Ruth's Chris Steak House — Restaurant in Alpharetta

I had the opportunity to take the family out for a nice Thanksgiving dinner, and I wish I had picked a different place.

On the positives, the food itself, the steaks and most of the sides were nice. Apart from a few orders that did not arrive, what did show was not bad. Onto the negatives, it started the moment we arrived.

Understand that everyone was nice, right up to the point that they knew what had happened. And I fully understand it was a holiday evening and I expected a delay or two, not a big deal. But this was a fiasco.

They go to seat us and take us to a table, then realized it was not ready. After an odd pause they take us back to the waiting area. Never seen this before, being seated then unseated, but we tried to take it well and waited a bit. Reservation was at 8pm, this was no more than 20 minutes into the evening there. About 15-20 minutes more goes by after being unseated I go ask for an estimate, they come back to tell us another table is now ready right after I asked. Great.

So we are taken to table #2, but... turns out that table was for someone else too. Some conflict between those working the front and I presume a manager or someone running that area of the restaurant. Some other family was brought in, and yet again after another awkward pause as we stood there, we were asked to go back to the waiting area.

Back to back seated then unseated, I am not kidding.

While I was trying to call around for anywhere else were we may be able to eat that late on Thanksgiving night, someone approached and asked us what we would like from the bar "complementary." Whatever was ordered did arrive, after we were finally seated for the 3rd time that night.

But, on the bright side they did not unseat us a 3rd time, we got to stay, we considered it a win.

Again the food was fine, there were "complementary" appetizers brought, but I realized later I may have paid for it all anyway. A few other drinks we had ordered once we were seated the 3rd time, including things like coke and sweet tea but also one or two things from the bar took, a half hour to come back. At that point the place was not that busy but "the bar was backed up," I guess the families they did seat... once... were still getting their orders taken care of.

At the end of the meal I just wanted out, I tipped well knowing full well the server was not at fault. Very lovely as was the hosts at the front, good people trying while working a holiday, just a bit of a mess especially the epically poor management that evening.

I assumed we were a reasonably nice, well dressed, happy to be together family at a nicer place, but Ruth Chris apparently did not want us there.

And, I have no...

This was my first time ever eating at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I didn't really know what to expect, except that it has always had a reputation for being expensive and really nice. We went to the Alpharetta location, so I can't speak to the other locations.

The food was spectacularly delicious. The steaks were perfectly done to order, the sides and salads were delicious, and the Prix Fixe menu was exactly the correct amount to fill me up without making me feel stuffed. The dessert was decadent, with perfectly balanced flavors that didn't overpower with sweetness.

The prices are definitely on the fine dining end of the spectrum. Honestly, this is at the top end of what we would normally spend to go out to dinner, definitely a special-occasion-only kind of budget.

For my $60(ish), I got a large Cesar salad, a 6oz sirloin, three grilled shrimp, a large serving of garlic mashed potatoes, and a cupcake-sized chocolate mousse with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. I had tea to drink and no alcohol. This was part of the Prix Fixe menu, and was more affordable than ordering a la carte.

The servers were polite, friendly, and professional, and generally on point. The food was timely and they did wait for everyone to finish each course before bringing the next. They noticed when drinks needed refilling, and I was pleased with the level of service we received.

On the other hand, I was disappointed with the decor in our dining area. While the entrance was very grand and beautiful and new, the dining room in which we were seated was loud, somewhat dirty-feeling, and a bit dated. To be clear, the furnishings themselves, the tables and chairs, were perfectly clean and comfortable; however, the actual room itself didn't seem to have been updated at all since the building was used by the restaurant before them, and there wasn't really anything about the decor to make me feel like I was eating a special meal. There were smoke stains across the fireplace mantle, and the paneling in the ceiling had discoloration, like it hadn't been freshly painted when they moved in. Finally, the walls and ceiling were covered largely in the same wooden paneling that the old restaurant had used, which didn't look too bad, but which made the room extremely loud, so it was difficult to carry on a conversation during our meal.

Overall, I had a delicious meal and good service that, for me, balanced out the problems I had with the ambiance, so I will probably return to give them another try later on, or maybe try a different location. Hopefully then I'll get to have a meal that is as beautiful and peaceful as it...

On Saturday, March 9th, we went to celebrate my birthday with friends, expecting a wonderful experience and delicious food. The food was good, not great, and the experience just deteriorated over the evening. Our server was fantastic and not the problem. We did wait a long time for our drinks when we first sat down but they eventually came out.

The real problem began when another server walked right behind my husband’s chair and accidentally dropped his tray of dirty plates with leftover food and sauces on my husband’s back, including a brown sauce, shredded cheese with salad dressing and other leftover food. He was very apologetic and truly felt bad. Again, he was not the problem.

The problem was the way the manager, Jeremy Erdman, reacted to the situation. He did not initially come out so we had to ask for someone to come out and see how they wanted to handle the incident. When he did come out, he told me they would pay for the dry cleaning in a pretty disinterested way and he was not apologetic.

We all looked at each other and were really surprised at his reaction. Not the hospitality we were expecting.

My husband was wearing a Peter Millar shirt and a brand new Banana Republic jacket with a suede collar that had food all over it.

Near the end of the evening, I had to ask for Jeremy to come back out so I could get his business card with his email address to send him the dry cleaning receipt. He was not proactive in ensuring that we would be satisfied with the resolution. Again, not apologetic or personable in any way.

I certainly wasn’t expecting anything for free, but, being that it was my birthday celebration, I thought the manager of this type of restaurant would at least offer us a free dessert. He offered us nothing.

We left and were beyond disappointed with the experience. We will not go back as there are many restaurants with great food we could go to and feel welcome.

When I emailed him the receipt for our dry cleaning, he sent me the reimbursement electronically with no email to let me know he had taken care of it. It felt like he just wanted to get rid of me.

I spent years working in hospitality, training sales teams on POS software for restaurants, and have been to hundreds of restaurants around the country. I’ve seen what great looks like and this wasn’t it.

This was certainly a pretty bad experience and I can’t recommend...