written: Mar 12 '07 (Updated Mar 12 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good shakes and fries, china, flatware, wait staff.
Cons: Low quality food, way overcooked burgers.
The Bottom Line: Steak N' Shake tries to be a step above fast food burger joints and they are. But it is the shortest step up possible.
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| mongkut's Full Review: Steak 'n Shake |
As I’ve said before I pretty much loathe fast food aside from the occasional drive-thru breakfast when we’re in a hurry and need food on the run. Beyond a breakfast sandwich there is absolutely nothing appealing to industrial grade beef hamburgers fried until they are well ruined and sloppily assembled into a semi-edible mess. I mean the 'beef food chain' is pretty much dog food, fast food burgers, cheap bulk frozen hamburger (the stuff that is recalled for E. coli scares about once every few months), bulk supermarket meat department hamburger, USDA standard and select (the average supermarket beef), USDA Choice (best supermarket beef and average restaurant beef), USDA Prime (fine steakhouse beef). So the stuff you are getting at these burger chains is a hair better than what fido dines on.
When we moved to Florida about ten years ago we heard all kinds of wonderful things about this fast food burger joint that had table service and great food. In reality Steak N’ Shake isn’t truly a fast food restaurant but a QSR or quick service restaurant like subway or other places where your food is made quickly to order. So with much trepidation we went to Steak N’ Shake and I was very unimpressed. Since that initial visit I have been back half a dozen times, mostly with my son who likes their french fries. Yesterday was our most recent visit and I felt the urge to share my impressions with Epinions’ readers.
The Restaurant
Yesterday, after a rousing game of miniature golf in which my five year old showed off his newly acquired putting skills by sinking more five and six foot putts than did his dad, we decided to stop at the Steak N’ Shake at 18627 U.S. Highway 19 in Clearwater. I say ‘we’ because my son decided and I was too tired from having lost an hour of sleep, due to the time change, to argue.
Like every other Steak N’ Shake that I’ve visited, the interior of the Clearwater restaurant has a very retro 1950’s or 1960’s feel to it. The color scheme is the standard black and white with red accents. The floor is covered with shiny black and white tiles. The booths and tables are very retro chrome styles as are the stools at the counter. One thing that has impressed me with the other Steak N’ Shake locations and was true here as well is that the dining area was spotless. Unlike most other fast food places where it seems the apathy of the staff is only matched by the piggish dining habits of the patrons, Steak N’ Shake seems to do a good job of policing the mess.
As is typical of the other Steak N’ Shake locations we’ve seen, there is a ‘wait to be seated’ sign in the front of the dining area. I’m not sure that if you slip the hostess a fiver you can request a table by the window with its accompanying view of the lovely parking lot, but I’m almost tempted to tell them the next time I’m with my wife that it is our anniversary and we would like their best table, just to see the reaction. In the case of yesterday's visit we were promptly seated and the only humorous moment came as the hostess scanned the dining room trying to find a place to put us. It was humorous only because the restaurant was maybe one quarter filled and with an abundance of tables and booths it didn’t seem like this would be a decision over which to struggle. Finally deciding on the right spot she led us to a table and mentioned that our server would be right with us.
Our server wasn’t exactly right with us, in fact she was with us about five minutes later as she swung by to tell us herself she would be right with us. OK, sure you will. So we took this opportunity to hit the bathrooms to wash our hands.
As I mentioned a minute ago the interior of the dining area is spotless. The same attention to detail is obviously not required for the bathrooms in the Steak N’ Shake employee training manual. I remember as a child having to use the facilities in service stations as my parents would take me on long trips in the car. The impression they made on my young mind has scarred me to this day as I would pretty much do anything than to use a gas station bathroom, even though many are far cleaner today. Opening the door of the Steak N’ Shake bathroom instantly brought back those memories of my youth as an odor, that can only be surpassed by a porta-potty after a weekend long rock festival, filled my nostrils. We managed to wash our hands while breathing through our mouths as I wondered whether our hands would actually be cleaner before or after entering the bathroom to wash them.
When we returned to our seats our waitress almost immediately appeared and took our order. As she walked away to place our order with the kitchen I tried to stifle any thoughts that the employees ‘must wash hands before returning to work’ in the same foul restrooms we had just experienced.
The Food
Steak N’ Shake advertises the fact that they serve ‘steak burgers,’ not hamburgers. They also try to distance themselves from the fast food chains by promoting the fact that their milkshakes are made the traditional way, rather than with a bagged mix contain a long list of chemical ingredients. The menu features a number of sandwiches and other choices which can be made into platters that come with a choice of two sides. The side choices include french fries, chili, coleslaw, baked beans, cottage cheese, a cup of the soup of the day, or a small garden salad. As I mentioned in the beginning of the review my son loves their french fries. Steak N’ Shakes fries are similar to shoe string fries in that they are very thin and crisp. I’ll have to admit that I also like them and all the more so because Steak N’ Shake offers a bottle of chilies in vinegar at each table. I’ve loved vinegar on french fries ever since I was a kid visiting my dad’s family in Nova Scotia where that topping is more popular than ketchup, or at least was all those years ago. The addition of the chilies makes it even tastier.
For sandwiches my son had the Jr. Steakburger w/ fries and I had the Hickory Smoked Thick Bacon Steakburger from their premium topping selection. When we ordered our food I chose the fries and coleslaw as my sides and asked for everything on the burger. This is another area where Steak N’ Shake differentiates itself from the fast food chains. Yes you can have your order ‘your way’ at BK but what’s the point? You’ll likely only annoy the high school kid making your sandwich and who knows what ‘extra’ ingredients might be added to your meal. At Steak N’ Shake you can have your choice of cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles, and condiments. To drink my son ordered a sprite and I ordered a strawberry shake.
The first to arrive was my son’s soda and my coleslaw. I wasn’t too worried about the shake as they normally take longer to prepare. The coleslaw was maybe a hair better than the commercial stuff you find in supermarket coolers, but not really good. We waited quite a while before the burgers finally arrived and yet I was still without my shake and now pretty thirsty. I mentioned this to the manager, who delivered our food, and he said he would check on it, great.
As with all Steak N’ Shake food our burgers were served on real china plates, commercial grade but hey it’s china. The problems started with the burgers themselves. Now I know that fast food restaurants are notorious for the food in menu pictures to be vastly different from the real items, but in the case of Steak N’ Shake you could barely classify these things as being in the same food group. The thick juicy bacon burger with its equally thick and juicy peppered bacon turned out to be a squished hamburger cooked to absolute death with two strips of bacon that were almost fossilized. I know none of these restaurants have any faith in the quality of their beef, even if they claim it is ‘steak burger,’ but do you really have to incinerate your beef to ensure your customers don’t get E. coli poisoning? On top of this none of the toppings, other than ketchup and mustard, were on my burger. My son’s burger was equally done to a fare-thee-well, but at least he was more interested in the fries anyway.
When the waitress finally arrived with my shake I didn’t even bother mentioning the problem with the burger because I figured I’d cut my losses, eat my meal quickly, and get out of Dodge. Thankfully the shake was very good as I needed its cool richness to try and work down the bites of my crematorium burger.
So far in half a dozen visits I have tried to find something, beyond the french fries, that is worth eating, without success. On previous visits to other locations I have tried the Turkey Club which featured turkey loaf, which I can’t stand, and bacon that was as ruined as on my incinerator burger yesterday. They must have a corporate policy which states that trichinosis can only be prevented by cooking bacon at 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. I have also tried their Chili which surprisingly wasn’t totally awful. It certainly wouldn’t win any awards and is way under spiced, but it wasn’t terrible either.
Prices
The prices at Steak N’ Shake are very reasonable if you forget the poor to mediocre quality of the food. Our bill yesterday came to about $15 and if my wife had been with us it would have been about $25. I’d say a meal for two will run just under $20. Because this is a full service restaurant you should tip your wait person. I’m not real sure that happens here all the time which is too bad as I would imagine waiting tables at a Steak N’ Shake isn’t anyone’s dream job.
Service
If you start off with the realization that you are in a Steak N’ Shake and not a fine dining establishment the service is OK. My particular waitress seemed a little out of it. Maybe she was affected by the time change yesterday as well. She forgot my shake and somewhere between giving my order to her and the kitchen receiving it the toppings for my burger were forgotten. Other than that she was pleasant enough and as I felt bad for her I still gave her a 20% tip which is my usual unless the service is bad. I figure $3 will help her more than it will help me so, whatever.
Hours
Steak N’ Shake is noted for having some pretty wild hours with many restaurants open 24/7. The Clearwater location that we visited is only open 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays and the rest of the week they close at 3AM and reopen for breakfast at 6AM.
Bottom Line
On the positive side Steak N’ Shake offers generally cleaner restaurants, at least the dining rooms in my experience, than the fast food chains. The table service allows one to relax a bit and the flatware and china are a nice touch. Some menu items like the fries and milk shakes are better than fast food chains. On the down side much of the food is just as bad as the fast food chains with burgers that are cooked beyond recognition and many items that are several steps down in quality from even the more mediocre chain table service restaurants like TGI Fridays, Applebee’s, and Ruby Tuesdays.
Recommended:
No
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