Ruffino's On The River — Restaurant in Lafayette

I feel very sad to write harsh reviews but this place is in disarray and they need to fix their operations or turn the property over to someone who can better use the best site in SW Louisiana.

This place is an atrocity as is now.

As a businessm here and former Marine, I'm no dainty city slicker with pompous tastes. I live in Acadiana and we desperately need a non chain Louisiana high end place to serve as a venue for taking out of town visitors to convince them to make investments and do business here. Pops fills this roll for lunch, but there is no dinner option.

Sadly, after last night's meal, I was researching this morning as to why Ruffinos predecessor Cochon closed at this spot, and one of the reviews told the story of how UL engineering took a prospective faculty member to a dinner at Cochon that was so good they thought it swayed him to move and fill their void. Sadly, Ruffinos could do no such thing given what I experienced las night. Actually, it would repel my clients and associates. I cannot use this place Nd it drives me nuts.

My food was terrible, my wife and I felt nauseous after eating, and they let me in wearing a t shirt and fishing shorts.

Observations included: shabby worn paint, an opaque window in the front that gave a view of junk or some such, filthy dirty glass front doors, worn bathroom doors, portable ac and extension chords in bathroom, employee talking on cell while washing hands in guest bathroom, outdoor serving station being used as storage was a mess including propane tanks and junk, unprofessional staff that didnt know menu basics of a tiny menu, window lighting that is often found in tacky gas stations in cities with lax zoning, power chords strung and hung unprofessionally from each instance of said lighting, burned out outdoor lights, drink specials on trashy Crown Royal, a 38.00 ribey ordered medium well comes out burned and tough, server not knowing the menu, undisciplined staff cadence and interaction.

I recommend the following immediately: hire a professional consultant to evaluate why things are so bad, hire design team from Austin or Nola to fix lights and physical issues, invest and train staff to seek Triple A diamond certification, use Brennans of Houston, Superior Steakhouse of Shereveport, or Pappas Steakhouse of Dallas or Houston as benchmarks to emulate. Consider hiring talent from these places, retrain all kitchen talent on basics, and consider personnel choices at all levels beginning with GM and lead chef and all leaders associated with this mess. Hire a headhunter to go to NOLA now and raid a few key hires for chef and managers while NOLA is locked down.

To be this bad is a disservice to Acadiana. This is a world class spot in River Ranch that is insanely underperforming by every measure for the product and price point.

It is awful and will not last on...

Our experience at Ruffino’s started off pretty poorly and got worse from there.

We were celebrating my friend’s birthday, and our party of 12 had reservations made weeks in advance. When we arrived, we were made to wait 15-20 minutes at the door despite our reservations. Our drink server, Kennedee, was the highlight of the night, and she was very attentive. Our food server - Steve, I think - was another story. He introduced himself and the specials, and then disappeared. Vaporized into thin air. I had finished my second cocktail before Steve ever came around again to take our appetizer orders, and that was only because I asked our drink server to grab him. When he finally came around and took orders, he skipped over several people at the table, myself included, for no apparent reason. I again had to go out of my way to get his attention and finally get my food order in.

The food, which I read good things about, was seriously underwhelming when it did arrive after an hour and a half. I split the oysters as an appetizer, and we were disappointed. My friend got the tuna, which is supposed to arrive on a salt block. They were out of the salt blocks, though, but only informed us after my friend inquired when the dish came out on a plate.

One of the people at my table had a fingernail in his water.

I ordered the chicken parm for my entree, and it tasted like it hadn’t been seasoned or salted at all.

The birthday girl eventually asked to speak with a manager and recounted the night to him because obviously Steve was wholly unconcerned. Unbelievably, the manager told her he “found it hard to believe” a fingernail was found in my friend’s water, and he did little to rectify the overall dining experience. The audacity of the manager to discredit her concerns was remarkable, especially considering the self-proclaimed quality of the restaurant.

Listen - nearly all 12 people at our table currently or have previously worked in the restaurant business, from serving to managing to bartending. We know what’s involved, and we understand things can go wrong. But the complete lack of communication on part of our server, the self-justified manager, and the lackluster food - Ruffino’s was extraordinary, and not...

Well I have to say I have always had a great work community environment with our fellow workers there at Ruffino‘s, but after dealing with them tonight for our work function, after our contract everything was changed even after we were emailed the info., I would not recommend any one to do any kind of big functions with this company, they have double there cost didn’t matter if we were a constant customer ,Because of Leah was the manger. I can’t wait to post the pics of food they made us pay for over $50 for a piece of chicken breast, witch used to be so amazing, and store bought mash potatoes like really....,, please check it out yourself if not understood..., thanks for the past 5 years we have had business with y’all, cause before, y’all have been on point, I’m so disappointed in what’s going on right now, not with the our server, Logan, he was great, but the management team, and apparently the cooks! We spent over $1,200 a time just for our presentations. We always take care of our restaurants, and will always take care of our community restaurants. But I must say here lately we have seen that it’s getting harder and harder to find which we thought used to be awesome restaurants which would not F us, we also make a living from these local restaurants , I thought we were supposed to be on the same team. I guess not, which is Ashame!! 😢 so please if anyone has a meeting room in your restaurant let us know because we are about helping out our community! Thanks have a blessed and wonderful day !! Sorry Ruffino‘s but y’all really did us wrong, for someone like us that is local and has always taken care of y’all, good luck!! And please take this advice because y’all use to be...