Ruth's Chris Steak House — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I don't know where to begin...I can honestly write a dissertation on how horrible of an experience we had today.

My wife, son and I had a reservation at 9pm. We did arrive at the restaurant a little early (around 25 mins early) I knew we most likely would not get seated right away due to us being so early so we just checked in and sat in their little lobby area. After waiting about 10 mins the hostess called our name and showed us to our table. Water was promptly served with warm bread and soft butter and that is where all the positives of this dinner stopped. about 15 minutes went by and nobody, I mean nobody came to our table. 15 minutes after the bread was dropped off a nice young lady came up to us (i'm assuming she was the manager?) and asked if our server came to us or not and we told her no. She then tapped the gentlemen (bald guy with the long grey beard) who was serving the tables next to us to come and help us. He came over and said oh I guess I'll assist you guys today and took our drink orders and went to get our drinks. When he came back with the drinks he asked us if we were ready to order which we said yes and he picked up the menus and asked what we wanted. Normally, one opens up the menu to read off what you want but we really couldn't since he was holding on to them as if he was ready to jet away. So we ordered our food questioning each other to make sure it was right, because we didn't have a menu we could reference back to, and he wrote it down n went on his way. That was the last we saw of our "waiter". First came out the salad followed by the entrees n we finished our meal. Not once did anyone come by and check to see how our food was. I actually had an empty soda glass sitting at the table for god knows how long because nobody came to check in on us. Our so called waiter came by about 5 minutes after we finished our meals and started to pick up the plates from the table. He picked up my wifes plate n then turned to the table next to us and went to clean up their table. Mind you the three of us at our table were completely done but for some reason he had to clean the other table first? He came back a few minutes later and finished clearing the empty plates from our table and asked about the included dessert in my wife's meal and before he was about to run away I had to ask if I could have a refill. I got my refill a few minutes later someone dropped off the creme brulee and 10 minutes later our bill was dropped off. We paid and we left.

To sum it up...if you want the same experience as dining at a Buffalo Wild Wings while paying $100+ a head, this place will knock it out the park for you. If you want a fine dining experience pick one of the other fine dining steakhouses within a mile radius of this...

We recently visited the new location on Father’s Day. It was our first time back since they moved locations. We loved the old location and were not crazy about the new spot on Canoga. The entire ambience changed and not for the better. Typically, I wouldn’t complain about a bright ambience however it’s hard not to compare it to the old location which had a very distinct dark environment that just felt right. The old location was also a very open concept. This new spot is very boxed in, and you could feel it as soon as you walked in and started towards your table.

Other than that, the food and service were fantastic. I could be wrong, but it felt like the prices had also increased as for a party of 4 with two adults and two children (and no alcohol) the bill ran me nearly $500 for 3 entrees, a kids meal, a few sides and a couple desserts. It was well worth it but definitely noticeably higher than the last time we were there. So it cost me roughly $125 per person.

Another thing I was disappointed about was when making the reservation, I included the check mark box for celebrating a birthday. I thought it was standard industry service to provide a child a free ice cream (or different dessert) on a birthday and have the waiters sing. I also thought I’d seen this happen at previous visits to Ruth’s Chris, but we got no such thing. They dropped a couple of happy birthday pieces of confetti on the table when we were seated and only after the bus boy asked if we were celebrating anything besides Father’s Day. That was it. Our waiter acknowledged by 9 year olds birthday by saying happy birthday and made a couple birthday references throughout our meal, but other than that there was nothing. This kind of took me by surprise. I was also charged for the very small ice cream he ordered. It was a disappointing end to our experience considering such an expensive meal. They could do better in that regard. Also, what’s the point in having a customer check mark a box for a celebration when making reservations if you’re not even going to be aware of the celebration upon checking in? Definitely lackluster service in that regard.

Other than that, as I said, the food was fantastic and we had a very nice Father’s Day/ birthday meal. My birthday boy loved his steak and ice cream. Not sure this would be our go to steakhouse anymore for the reasons mentioned above. Morton’s in Burbank and Larsens near where we live are both comparable options and they have an old school ambient atmosphere that we really liked at the former location of Ruth’s Chris. So in the future, we may opt to...

Follow up 02/08/25: Changing my review from 2 stars to 4. We just gave this location another try for a birthday celebration and everything was perfect -- 5 stars. Great food and excellent, polite, and attentive service from Dajah. Seems our visit in 2024 was in fact an off night (or an off waiter). 5 stars this time, 2 last time.

Original 2-star review: I'm hoping it was an off Saturday night. We didn't even realize they had moved. The old location, to us, felt more like a cozy, upscale old-school steak house (think Sinatra). The atmosphere at the new location is fine; very nice, nothing special. The food was on-point as always -- everything was very good.

The issue -- the big issue -- was the absolutely awful service. Do I expect a little better service than a BJ's or Olive Garden? Umm, for $400 for three people, YES, I do. Our server was obviously overextended. It didn't seem to be his fault, but all our interactions were very hurried. The food runner brought our entrees and that was the last interaction we had with anyone for a while. At the beginning of the night I had told the waiter I was going to order a glass of wine with the food. Had to flag him down for that. He never even did the obligatory, "How's the food? Can I get you anything else?" Nope. No follow up at all. Not even a water refill.

Our water and wine glasses were empty shortly after receiving our food and never refilled. At the end of the meal, just before getting the check, we asked if we could please have more water (forget about more wine). The waiter then said to me, "Your dinner came with a desert... do want that to-go, or...?" I think he could tell we'd had enough. He never bothered to ask if anyone else wanted desert, coffee, or anything. We felt like we were inconveniencing him, and I'm sorry but for $400 with tip, I expect more.

I can make a really good steak at home (yes, Ruth's can make a better one). I'm willing to spend that much money on a special occasion for great service and an experience we can't get at home. We've always loved Ruth's; it's been our gold-standard for steakhouses. Again, the food was great, but I'm sure the next time it comes up everyone's going to say "Let's try someplace else". Don't think I'll want to roll the dice again...