Ruven's Restaurant — Restaurant in Florida

There are a lot of delis in South Florida. I've probably tried them all and each have their ups and downs. Ruvens doesn't really have any ups and I would stay far away.

Many people know of Ruvens because they run some of the cafes at local community clubhouses. At our community they are the vendor and although it's not great, it isn't awful. This review is about their actual restaurant and not the clubhouse cafe though. Ours was shut down for construction and therefore we had funds on our account that had to be used at the restaurant.

We had several previous bad experiences at this place but went in hoping things had improved. One time the food was literally inedible after sending it back twice and after complaining we were nickel and dimed about the included side dishes "that we ate". The manager (i believe owner) had an awful attitude as does the blond manager hostess woman. If I wanted attitude with my meal I would have gone to Flakowitz where at least the food is good.

My most recent issue occurred when I ordered off the large menu on the wall at the deli. When I was rung up the total was higher than advertised. They blew off my complaint by saying "they hadn't updated the menu yet" They were not willing to honor the price until I threatened to walk out. Instead of apologizing they told me "next time you will have to pay regular price" This is a classic example of a poorly run restaurant and there was no next time for me until now.

We waited about 20 minutes to be seated. We were given a TINY table in the middle of the restaurant. We asked for a booth but were told they are for larger parties. We watched as a party of 2 was seated there right afterwards.

Service started off fine, we were given complimentary pickles, rye bread and cole slaw. They also provided water for the table. Our server was a nice guy although a bit hard to understand. I did notice the fork had only 3 tines, which is a seafood fork. It was the cheapest quality and not a full size fork. No big deal but is an indication of how this place is run.

I ordered the turkey dinner. It came with a salad which didn't have much in it. It was particularly wet and the dressing was awful. The turkey itself was fine but the rest was just meh. I asked for carrots and peas and was given cold broccoli and green beans. The mashed potatoes were fine but didn't have much flavor. The gravy was just okay. It was a large plate of food, but nothing was particularly good. I ordered a coke and would swear it was diet, but a replacement wasn't any better. The dinner includes desert, although we had to ask to receive it. I asked for the blueberry crumb cake which I think was actually raspberry. Regardless, I didn't eat it as it had some weird smells to it. I suspect its stored with other food and it just absorbed them like a sponge.

My companion ordered latkes as both sides that were included with the meal. When their food arrived it only came with 1 and we had to ask for the second. When it finally arrived, it was 2 lumps of greasy potato and didn't even resemble the first one.

If you are looking for quantity over quality then this could possibly be a place for you although at $19, my dinner wasn't exactly cheap. I also don't think this restaurant is particularly clean. Just peek in the display case and you will probably walk back out the door. I've seen it a few times and it looks like its never cleaned. This day there were pools of blood and liquid under the roast beef. It was disgusting. The last county inspection had 13 violations and the previous ones were even worse including one showing 32 violations. Look for yourself!

After arriving home it was a race to the bathroom for the rest of the night for both of us. I won't go as far as saying I had food poisoning but the food didn't agree with either of us. I will never return to...

This was probably the worst restaurant experience of my life. I had eaten at Ruven's many times before, the food was always good but the service was just fair. As the server poured my soup it ran over the rim of the bowl, onto the table and then onto my lap. She exclaimed “I knew that would happen” and left the table. She made no apology, did not clean the table or offered to get me compensation to clean my clothes. She also made the comment that my bread plate was where she had intended to set the soup bowl down, indicating that it was my fault. If she knew their might be a problem, obviously, she should not have poured the soup or at least warned me to move away or to move my bread plate.

I had seen her at this restaurant many times before and I knew she was a long time employee. I was in a quandary. I didn't know her personal situation and I didn't want to impact her position at the restaurant. I decided not to complain to management or berate her publicly. I decided, therefore, not to tip her and to use that money to pay to clean my slacks. I then considered the matter closed.

When, at the table, she saw the signed charge slip without a tip and made no comment. We then left the restaurant and I went to get my car, leaving my wife on the sidewalk directly outside the restaurant. When I returned to pick up my wife I saw the server leaving my wife and returning to the restaurant. My wife entered the car and as I was driving away she said the server berated her for not leaving a tip. We had theater tickets and I had to make an unscheduled stop at home to change my clothes and clean myself and I had insufficient time to return immediately to the restaurant.

It was this attack on my wife that caused me to write a letter to the manager. Now a month later, I have...

Food is good but not dependable. Service is usually good. Take out can be a nightmare. You often don’t get the entire offering. Something is so frequently missing. One holiday last year we ordered a big holiday Turkey meal. I went to pick it up at the time they told me to. Well the meal had been totally overlooked. After a very long wait the owner came to me and told me my order was overlooked. More bad news, I wasn’t the only one. After an hour and a half wait they told me my meal was ready. I counted boxes to make sure I had everything. Bad idea. When I brought it home the soup that came with it was not the one I ordered. The chopped liver appetizer that was included with it turned out to not only be a salad but not nearly enough for everyone. The place was total bedlam. Never again will I EVER order a holiday meal there. Nobody new what they were doing. The take outs were all prepared and on tables with names on the bags in absolutely no order. When the next in line gave their last name the staff would start walking from table to table looking for that persons meal. After a while they realized the line was only getting longer. It seems they told everyone to pick up there order at the same time. They than began going table to table yelling out names. If you were next in-line you might be waiting a half hour before your name is called. Meantime the person who just arrived and his name was called. The nightmare doesn’t end here. The person called who may have just arrived had to fight the packed line to get their order. Meantime the worker didn’t call another name but waited for that person to get through the crowd....