In Sight, It Must Be Right! Is this Fast Food or Not? Steak 'n Shake
Written: Jan 21 '04 (Updated Jan 22 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good tasting burgers and chili.
Cons: High prices = poor value. Many menu items of dubious quality.
The Bottom Line: Can't decide if this is fast food or not. High cost for burgers & fries meals equals a poor return on investment. The shakes and chili are worth a try.
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| jbsassypants's Full Review: Steak 'n Shake |
What??? The "In Sight..." tag line means that because you can see the cooking area, the quality of the food must be better because the cooks won't serve a burger that's been dropped or worse yet, with boogers. (Don't laugh - I've seen it happen.)
So what's up with Steak 'n Shake. I live in Central IL, so there are plenty of these restaurants to be found. Begun back in the 1930's up Route 66 in Normal, IL, the chain is now throughout the Mid-West and parts of the South.
Steak 'n Shake straddles markets, fast-food vs. sit down family restaurant, with varying degrees of success. I believe this market-straddling alienates as many customers as it pleases and here's why: fast food customers want decent food, fast and cheap; sit-down restaurant customers want better food, even if it costs a bit more and take a bit more time. SnS doesn't give either group what it wants.
You get a waitress, and the food is served on 1950's style china plates. So, while you don't have to serve yourself, you also must wait on your waitress to take care of you, and you must also leave a tip. Also - with the whole waitress concept - you don't get your food right away. Speed is usually OK, but they don't start making your food until you order it. Do not expect a quick in and out, even from the drive through.
The food is of varying quality. The burgers usually have an excellent taste, but the patties are so small and smashed so thinly that I don't feel like I get a good return on investment. Want tomato, lettuce or cheese? You can have them, if you're willing to pay extra. By the time they charge you for all the "extras", a double cheeseburger can cost $4. Heck, I can get a burger just as good for about a buck at a local mom n pop restaurant. SnS dresses up their burgers all sorts of ways, as a reuben, philly beef, etc. There's even the Light n Luscious Plate that pre-dates Atkins, 2 patties, lettuce, tomato & cottage cheese (no buns). Other sandwich offerings include fish and chicken.
We are encouraged to make any sandwich a "platter" for a couple more bucks. You can choose 2 from a list that includes: baked beans, cottage cheese, chili soup, soup of the day, fries, cole slaw, and side salad. Of these, the chili is the only winner. It always tastes the same, so if you like it at one restaurant, you'll like it at all of them. It's one of those right down the middle, not too thick, not too watery, not too spicy, not too bland. All the other items on this list are unremarkable, except for the fries and side salad, which are usually bad. The fries are sliced like shoestring potatoes. They taste OK if you catch them right out of the fryer - but due to the large surface area, they cool down almost immediately. Within 2-3 minutes you've got a pile of ice-cold hash browns. The side-salads never taste fresh - at least none that I've tried. I recommend sticking with the chili and cottage cheese for sides - they've always been consistently good.
They also dress up their chili in a bazillion different outfits: plain ol' chili, chili supreme, chili mac, chili 3-way (on top of spaghetti), chili 5-way (on top of spaghetti with cheese & onions). These are all pretty good and worth a try if you want to avoid the burger scene.
Kids meals include burgers, chicken tenders and grilled cheese and spaghetti.
SnS does much better on desserts. They use hard ice cream, not custard from a mix. Also, they offer stawberrry shortcake and other seasonal desserts. To paraphrase Donkey from the movie, "Shrek", their milkshakes may be the best dessert on the whole damn planet." They're made the old-fashioned way with ice cream and whole milk. Check your diet at the door if you want one of these bad boys.
Drinks are limited to coffee, tea, milk and soft drinks. You can get a shot of cherry or vanilla for your Coke for a bit extra. Refills are now free.
Value - here's where the sitdown family restaurant crowd has a beef. After paying dinner for for a family of four and tip, we're usually $30-$40 lighter than when we entered. All that for freakin' burgers and fries and a shake. For that kind of money, I can get a steak at Applebee's or Chilli's and a beer or mixed drink or a full blown country-esqe meal at a Cracker Barrel.
We used to go to SnS quite often. But lately we look at what we get for our money and usually opt for somewhere else.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jbsassypants
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Location: The Heartland
Reviews written: 21
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"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
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