Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, Louisville — Restaurant in Louisville

Stopped in here last night to grab a bite to eat. I've always heard good things about this place so decided we would check it out. Now I'm not fancy by all means. As soon as I walked in the door I was like yep I'm out of place. Dress code says business casual. My business casual is a T-shirt and some blue jeans so I'm like oh we're good. The staff was very kind dressed nice and had great attitudes. Again like I said I'm not fancy at all, but this place has a really nice look to it. Chandeliers, velvet covered chairs nice white table cloths. All the way out of place for me. We had a reservation because honestly who isn't boogie enough to make a reservation to a "fancy" restaurant. Checked in with the staff about ten minutes later we were seated in a packed restaurant. My mind says oh we are in for a treat. Like 4 different waiters/ waitresses were at the table by the time we sat down. You want drinks heres a cocktail menu. Again I'm out of place here but the staff didn't care. They treated me like a derby winner. Here I am with my mack truck hat T-shirt and blue jeans. Ordered me a water and a sprite. My buddy Doug ordered a sweet tea. But they don't have sweet tea they have unsweetened tea and liquid gold or something. Basically sugar honey water. Fancy fancy. They hand us these fancy menus in leather holders give us some run down about what this and that is. The whole time I'm trying to hear what it is they are saying because the music playing in the background was turned up on the maximum volume to drown out the hundred people in there eating and talking. I scan over the menu like that sounds good. Ordered a steak Collinsworth. Cause well it sounded good and they said it has been on the menu for ever. Yo me that screams this is gonna be good. Now don't get me wrong I eat out a lot. And I mean damn near nightly. I've eaten at some of the most fanciest of fancy restaurants. So my expectations are always high. That and I know what I like. So back to it I ordered the steak collinsworth the 6 cheese Mac and cheese and some asparagus. My buddy ordered a steak. We get our food it looks great. Medium just like we ordered. I cut right in to it. And to be completely honest I was not impressed. I've eaten a lot of steak. And by alot of steak we celebrate steaksgiving every year. Those that don't know steaksgiving is where we all get together my buddy throws some steaks on the grill and we have a good time. So my interpretation of steak is high. Gordon Ramsay cooks an amazing steak. But my buddy is right there with him. I mean the steak was well steak. It wasn't nothing I couldn't get at outback, cattleman's, or Texas Roadhouse. I was let down. I was not impressed. And the price point I was expecting over the top blow my mind steak. The 6 cheese Mac and cheese was really good. I personally would compare it to Arby's white cheddar Mac and cheese. Like I said it takes a lot to impress me. The asparagus could have used some flavor. My buddy said a dash of garlic goes along way. Yeah it has none of that. In my opinion. And that's the opinion of a guy wearing a Mack truck hat a Carhartt jacket a T-shirt and some jeans. I was not impressed. I eat lots of steak and Mac and cheese. And as weird as it sounds asparagus. Overall I would call Jeff Ruby's over rated. It's loud and there is definitely a lot of people. The hype is somewhere there just wasn't for me. The staff was great very friendly very fast service. I guess they have to make up for the food with good staff. Not to sure. If you want a steak compared to Jeff Ruby's I would say cattleman's or outback Texas Roadhouse or even longhorns. I prolly won't be going back cause to me it was overpriced for the food. Especially when I could get better food at a...

I am a person of extreme habit and when I find a specific dish at a restaurant that I love, I will almost certainly order it again during my next visit. And that is exactly what I did this past weekend, ordering the same dish + sides two nights in a row and it is those two back to back experiences that lead me to write this review.

Starting with the positive - the service and kitchen team nailed the timing as well as the packaging and curbside delivery of the meals on both occasions. Each day, the food was delivered in a very professional and timely manner. Upon alerting the staff of my arrival, my meal was walked to my car within 5 minutes or less . A+ here!

Now with constructive/negative feedback, given in no particular order.

Extreme Inconsistencies Between Portion Sizes Served On Saturday I was provided with two branzino fillets within my order but on Sunday I was only provided with one fillet. There was no distinguishable difference in the size/weights of the fillets, one fillet was simply missing from the order during my second visit. Regardless of whether or not one fillet was the correct proportion size to be served, the inconsistencies would more likely lead the customer, like it did me, to get the impression that part of the meal was missing - which is not a feeling anyone wants to have when dining out. On Sunday, I was merely served 3-4 spoonfuls of the Herbed Couscous, whereas on Saturday I was served with a "bowl full" amount. Again it's these inconsistencies in portion sizes that lead a patron to believe part of their meal is missing.

Dramatic Differences in Seasoning Used in Food Preparation On Saturday, the amount of seasoning/salt used in EVERY component of the mean was SPOT ON. The same could not be said about the food served on Sunday - three of the 5 components served were extremely under-seasoned/unsalted.

3.Customer Service Provided By Valets Total service vs no service at all. On Saturday, as opposed to being greeted I was dismissed by the valet working the stand. When the valet saw me pull up in my car, he wove his hand at me giving me a dismissive facial gesture, did not once greet me the entire time I was parked and proceeded to serve others in the line who arrived at the stand after me. He didn't even ask me if I wanted to use the valet services. This overall portion of the evening was a VERY disappointing interaction. Moving on to Sunday - I had the best valet experience ever at a restaurant! The gentleman working the stand, who was not the same gentleman as the prior night, was extremely attentive and prompt. As I parked my car he immediately walked up to my car window and very politely inquired if I needed assistance. When I told him that I was there for a food pickup, he asked for me my name, sprinted up the steps to the front desk to inform them I was here, then in less than a minute sprinted back down the stairs AND informed me that the staff has been made aware of my presence and will be bringing down my order momentarily. This was literally the BEST EXPERIENCE with a valet that I have ever had. He was kind, prompt and an excellent communicator.

Overall, in my opinion Jeff Ruby's is still a nice place to dine - but for the price paid the lack of service offered by valets and inconsistencies in meals shouldnt be an issue - regardless if it was a takeout or...

Disappointed is an understatement. My wife and I visited Jeff Ruby’s with another couple last night. They had been talking it up for a long time and we finally made reservations to go. From what they said we were expecting a great experience with even better food. Unfortunately our visit was the exact opposite. The restaurant itself has a great atmosphere with good live music. However, when you’re paying the high prices at a place like that, you expect the service and food to be even better.

They started with bread service which was lacking. It had an okay flavor but it was extremely hard and crunchy. I’d rank it at the bottom of bread services of similar caliber restaurants in the area.

From there we got a wagyu meatball and crab cake. The crab cake was one of the only things that saved this review from a one star. It had a good flavor and a good amount of crab meat. The meatball on the other hand was overcooked and lacking in flavor. The meatballs my wife made for dinner this week with ground beef from Aldi were more flavorful than their wagyu version.

We were hoping the main courses would make up for mediocre start. Wed soon find out that wouldn’t be the case. I had a barrel cut filet which was $90. At a restaurant like this, that is to be expected. I don’t have an issue paying a premium for a filet. I do have an issue when it doesn’t live up to its premium price. It was a decent steak but it wasn’t great. I’d give it one star above your local chain steakhouse. My wife ordered their roasted chicken and in her words it was awful. I wish she would have told me about it while we were still there. I would have sent it back in a heart beat. She said it was so dry she chewed for 5 minutes just to get two bites down.

The sides were nothing to call home about. The truffle fries were the best side out of the three we had. The Mac and cheese was good but nothing spectacular and the Brussel sprout were lacking. They were really tough and unimpressive.

Lastly the service was disappointing. You expect the service to be top tier at a place like this. Our experience was anything but. We hardly saw our sever. Luckily our servers assistant stopped by a few times. When you’re at a place like Jeff Ruby’s you hope that they have a level of service that meets their reputation and menu price. This just wasn’t the case for us. My water remained empty from the start of our main courses until after we had paid our bills.

The carrot cake also helped save a 1 star review. That was delicious and a large slice that was more than enough for the table. We weren’t able to finish it all and asked our server to box it up. He brought our checks back, collected payment, then disappeared. We had to eventually flag down another server to get the box so we could leave.

Over all our experience was extremely underwhelming. It’s sad because everything looked really good when it came out. We thought it was very overpriced for what the quality of the meal and service we received. I was expecting so much more due to the prestige it has in the community. We were very excited for our first time and we left never wanting to go back. The atmosphere was nice, crab cake was good, and the carrot cake was delicious. Everything was unsatisfactory and disappointing.

If I would have known what I know now, we would have gone down the...