The Great Cow Smackdown: Steak ‘n Shake vs. Sullivan’s

The Orders

At Steak ‘n Shake I ordered the steakburger single (with mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles and ketchup) as a platter, which comes with two sides. I picked the baked beans and the vegetable beef soup. I also got a free side of fries because they got my order wrong.

At Sullivan’s, I picked the “business lunch” special: you have a few choices, and I went with the Caesar salad, a six-ounce filet mignon, and sides of horseradish mashed potatoes and sautéed broccoli and carrots.

The Meat

You can’t beat Steak ‘n Shake in the hashslinger-quality hamburger department. The ground beef is thin and pleasantly greasy, and served to order: in my case, plenty of heart-clogging mayo and all the other fixins. The white-bread bun has the doughy collapsible Wonderbread quality that completes the experience. The outcome was delicious. I polished it.

The filet at Sullivan’s was cooked to my specifications (a red-in-the-middle medium rare) with a nice crusty coating of spices. The juices from the meat covered the sizable plate, adding flavor to the veggies and mashed potatoes. The first bite tasted slightly under-salted, but I realized it was because I started with the quite-salty potatoes, and the meat couldn’t compete. Still, the second bite was moist and flavorful and the meat was very tender. A quality cut with a quality presentation.

Decision: Sullivan’s

The Tates

I didn’t order the fries at Steak ‘n Shake, but got them anyway. Steak ‘n Shake fries are very skinny (skinnier than your standard fast food chain fries), crispy, and plentiful. The salt-level was good. My only complaint is that they weren’t fresh out of frier, and thus a little cool and flabby.

Sullivan’s serves a horseradish mashed potato which is orgasmically good. The tang of the horseradish really brings out the flavor of the potato and balances well with the saltiness. I don’t know how much butter and/or cream they blend in to get the rich flavor and texture, and I don’t want to know. This side dish is killer. I was scraping the plate.

Decision: Sullivan’s

The Sides

At Steak ‘n Shake, the vegetable soup was decent, with big chunks of root vegetables and a little beef. It was tomato-y and salty – a cut above Campbell’s. The baked beans come in an adorable mini-crock. They're sweet with a strong smoked bacon flavor. The beans are firm and tender. (Aside: have you ever eaten baked beans and eggs over toast? If not, try it. It’s delicious.) The soup I could take or leave, but the beans were top-notch.

The veggies at Sullivan’s were simple – two giant spears of broccoli and two equally big carrots, lightly sautéed so that the vegetables maintained their color and crispness. They were very delicately sauced, which when mixed with the juices from the filet, was perfect.

So we have down-home lip-smackin’ vs. simple chic. This one depends on your personal taste.

Decision: Sullivan’s

The Dessert

We ask: how can one improve on a milk shake? Steak ‘n Shake answers: the Sippable Sundae. Try the turtle caramel nut – a vanilla shake topped with hot fudge, caramel, nuts, whipped cream and a cherry. Their shakes were always good. Now they’re decadent, too.

At Sullivan’s we tried the ice-cream topped brownie. What came out looked amazing – more like a big chocolate soufflé in an oversized ramekin. The texture, however, was a disappointment. It tasted like it had been cooked, refrigerated, and re-cooked, until the whole operation was dry and crunchy, not the expected moist or fluffy. To their credit, the server removed the charge from our bill.

Decision: Steak ‘n Shake

The Price

Steak ‘n Shake’s a bargain: $4.75 for the single steakburger platter (a burger and two sides). You get a lot of food for your sawbuck.

Sullivan’s, as you might expect, is a little pricier, but a great deal considering that with the business lunch special you get a filet, sides, and a salad for $15.99.

Decision: Draw

The Atmosphere

Steak ‘n Shake has the fun: black and while checked tile floors, red vinyl accents, and that old-school diner feel. Sullivan’s has the elegance: linen tablecloths and napkins, jazz in the background, fresh flowers, and the old-world cigar-chomping dealmakers and ladies-who-lunch crowd.

Sadly, Sullivan’s also has the actual cigar-smell (not evident in the dining room, but definitely wafting in from elsewhere – maybe the bar area). It wasn’t so much to detract from the meal, but it was noticeable. Two years ago, I would have bashed Steak ‘n Shake for their smoking section (large, smoky, and not separated from the smoking section in any meaningful way) but when they tore down and rebuilt the Steak ‘n Shake at 86th and Westfield, they also made it non-smoking. Way to go, guys.

Decision: Steak ‘n Shake

The Service

The name of the game at diners is low-cost and high-turnover. Get ‘em in and get ‘em out. This holds true at Steak ‘n Shake. The Steak ‘n Shake server was friendly and the drinks and food came out in a hurry. When our glasses were nearing empty, she promptly asked if we wanted a refill. Other than getting one of the sides wrong (and getting free fries in the process), the service was spot-on, including the all-important how-long-do-you-have-to-wait-to-get-the-check test.

The service at Sullivan’s was friendly and professional, but a little on the slow side. We were left waiting a little too long for both menus and dessert, but almost everything else was well-timed, including check delivery. One downfall is that twice my water glass sat empty, long enough for me to start craning my neck to look for the pitcher-wielder. I know that dinner at Sullivan’s is an experience to be lingered over and savored, but I expected a little more hop-to at lunch. On the plus side, this is the kind of restaurant where you could get attitude from the staff, but we didn’t, even though we weren’t dressed like high rollers.

Decision: Steak ‘n Shake

Other Factors

Steak ‘n Shake advantages: greasy, cheap, fast, good people watching.
Steak ‘n Shake disadvantages: heart attack imminent.

Sullivan’s advantages: no crying babies, free matches, more likely to impress a client.
Sullivan’s disadvantages: Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, Shula’s: who can tell them apart?

Final Decision

I’m picking comfort food over class. Steak ‘n Shake wins by a hair. It’s what you want in a lunch place: inexpensive, cheerful and fast. Dinner would be a different story. If you want to linger over a glass of wine and soak up the atmosphere, you ain’t doing it at Steak ‘n Shake. Go to Sullivan’s and live big. But for lunch, I’ll take my meat cheap.