Ruth's Chris Steak House — Restaurant in Toronto

I celebrated my birthday at Ruth’s Chris in Toronto, with my closest friends. Unfortunately, the overall experience fell short of expectations, primarily due to the service we received. While the dining experience had potential to be great, our waiter significantly impacted it, leading to a rating of only 2 of out 5. All of my guests expressed disappointment, with one feeling bullied & harassed during our visit. One issue involved the water served to us. Five of our glasses contained what appeared to be white, fluffy particles. When we requested a placement, the waiter questions our concerns, making us feel as though we were exaggerating the situation. Also, we noticed there were gnats and flies that landed on our glasses & plates. To make matters worse, some of my guests did not get new glasses until the end of their meals. The main issue involved my friend the only gentleman in our group, who felt that he was being targeted by the waiter, Tapash. When he requested the same drink as the rest of us the waiter responded by saying he would serve him what he believed was the best. At first we laughed thinking it was a joke, the waiter ultimately brought a different drink than what my friend had ordered. Despite feeling uncomfortable, my friend chose not to complain, as the alternative drink was acceptable. But, it was clear that he, & my other guests, felt uneasy.

To add, he ordered his steak medium rare, but the waiter insisted he would receive it medium well. Without causing a scene, another guest graciously swapped meals with him, as my friend felt embarrassed and did not want to be difficult. We felt increasing uncomfortable addressing these issues. As it was my birthday my friends had arranged to split the cost of my meal. When it came to settle the bill, the waiter insisted that my male friend pay for my meal & was unyielding in his request. Despite everyone explaining they had agreed to split the bill, the waiter already included my meal on my friends bill. When another one of my guests offered to help pay, the waiter dismissed their offer & put my friend on the spot. Although my friend felt uncomfortable with the situation, he graciously paid for my meal & refused to accept reimbursement from the rest of the group. The only great thing was that the food was hot, my guest didn’t enjoy their meals. I am very disappointed that was my friends first time dining here. This was my birthday celebration, & horrible & compared to Ruth Chris reputation & my experiencing dining at other locations in the USA. When I first made this complaint a while ago, the manager reached out to me & asked me to further explain the problem. after speaking he promised to send a gift card as compensation. I received the gift card in the mail & had it in its envelope in hopes that it could be used in a further date. I have been saving it to take my same friend who had a bad experience back to Ruth Chris, so they can have a better experience. Now it’s the birthday of my friend & I offered to take them to the markham location. I called to confirm my reservation & let them know I had a gift card & opened it & it was “expired”. I had been saving the gift card as a treat for my friend only to find out it was expired. This past when Tuesday, I called the Markham location, a woman named of Lauren told me there was nothing they could do about it. I asked to speak to a manager b/c we had no idea this gift card would come with an expiry date, I was told no, then I would receive a call back & never did. When we tried calling back no one picked up. We decided not to eat there & that we would just repost our old review. I'm disappointed that introduced my friends to Ruth’s Chris & that I haven’t received a call back. Looking back, we should have left after the attitude we sensed when we requested our waters and drinks to be changed. It is very important that everyone is treated fairly & that everyone enjoys their meals & time spent. With the amount of money I spent eating at Ruth Chris my friend & I did not deserve to be...

I looked at all the negative reviews first to get an idea of what could go wrong but my experience overall was great, though I never thought I'd see a side of mashed potatoes costing $14.

One comment I read about this place being in the basement is inaccurate, you need to take an elevator up to the restaurant. I wouldn't say there was any negative points but certainly some....oddities.

I made a reservation on Open Table which by one reviewer was a mistake because it wasn't found, thankfully I didn't run into that issue. On a Wednesday in January you'd think it wouldn't be too busy, yet the only available time was 9pm for pretty much the entire week, I thought this was because of Winterlicious (more on that later) and when we got to the restaurant it was probably half empty yet the first words out of the hostess was "Hi, do you have a reservation" - as if I needed one. But I could care less about that trivial matter.

After receiving the menu's, my girlfriend and I didn't see anything regarding the Winterlicious special, had to ask for that separate menu - take that as you will. My girlfriend got the special for $53 but I decided to go all out and get myself the RIbeye, brussel sprouts and a fancy dessert.

My steak was excellent, extremely flavourful and juicy, the butter wasn't over the top, and I'm no expert on brussel sprouts but I thought they were great - also a complaint a read about. When it came time for dessert, I looked at the menu and was suggested there is a "special" of pecan pie with ice cream which wasn't listed. Seemed fitting to have a $75 steak topped off with a great dessert.

What a joke that was - smaller than the palm of my hand, worse than store bought and all for $17. I would absolutely love to hear the rationale of how in any way this is a "special" to not have on the menu and more importantly how that price is justified.

I'd say I'm being pretty objective, the main event - the steak was excellent, worth $75? Well that is relative to one's own opinion. But I can certainly tell you a side dish of mashed potatoes is not worth $14, or what seemed to be store bought pecan pie for $17 but being regarded as a special that isn't listed on the menu. I don't know how else to describe the reservation comment any other way but weird. Why ask for reservations when the restaurant is mainly empty and almost falsely imply its busy with having a minimum time of 9pm for booking online, and this was over a week out.

I also didn't like having to ask for the actual special menu for Winterlicious, if its a cost thing and they lose money, just don't participate. Its also unlikely anyone forgot as our waitress Kim stressed (a few times) a similar selection of food on the main menu but it was more money. Though that wouldn't be her fault, I'm sure that direction comes from leadership - her service was...

Celebrated an engagement dinner with my family here, and had a decent experience overall. I think it depends on the demographic, what you’re looking for, and where your expectations are at in terms of what your experience might be here.

The overall vibe of the restaurant I will say for my taste is on the traditional side, and feels dated. When we came in, the dining room was pretty empty. It was dim throughout most of the restaurant and the décor and furniture gave it an old-fashioned look and feel, for better or worse. There were portions of the restaurant that felt a bit like a sports bar with TV’s playing sports content, so it took away from the cohesiveness of an elevated experience.

The staff are friendly and approachable. One of the staff who wasn’t our main server (maybe a busser?), interacted with our table a few times by pouring water and whatnot and was just a bit clumsy with the service. He would pour water and ice cubes would spill across my menu and he wouldn’t notice. Our main server was sociable and gave us good recommendations with our dinner. I appreciate her effort with taking care of our group from packing our leftover food for us and taking photos of our group for us, arranging for a dessert with a ‘Congratulations’ message on it, etc.

The food was okay. The calamari with the sweet and spicy chili sauce ($29) as well as the Shrimp Voodoo ($35) were at a certain level where I would have expected them to come out of maybe a pub. They were okay, but they don’t come across as refined dishes. Maybe that’s the intent, but the price tag on these dishes suggests otherwise. I had the ribeye steak ($98), and it was cooked fine in terms of doneness. My issue with this is that considering how abundantly marbled a ribeye already is, it can be pretty overwhelming to have all that butter they put on top. I usually like to have the fatty parts of the steak a bit too, but the butter made it pretty hard to get into that. I also had their apple crumble for dessert. Their desserts are the size of entrees – not sure why. It feels overwhelming at the end of a meal, but that’s good value anyway I guess. It was decent, and my only feedback on it would be to portion it more appropriately that people have typically already had a full meal ahead of their dessert and is looking for something sweet to cap off the meal.

I think this place is probably more popular for a specific demographic that’s looking for a more old fashioned/ traditional restaurant. I think the sports bar aspects that I mentioned conflict with that a bit and may be trying to appeal to two different demographics at once. For the amount that we paid for our dinner, I can’t recommend this place and feel like there are many other notable restaurants in the city that would have provided a more refined experience and...