Ruby Tuesday — Restaurant in Aiken County

Edit (January 22, 2025): per the response, I sent the information on 12/31/2024. No response from guest relations. I followed up on 1/9/2025. No response as of 1/22/2025. Their silence speaks volumes and gives the impression that the behavior exhibited in the restaurant is quite possibly the norm for this entire corporation.

I placed a Togo order from this location because it was close to an area I was in. I went inside to pick it up because I ordered a salad that I would have to fix. My 9 year old and I stood at the hostess area for several minutes without ever being greeted by any employee, in spite of, several of them walking by and seeing us. And yes, they saw us, we made eye contact more than once. After a few minutes, we walked to the bar area, where the same female who'd seen us standing at the hostess area, smiled and said "do you have a Togo order?" I gave her my info, and we waited while the order was being prepared. While waiting an older white couple entered and stood at the hostess area and the young lady from the bar immediately greeted them and had them seated quickly. At this time another female who was sitting at the end of the bar with a laptop asked if my son was with me and said kids couldn't sit at the bar. I understand rules and have no problems following them, but there was one person at the bar eating a salad. No drinks were being served and I certainly wasn't there to order one. In fact, if we had been greeted upon entering, we would've been at the salad bar fixing the salad 🤷🏾‍♀️ At this time, I canceled the order and asked for a refund. They said they would have to contact corporate because the order was placed online. Ollo, the service used for placing online orders, states on their website that the restaurant has to be contacted for refunds. Of course corporate is set up in such a way that you can only voice concerns via email. Even another employee asked the female with the laptop if that was a rule in SC because in FL kids could sit at the bar. I refuse to spend one cent at any establishment that operates in such a manner. When people send a message with their actions (or inactions) in this case, I receive the message loud and clear. While I would love to see the world through rose colored glasses, I am not too naive to recognize when myself and others are treated less than based off the color of their skin and instances as such need to be called out. People really need to put forth a genuine effort to be better...

Definitely a star for the the hostess who was super nice and understanding and thanked us for our patience. Had it not been for her, this would be a 2 star Review. I’m adding another star for the salad bar being alright bc it ended up being my saving grace. And the third is for our waiter (once we switched from the original one). They first sat us in the bar area and the server there was so slow to wait on us, I asked to be moved to someone else’s section. I truly believe she was just not capable of waiting on more than her two tables. We didn’t get a drink or anything and waited for long enough to know this wasn’t gonna be a great experience. We were easily moved which was good. Still had to wait longer than we should’ve for greeting and drinks because they were super slow. Our new server was nice and attentive after we got our drinks. Zero stars for the entree that came out. Mine was literally disgusting. I sent it back! My dinner date ate theirs because they will practically eat anything. He did show me that one part of his salmon was so hard you couldn’t get a fork through it. I had the tilapia and shrimp with some cajun seasoning. I had one bite and it was horrible. I did eat the baked potato that came with it because I was just that hungry and we had waited so long. The waiter said they were out of house salads so we were told to make a salad at the salad bar. It was fine but didn’t make sense to me. Out of salad at the bar. Okay. Definitely not anything special or super fresh there. The shredded carrots at the salad bar had begun to turn brown. If you moved the ones on the top, the better ones were underneath 😂 . I skipped the carrots. 👎🏼 Overall good people. There was not one rude person in there! Unfortunately.. Cooks are terrible and service is quite slow. I will not be back. I do not recommend this location or the food. On a Sunday night, it was dead. There should be no excuse why they couldn’t deliver a 4-5 star experience. God help them when, or if they even get busy. Pick up the pace and get your kitchen in check and I would say it would be a whole new experience. Thanks for having...

I'd love to give this restaurant a better review, as Ruby Tues was one of my favorite restaurants once upon a time, however I simply can't.

The food is food, most of which is fine. The service attached to the food is at best a 3 of 5. Wait staff (based on the ones I've had personally) are very unattentive which is strange because they limit the amount of guests due to lack of sufficient help. With that being said, our wait staff shouldn't have a big issue with keeping up with the simple task of making sure our drinks stay filled. This is beyond infuriating to me personally as I have been left throughout an entire meal (last 3 visits) without a refill that didn't require me or my wife flagging down a different server to ask our server to refill the drink.

Lastly the atmosphere is depressing. No remodeling appears to have been done since this building was first occupied by Ruby Tues. Carpets are stained throughout the restaurant, empty tables are left with drink pitchers, bins of silverware etc. And not just one, but multiple tables. Also there is a slight hint of mildew smell in certain areas of the restaurant.

Simply put, I typically don't got out of my way to dine here, if so it's often due to long wait times at other restaurants or there's something there I just have a craving for (like the pumpernickel croutons that are made fresh in house).

I think R.T could be much better than what it's declined into, but it seems as though the company itself, be it the franchisee or corporate, doesn't feel it has any potential left in it, therefore they decline to do anything to bring it...