Ruth's Chris Steak House — Restaurant in Florida

My husband made an on line reservation for Valentines Day a month in advance. We arrived for our 8:00 pm reservation and noticed approximately 6 empty tables outside. We gave our name and asked if we could sit outside but were told they were completely booked. We said there were many empty tables outside and one hostess spoke up and said “you need to specify that when you book the reservation “ and my husband said he didn’t see anywhere on the web site that offered that. She spoke up again saying “well other people can do it”. At that I said “excuse me, what did you just say”. She then said “people do it every day” while shrugging her shoulders with quite an attitude. She proceeded to tell us to wait over in the corner. We said we’d go to the bar while we wait

Well the bartender overheard us discussing what had just occurred and how very rude we felt she was. The bartender leans over the bar and says “I know exactly who you’re talking about”. And with that we asked for the manager. Peter the asst mgr came over and we explained what had happened. He made apologies and as a good mgr should, he wanted to make us happy and enjoy ourselves. He attempted to get us an outside table but to no avail. It was about 8:40 by then and he said he’d get us seated right away and he did.

Well guess who showed us to our table: that very rude hostess. She didn’t even wait for us to finish squaring up at the bar and she was off. We caught up with her and she points to a table quite a distance from where she was standing and then started walking away. I said to her that I found her attitude to be rude. She shrugged her shoulders and kept on walking. I called out after her and said “excuse me what’s your name”. She just kept walking so I walked after her and said “excuse me I’m talking to you”. She never stopped walking, turns her head and yells out “Brittney”.

At this point I’m about ready to leave. Our waiter comes to the table seeing that we are clearly upset and asks if there’s anything he can do. We told him what had happened, while we never said her name, he too knew who we were talking about. He said its been an ongoing problem. We then asked to speak to the General Manager.

Aleks Kunov, the General Manager, comes to the table and literally just stands at the table looking at us. I stated what had occurred and how very disappointed we were. He repeatedly said sorry but never spoke another word so I repeated my concern that having a rude individual like “Brittney” greeting guests is a problem. Finally he says “this is the first I’m hearing about this”. Well my husband and I said “liar” at exactly the same time. I said it seemed quite unlikely he didn’t know about the situation when several of his staff new “exactly who you’re talking about” but you don’t and as well two of those employees said “it’s been an ongoing problem “. Again he just says sorry. We told him that our son is a restaurant GM and we didn’t feel he’d done ANYTHING to make the situation better. Again he’s just standing by the table looking at us. I said as the GM the least he could do is offer us a drink on the house or maybe offer a dessert and perhaps assure us that the situation will be dealt with at that he said “of course”. I asked for his business card. When he returned to the table with his card we told him we have no intention of ever coming back to this RC location. Gee you would think he might respond with some words of comfort but no he too just walked away!

Shortly after our meal arrived the asst mgr Peter came by to see how we were doing. We said our meal was excellent as always and our waiter was amazing. We told him about the GM it didn’t seem to come tas any surprise. And as a professional he moved the conversation onto making sure we enjoyed the rest of our evening which was the GM should have done...

The service was terrible. We were greeted by our server quickly and she took our drink order. Another server brought enough bread for 4 of the 5 of us. I am used to the servers realizing when more bread is needed and bringing more. This did not happen. Our drinks arrived, the server explained some details of the menu and walked away. It was about 10 minutes later when I got her attention so we could order appetizers, she seemed surprised we wanted to order. We ordered spicy shrimp and stuffed mushrooms. I asked how many mushrooms came with an order and was told 2 so we asked for 2 orders. She left to put in the appetizer orders and never returned. Another 10 or more minutes pasted and I again had to get her attention to place our dinner order. She assumed I was checking on appetizers because she said they were coming up. I said we’d like to order, again this was a surprise to her . I first asked for more bread and we placed our order. The appetizers came out right after that, there were four mushrooms on the plates not two. When I brought it up I was told nothing more than it was a little foggy to her how many there were when I had asked. The bread did not come until I later asked when it was coming out, she apologize for forgetting and went and got 2 loaves, however when she set it down she took away the plates we were used for the bread and appetizers, we were still working on the appetizers when she did this. I mentioned we needed something to put out bread and appetizers on, she said nothing but did come back with new plates. She asked about another round of drinks we needed 3 cokes and one captain and coke, she acknowledged each of us, then came back with three cokes. I asked for a captain and coke again and she acted as if this were new information. The food came which was fairly good, the exception was the lobster in the lobster mac and cheese was dried out and the filets had a few tough bites. The manager came to the table twice both times I indicated things needed improved, not until the second time did he ask what he could do to make it better. I started saying the service needs improvement and before I could elaborate he looked at the table of 5 counted two 4 and walked off. We all thought he was returning, he did not. When the bill came I asked to remove one order of mushrooms because it they came with 4 not the two I was told. She looked at me and said well you ordered two anyways. I started explaining why we ordered two and she agreed to remove it. This entire experience was unfortunate, as everyone was excited to be going. I am sure my feedback is appreciated and will be shared with the staff, however this does not change the experience or the money wasted...

Our party of eight all arrived at Ruth's Chris at 5:55 pm for our 6:00 pm reservation. We went to the bar for a drink while waiting for our table we were seated at 6:15 pm. Asher and Ashley were our servers. Asher came over to ask about water and we asked still water which came in a reasonable time. We had difficulty get cocktail drink orders in and delivered, one of our party started ordering two a time.

We asked passing waiters to ask our servers to come by and take or order. At 7:00 pm Ashley finally came over to take our orders. Ashley's demeanor suggested we were inconveniencing her having to take our orders. We received our salads and appetizer thirty minutes later.

During all this time a male server stood behind me leaning against a wall tapping his pen against his making annoying noises. If this server had nothing to do why couldn't he help us. Finally with all the dirty dishes piling up someone from our table asked the pen tapping server to remove the dirty escargot dish as it smelled strongly of garlic. Which was good because after that he must have found another wall to lean against since we never saw him again. It must have been tough having to remove one plate when you are just standing around doing nothing.

Early in the dinner the manager came over to welcome us and though he passed by several times he never noticed the dirty dishes and how long it was taking to get our food.

At 8:15 pm our food finally arrived, two hours and fifteen minutes after our 6:00 pm reservation time. My sea bass was very good my husband's steak had a vein running through it and he was unable to even cut through it. When Asher came by to ask how we were enjoying our food, shocking since we barely saw him, he took matters in hand with the bad steak and got a new one for him in about ten minutes which was great but eating a steak at 8:30 was unappealing so he had it just bagged. At that point Asher came back and did comp the steak which was nice.

This is my first negative review of a restaurant, I'm usually the one who loves every place we go. We have been to this restaurant several times for special wine dinners and special occasions but never again.

Why spend over one thousand dollars only to inconvenience the staff by serving us and have food that...