Steak 'n Shake - Lakeland

It seems that they stop serving milkshakes several hours before closing time. There's a chain blocking the drive-thru, so once they inform you that milkshakes are unavailable, you're stuck waiting until you can get past it. I've been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to leave, but the drive-thru is moving so slowly that I’ll likely be here for another 20 minutes.

I had never visited one of these places before, but I decided to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by the food; it was actually quite good! The meat was flavorful, and I always enjoy trying a grilled cheese-style burger. If you come across one during your travels, it's definitely worth trying!

After placing my order, I went to the soda fountain to get a drink, and there were two older ladies chatting when the manager came out from the kitchen. I didn’t catch his name, but he asked the ladies how they were doing. They mentioned that the floors were very sticky, which was absolutely true, as my shoes were making sticky noises too. The manager insisted that it must be a problem with their shoes and claimed he had just mopped with a new mop head ten minutes ago, repeatedly insisting that the floors weren’t sticky, but rather it was the customers' shoes. As I walked by, he pointed at my boyfriend and my shoes, saying, “Theirs aren’t sticky,” even though they definitely were. I even took pictures of the floors, and they were yellow with visible marks, dirt, and grease. It’s clear they haven’t really cleaned this place properly since the start of COVID. With some good scrubbing and deep cleaning, it could be a nice place to eat again. If the manager had been more respectful, the atmosphere might have felt better too. I just miss the old dine-in experience—Steak 'n Shake isn't the same anymore.

The new kiosk and pickup food setup were unexpected as were used to ordering from a server, however was not disappointed. Kiosks worked well, even though you can't customize your shake order. Restaurant and restrooms were clean. Food was good, no different than previous visits. Nice to have a restaurant on this side of town that wasn't horrible food or service, so we will be back.

OMG first my gift card wouldn't work on the order kiosk said see counter staff. They had only 2 of the 4 kiosks working on a Sunday at about 1:00. We stood for over 10 min waiting for someone to help us all the time there was a line for the 2 working kiosks. Finally a man came out to the counter and put a roll of tape into one of the nonworking machines. I asked if he could help me and he did the same thing I did and got the same notice. He took my gift card to the back to the manager and about 10 min later she came out and used the register behind the counter and rang our order. She stated it was the gift card that was old and being recalled? I got the card for Christmas from my grandson who bought it the week before? Now the wait for the food was over 30 minutes We love Stake and Shake but being there for over an hour is unacceptable. I know they were short staffed and they put a note on the door we saw when we left that said drive-in only. We saw a lack of organization that was making it harder and longer to do the job. I do want to commend the young man for cooking the burgers. He never left his station the whole time we were there but you could tell her was stressed I wouldn't blame him if he quit. Pictures taken while we were waiting and waiting and waiting out front.