Ruth's Chris Steak House — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

Update (three days later): Refund for taking out an additional $60 from my credit card still hasn't occurred despite the manager stating they did. Now I have to let my credit card company deal with this unauthorized charge. Extremely terrible to see a restaurant actually steal money from a patron unapologetically without trying to correct it despite being aware of it. They haven't tried contacting me at all. Forwarding my comments to your team doesn't fix anything - please return the extra money you took from my card. It is not yours.

Original: This place is ridiculous!

Experience: We entered this restaurant right at 4p. We were met by a very rude man at the front who asked how he can help us. We were a party of 5, including a toddler. We had to tell him we wanted a table for 5, and he stated they would not be open for another 10-15 minutes. We stood there looking at him and waited in the lobby, and were seated shortly after. That was our welcome.

Food was overpriced and underwhelming. This is not an upscale steakhouse. Our servers were kind and courteous, that's as positive of a rating as I can give this place. The older bouncer at the front needs to check his manners.

Bill: Our bill was for approximately $310. We paid for it, and I gave our tip in cash. I wrote it on the receipt that the tip was in cash, and I gave the cash to our server. She charged an additional $60 on my credit card. I get a notification from my credit card company that there was a suspicious charge on my account. I've been contacting this restaurant for the past two days, multiple proactive calls on my end to follow up with this issue, needing to give my full credit card information over the phone to multiple managers, and they continue to tell me they are following up. They confirmed they located the issue, found the receipt, see that I wrote in cash, apologized halfheartedly and still continue to not call me back. My last call was with a man who confirmed he refunded the additional tip charge back to my card, cutting me off and rushing me off the phone.

These people are rude, snobby and very unapologetic for their unprofessional behavior both inside and outside of the restaurant. I'm so disappointed. We would have rather gambled our time and service at an Outback. Please check your charges and receipts! This was an incredible hassle getting a hold of someone who actually cared enough to look into the matter, felt like multiple incompetencies on the managerial team, and they were VERY, VERY lucky I wasn't some angry, entitled person ready to rip them a new one for messing with sensitive information over the phone like this. I never yelled or expressed frustration once but I'm positive that, had I been another patron, they would have gotten a far more rude awakening. Sometimes it is not worth giving people the benefit of the doubt, whether mistakes happened or not.

I still don't see my card credited back for the additional tip this restaurant took...

This example of a national chain of expensive steak houses has some excellent qualities, but some not so excellent. First off, the free valet is a welcoming plus, but the impression one gets upon entry is drab, a feeling that continues to the dining room. No valid excuse for an environment that speaks 1960. Drab, drab, and drab. Dark wood, dark carpets, dark and dreary. The second misstep was the food; my wife's lobster tails were dry and tough, and served without drawn butter. My rib eye was served on a plate that reeked of grease. For the former, the manager compted a third one, served properly cooked, with butter, and delicious, by the way; for the latter, he claimed it was melted butter, which is put under every steak. Better to put the butter on top of the steak, where it doesn't make such a messy plate and put this diner off. The steak itself was so-so, on a par with the competition. But what was good, if not great, was the attitude of the staff; ready and willing to make you happy, with a smile to boot. I have often said while the chef makes the food, the staff makes the meal, and this staff did so graciously. Were it not so, the likelihood of returning would be close to zero. But any staff that works so hard to please certainly deserves another shot. One last point: the tables are arranged in such a way that if you are seated at a booth, there will be a virtual, and endless, stampede of staff constantly going by your table. No reason for so many to take so many trips through the dining room; it is at best an unpleasant distraction., and something senior management can readily fix.

If you want me to contact you, tell me how and I will. Manager's nonsensical explanation about a disgusting plate for steak was ridiculous (I do have a picture); and he should have given my wife a new order of lobster tails done properly without asking. Staff was always trying to make up for management errors; impressive. Will try again only if you stop treating people who have eaten all over the world like idiots. While Capitol Grille also had issues with meal they served us (overcooked steak) their response was greatly superior. They simply replaced it without asking with one done properly. Most folks will not insist on a do-over, but restaurants should take it upon themselves to provide it when justified. One well prepared lobster tail does not replace two dry and tough ones, any more than if I give you $10 and ask for change, and you...

Went with a group of friends for one of their "TasteMaker Dinners" where you get a predetermined multi-course menu with wine pairings.

The food tasted fine but all the portions were fairly small and I left still a little hungry, at over $150 per person they could have been a little more generous, even just with the salad or potatoes.

The real problem was the service. One of the members of our group was not drinking alcohol and we repeatedly told the servers "he is not drinking". They kept placing wine in front of him, we would remind them that he was not drinking, and move the glass over to someone who was. So out of 5 people, we only had 4 glasses of wine per course. At the end of the event, we got our check and had been charged for 5 wine pairings instead of 4. We figured this was an honest mistake and reminded them that we only had 4 wine pairings.

Instead of fixing the error, they actually argued with us. They told us "our servers said they dropped a glass of wine off to him every course" and we said "yes, and every time we reminded them that he was not having wine, and passed the glass to someone else. We never had more than 4 glasses per course." They continued to argue with us, basically accusing us of trying to steal wine. We had to get a manager involved, and it ended up taking nearly 25 minutes to sort the issue out, all the while they acted like they were doing us a favor by letting us get away with something.

The bill came with an automatic 18% gratuity, and we advised them that based on how bad the service was, we would not be paying that much in gratuity, and adjusted the number down to something closer to 10%. Well they went ahead and charged us the original total with the added 18% gratuity anyway, even though we'd written in a different total, so I had to call my credit card company to dispute the charge.

TL;DR: Ruth's Chris will accuse you of stealing and then commit credit card fraud against you....