Rubicon — Restaurant in Harrisburg

This review is based on my experience there tonight. February 17th. I have been going to this restaurant for two years. The service is generally wonderful. The food is great. The restaurant is beautiful and based on my prior experience I would recommend this restaurant to anyone. However, tonight was the first time I felt some level of prejudicial behavior. I got to the restaurant around 7:30pm. I sat at the bar. I waited for a while to be acknowledged. That was fine. It was a little busy. Eventually the heavier set male bartender approached me about my order. I asked him for a drink. I also asked him what the weekend specials were. The moment I said "specials" , he looked annoyed. He responded by telling me he's not sure what Im talking about as the restaurant does not have specials. This response was followed by him walking away from me, in a dismissive manner, and also telling the other bartender I was asking for specials and he let me know they didnt have any.

This was odd to me because usually on the weekends they do have specials. Also that is the description of the menu. They're called "specials". The bartenders and servers, refer to that menu as "specials". This is the nomenclature they use. Keep in mind these are not cheaper meals. The Specials reflect something that they are specifically serving that weekend thats not on the. menu normally.

Two minutes later, after dismissing my question, I see him walk over to another group of people sitting at the bar, and he clearly and loudly says "Hi. So let me tell you about our specials tonight". Naturally I was flabbergasted.

When he came back to where I was seated, I asked him why he told me there were no specials, and what exactly did he think I meant when I asked him about Specials. He claimed, he was confused and not thinking.

I also watched him offer everyone water.....except me. So I had to ask him if and when he had the time would he get me some water. He responded by saying "oh wow. Im just messing up tonight." To which I responded by saying. You seem to be messing up specifically with me for some reason. Now I'll admit I was dressed in a hoodie and a baseball cap. Im not sure if this impacted his service towards me, or if it was the most obvious difference between me and the rest of the patrons. You can guess what that was, if that is the case.

I want to be clear. I, in no way, think this is the culture of the restaurant. Ive had great food and great service there in the past. This is possibly a reflection of that one bartender. This is the first time I ever felt...

Came here for a belated Valentines dinner been wanting to come here for quite a while just I’ve not been able to make it so finally got here. This place is amazing. I love the weight staff literally from the time we walked through the door to the time we left, no one that we interacted with could’ve been any more friendly. Everybody was smiling Upbeat positive they work on a team concept so at first, I was like one person was taking my order for a drink somebody else was bringing me my drink the woman who checked the scene at the door, was bringing us entrées, and they all worked harmoniously together. we had been looking online and I noticed we had a 7 o’clock reservation but they had a 5 to 7 daily happy hour and they have one dollar oysters which in this area is amazing and my girlfriend and I are huge oyster fan so we purposely went a little early went and had oysters. They were absolutely delicious. I wish I could remember the name of them, but they weren’t but for a dollar they were amazing and I at the time wasn’t drinking due to a New Year’s Eve challenge that I was doing so I wasn’t drinking, but they had a nice mock tail list. I had two while I was there and they were really good obviously definitely didn’t taste alcoholic, but it was a nice rendition of a nonalcoholic drink of some old classics. The food we had was amazing my girlfriend got the lamb. I was torn because it had so many really good looking appetizers that I just opted to get a few appetizers for my meal, I had the turtle soup which was amazing the octopus the jumbo shrimp cocktail. We did get there their bread which again was divine. I can’t wait to come back here and now that I’m aware of they’re happy hour it probably won’t take me to come back even a little more just to command and sit at the bar which you must do in order to take advantage of the happy hour offerings and have oysters and a couple drinks definitely is gonna be a regular spot for she and I to go if you haven’t been...

I would give this more stars if I could. Ambience service presentation all top notch. Waiter was excellent. Was supposed to meet a friend but he wound up at the hospital. I have had a couple of stressful weeks so decided to go out anyway and dine alone. I ordered a lot and took a lot home that was my game plan. Charcuterie was excellent but menu said it had pate on it. It did not. Still it was great especially the dollop of country mustard. Next was a Nicoise salad. Nicely presented , fresh, crisp ingredients, and not thank goodness overwhelmed with dressing. I could taste each individual ingredient. Then the escargot. This was the only dish that I finished. Everything else that I got I took half of it home. If you get the escargot you would understand why I ate it all. It was heaven on a plate. Goat cheese spread in a thin crust of bread with escargot and mushrooms all In a garlic Herb sauce. Unbelievable. I finished with the steak frites. I ordered it medium rare. It was perfectly seasoned tender a not one scrap of fat on it. The pommes frites were outstanding and needed nothing except a little pepper. I like savory food so I finished my meal there no dessert no coffee. I did order a drink. I got a chantilly tini. This is the only negative to the whole evening. The description said it was pear, absinthe,and champagne. It tasted like they poured half a bottle of absent in the glass and added no other ingredients. Hopefully someone will see this and will change the recipe. It was awful. But that's one small thing compared to how incredible the food was. This is easily my favorite restaurant in Harrisburg I have been many times. I urge you to make it 1 of...