Ruth's Chris Steak House — Restaurant in Columbia

I booked through OpenTable a party of four to celebrate a 46th birthday for a family member who had never been to Ruth Chris and all she’s talked about was dining at the restaurant. Our party of 4 included two business clients and this was on Easter with a 1:45 pm reservation. We selected a wonderful bottle of Shiraz to start. We all decided to select the prefix menu and upgraded with a fillet & lobster tail which came with a choice of a salad or a gumbo. It also came with a choice of one side, which we also selected mashed potatoes, cream spinach. We upgraded our steaks with topper adding a blue cheese crust on the filet and béarnaise. Dessert choices: A mini dessert. The table chose cheesecake and bread pudding (the bread pudding wasn’t even warm and it was gummy and cool).

The birthday girl selected the famous crème brûlée from Ruth Chris own house recipe.

The service was excellent. Our server was Nathan. He was prompt and the request for the wine to be chilled slightly was brought table side. We started with our salads and everyone enjoyed the salads (see pictures). Our entrées arrived, the filets were room temperature though the plates were super hot. The lobster tail was overcooked and rubbery hard. I was disappointed the prefixed menu was not a good choice.

Bread service: The bread was undercooked not hot. We had to ask to have a second basket brought and just as we were going to enjoy that basket of bread It was picked up and removed by another server assistant as she was removing our finished salad course.

I let Nathan know that the lobster tails were not up to par rubbery and cold way over seasoned and over salted. Nathan apologized and offered to replace them. The “fresh lobster tails “arrived to the table once again over salted not as rubbery. I wasn’t going to ask to to have them replaced again. I was trying to be fairly patient and yet wanted to be treated with a great dining experience with great food on this special occasion and did not received the Ruth Chris standard of service. It seemed like the food had been pre-cooked and just being plated off the line.

The birthday guest couldn’t even eat her lobster tail, It was so bad. I waited till we got home which was an hour drive from Ruth Chris. I called to talk to the manager this early evening. The manager and I discuss the experience. Ironically, he was one of the three managers that said hello at our table and said if you need anything to make your dining experience better do not hesitate. Over the phone He did apologize after I told him the issues with the food. I would have thought that he would have taken the time to offer to “make it right”, He unfortunately did not offer. I spent well over $500 for the luncheon. He assured me he would talk to the back of the house and Let them know about the over seasoning, room temp steaks and sides. He assured me it would not happen again. I know we will not dine again at Ruth Chris in Columbia, SC. We will go to Halls Chophouse on our next visit to Columbia SC.

To say I was very disappointed is an understatement. We’ve actually had a better steak and lobster from a local steakhouse chain (Longhorns) in Aiken, SC. Regards, A Texas...

I usually don’t leave reviews but when you pay over $500 for a supposedly top of the line elite restaurant meal then that is what is expected. I know that it was Christmas but if you are going to be open and you have a full book of appointments then you should be better prepared. Let’s start with reservations at 7:30. Arrive at 7:15. Valet park. Walk in and people are just everywhere in the lobby. I told the hostess our name and reservation time and she just said we will seat you as soon as people leave. Not any mention of “you can go into the hotel lobby if you would like where it is not as crowded “. Finally get seated at 8:15. Greeted by the servers helper who gave us water. Then greeted by another servers helper. Then our waiter. He welcomed us to Ruth’s Chris and asked if we ever dined there before. My wife and I said yes and that it was our sons first experience . He is currently in the military and we were spending Christmas with him. After we placed our wine order the waiter took our order. I had to ask for bread. The appetizer was good and the salad was also good. We finished both and had to ask for more bread. When our meal arrived the steaks looked amazing and everything looked good. BUT..... the lobster tail with stuffed crab was cold, my wife’s food and side of crab was cold, the spinach dip was cold, the mac&cheese was lukewarm and the scallop potatoes were... you guessed it.....cold. We told the waiter and he took my wife’s dinner and my lobster tail back to the kitchen and returned not even 5min later. As we were eating we say the valet kid come walking through and I noticed he had my keys(we have a Navy lanyard). Thought that was strange. Now we are done with our meal and waiter asked if we wanted dessert. We declined and asked for the check. Well after 20 minutes the check finally came. We gave our credit card and the waiter took it. Waited another 20min and asked the waiter for our credit card and was informed that someone else was running it and it would be right out. 10 minutes later we were finally ready to leave. It’s now 11:00pm. Go outside to get my car and there is no valet but my vehicle is right there. Locked up tight. Go back inside and there is no hostess. After looking around I found her in the bar area shutting it down. She informed me that the valet left already and tried looking for us in the restaurant. We walked back up from and she handed me my keys that were right there in plain sight for anyone to take. Finally we left and we were amazed of how bad our experience was. I have experienced fine dining before and have even visited Ruth’s Chris in Pittsburgh and it was totally different. There I felt like I mattered. Here I did not. Something as simple as not crumbing the table was noticed. I left a message on their website and still have not heard back from them. I guess I still...

Horrendous experience-don't recommend. Eaten 35+ times at various Ruth's Chris in past 7 years for special celebrations. Had reservation at 5 PM on 3/2/24 for celebration of my son's birthday. It took a while for waiter, Ken, to appear at table. Ken brought a shrimp appetizer for my son's birthday-my husband has seafood allergy-a nice gesture, but was wasted. We ordered our meal as had been waiting. Salads arrived with a few minor issues. All 3 of our 11 oz filets that we ordered medium rare arrived with the mac and cheese we ordered. The loaded mashed potatoes did not arrive & the food deliverer asked if we were notified that there were no mashed potatoes & we had not been. Without being asked a baked potato was brought. We did not wish baked & instead ordered au gratin potatoes. All 3 of our steaks were rare & cold. Ken finally came back to table & took back our steaks to the kitchen to be fixed. We ate our sides on our bread plates as no other plates. Finished with most of our sides & steaks still not back. Steaks finally came back & 1 was right then other 2 were charred. Actually cooked steaks again that were cut into with our used silverware. Our son ate his steak & my husband and I waited 40 more minutes to get our steaks back. No hot sides offered to go with our steaks. We have now been at table for 2 hours-our drinks were not refilled, our dishes have not been cleared & we have not seen a manager. Ken returns & asks us to write name of our son on paper. At this point, dishes still not cleared & drinks are not refilled. At 2 1/2 hours, my son was brought a dessert for his birthday. We weren't brought dessert dishes, no refills and no check. Ken asked us if a manager had spoken to us. Finally saw assistant GM, Justin Caldwell, who said he had call outs and sorry that not come to table. We explained the whole horrible experience and all he offered was $100 dining certificate to return and try them again. Had issues with getting gift card to go through as had to put tip before run by GM. We finally left almost 3 hours after we were sat at our table. Numerous tables seated after us left before us. Our meal was a nightmare and we should not have had to pay for what we received and how we were treated. Our meal was almost $300-the $100 is not acceptable-would it be for you? The $100 gift certificate expires in 6 months. We have no intention of going back as this was absolutely horrible memory...