Ruby Tuesday — Restaurant in Lexington

Recognizing good value and quality ingredients we often times go to this establishment for their advertised $5 All-You-Can-Eat Salad Bar. Because of our endless traveling we have visited several of their location for this purpose all the way from New Hampshire to Myrtle Beach. Over the last couple of months myself, my spouse and friends have noticed a severe drop in service and quality of this salad bar with the worst experience happening a few months ago at their N Main St, Summerville, SC location. The salad bar was messy with several items missing for the entire meal along with the children's meals delivered to the table, only after several complaints to the server, 35 minutes after ordering them. The bathrooms were disgusting leaving me wondering just what there kitchen must look like. When waitstaff was confronted we were told as a matter of fact "what did we expect" during there $5 salad bar days. We were told that the workers hated it as it presented a lot more work for the staff with many choosing to call out sick during this "cheap salad" event. Understand that this was not just this location but each and every location we visited showed deteriorating downward signs all spring and summer. This location just put the fire under our butts to make a vow never to return to any Ruby's anywhere. Then a funny thing happened, back in our hometown of Lexington, SC we were coerced by a group of friends to meet them at Ruby's and that happened to be $5 Salad Bar Day. We put on our big boy pants and agreed to meet them at this location. Upon entry, I asked the greeter "how it was going today" and was told, with a look of confusion.."great. I then went on and asked him about the kitchen coverage and how were they stocking the Salad Bar today since it was "Cheap Salad Day" He guaranteed that all was good and that it was going to be a good experience for us. We sat down and made the first pass at the salad bar and were pleasantly surprised at the freshness and how well it was stocked and how clean everything was. When we returned to the table the manager, Galina, appeared at our table and welcomed us back. She had remembered us from a visit several months ago. We told her how our friends had to "drag" us here today and she seemed very concerned that we had all those terrible visits all spring and summer. We then realized that this was our most frequented location during our non-travel winter months and recognized that this lady does something magical with this Lexington location. The location is spotless, the waitstaff is courteous and happy, the food and Salad Bar is perfect because of this manager. She works hard and is dedicated to her job. Hopefully, Galina will have an effect on the Chain and her style will be emulated by each of...

We have been to this location a handful of times in the last few years. The last time, about two months ago, we had a lovely experience. The food was good, staff friendly, etc. They were pricier than I remembered ($80 for a family of 4 and we all drank water) but, I felt the service and food served to offset that.

Fast-forward to our experience last night which had problems from the start. We arrived to a mostly empty restaurant at 5:30 on a Thursday. After the manager and an employee looked over the seating chart for several minutes, seeming to bicker a bit, we asked if we could have a booth. We were denied that request. So, we asked for one of the larger tables. We were sat in the middle of the room at a very small square table. After several more minutes, our waitress came and was extremely friendly (our only highlight of the evening) and offered to move us if we wished. We declined, not wanting to draw attention. We ordered our drinks. ALL FOUR of our drinks arrived either with dirt floating in them or some sort of sticky substance stuck to the inside of the glass. Once we got that taken care of and had ordered, all four of us went to the salad bar. This is where we discovered produce stickers still on the green peppers on the buffet (alerted the manager, he removed the peppers, had the sticker cut off and placed them right back), the potato salad was warm and workers were picking up stray pieces of lettuce from the counter and putting them back in the serving bowls. At this point, I stopped eating my salad and began to worry about food poisoning. 40 minutes after we ordered, our entrees arrived. My salmon was overcooked, dry but cold and my daughters burger was swimming in grease. The other two entrees were acceptable. After the meal, I visited the ladies room where there was no toilet paper or paper towels. My husband also used the men's room and said there was urine everywhere and that it smelled terribly.

I am thoroughly shocked that none of us became ill after that dining experience. What's alarming is that the manager wasn't even apologetic after we reported some of this and seemed to be very indifferent to what was happening. What's frustrating is that we paid $65 for this awful experience. We won't...

Hey Management! The parking lot has less than 10 cars in it. It’s 4:35pm now. I went in over an hour ago. The hostess was fantastic! Blonde hair, blue shirt. I didn’t get the name. She got me a menu and at least a water. Thank goodness! It took 20min before anyone showed up again. Except for hostess who at least tried to take my food order but I’d only had about 3 min to look at menu and I wasn’t ready yet. While I was waiting to order a drink a few random workers cane around fixing drinks for their tables and finally I went ahead and got the attention of one who came close enough to me so I could get her attention. I asked if she was the bartender and she said no, but still offered to get me a drink. (Thank you random mystery server!) She poured me a wine. Once I knew what I was going to order (about 15 min in) I went ahead and helped myself to the salad bar. About another 15 min later a girl showed up and started setting things up at the bar. She was pretty much ignoring me so I asked if she was the bartender. She said yes. She REAKED of cigarettes to the point I could practically taste it🤢. I asked if she could make me a drink and if I could order some food. Finally! (It’s worth noting that while I’m waiting, I saw another would-be patron sit at the bar and wait for service about 10-15 minutes and he was never acknowledged so he LEFT.) Anyway, there was a large group if about 15 in. Which is the only reason I stayed. I was a server for 10yrs so I get how that can go. But the rest of the place was pretty scarcely populated. I have been giving this location several tries over the years and am always sorely disappointed in the general running of the place. I like Ruby Tuesdays as a chain. I always get fantastic service at the W. Columbia location. I do not think I will be back to this particular one ever again. I sincerely hope y’all get it together because the slackers are ruining it for the ones busting their butts to pull it off...