Ruby Tuesday — Restaurant in Mount Laurel Township

My Mom joined Ruby's rewards program and was sent an offer for a free salad bar if she purchased a meal, so we went. The salad bar looked a little skimpy and sad compared with others we've been to, but I bought it to go with my meal. I tried a tiny sampling of salad and toppings and a small spoon of each of the prepared salads. None of the prepared salads were edible. Very unpleasant. A plain pasta with watery turkey ham. Very dry and didn't seem to have any dressing, just a vaguely sour taste. Rancid tasting coleslaw. The one I had looked forward to trying was a quinoa salad. Up close I saw it was just made by throwing other ingredients from the salad bar together. I had to pick the croutons off my salad, because they were soft, stale and very oily. Could only eat the lettuce and minced egg.

I was feeling a little queasy from the salad bar and the heat and stuffiness in the restaurant, but I was also hungry. After a fairly long wait we received our food. I had ordered the fish and chips and my Mom had the combo of steak, ribs, shrimp and fries. Mine looked like an appetizer with what they described as 3 "fish fillets" being more like small fish sticks. One was broken in half. The fries were cold, soggy and shriveled looking. My Mom said she thinks they were fried much earlier and inadequately rewarmed. I tried one in their tartar sauce, but the sauce was tasteless. I took one bite of the fish and almost lost my salad. They were barely warm and so greasy that oil spurted out into my mouth when I bite it. I couldn't eat it and now even the smell of it was making me sick. I asked the waiter to take it away, which he did and he said he'd send out the manager. We waited and my Mom ate her shrimp, which she said were okay. She couldn't eat her fries either and after the salad and shrimp she wasn't hungry enough to even taste her steak or ribs. The manager came out eventually and I apologetically explained that the food made me feel ill and I had to have it taken away. I was polite and didn't go into the details I have here, but I was struggling not to embarrass myself by throwing up right there and just wanted to leave and get some fresh air. He offered to remove my whole meal from the check, which I wasn't expecting and I told him I had tried things from the salad bar, but he said that would be taken off too. I thanked him and thought that was very kind and we went to pay for my Mom's meal. Her salad bar was on the bill and we thought they'd made a mistake and forgotten about her coupon code for the free salad bar, which was one of the reasons we'd come. Our waiter took the bill and spoke to the manager again. I was feeling worse by the moment and just wanted this awful dinner to be over. The waiter said the manager insisted on charging my Mom for her salad, since he gave me mine for free. We didn't think that seemed fair to her and I politely said so as I paid for her meal and salad bar. I didn't care about the money, because I'd expected to pay for my meal even after I sent it back, but I didn't like the way they did it. I left feeling disgusted my the whole experience. On the plus side I made it to the car (barely) and found a plastic bag before the little I'd eaten there came up. I wouldn't eat there again if the food was free and my Mom said she'd never go back, because of them taking away her coupon code after she only got the salad bar with her meal because of the free offer. She started feeling sick too on the way home and regretted eating the food....

Update 3/2/25: Family wanted to try the restaurant again. I really didn't want to however it was a pleasant experience this time. Upon arrival, the host was not around and when he came over to us he expressed the need to clean the tables. I went to the bathroom which was horrendously nasty and came back to find my family still standing. When we finally got seated, I whispered to the host that "the women's bathroom was nasty!" He looked me up and down and said (as nasty as the bathroom) "we'll get to it we are short staffed" and walked away. When expressing my disdain with his tone, I stated "That's fine however it is disgusting in there and I just wanted to inform someone!". Seeing I wasn't happy, his tone changed and he said "Thank you. We will get to it as soon as possible."

With his tone and watching another table who was seated after us get acknowledged and served, we were ready towalk out until we meet ✨CARLI S.✨ our server, who was great from start to finis. The customer service experience we received from her made our stay very enjoyable. She brought energy to a dull atmosphere, she was pleasant and funny! We never missed a drink and our table was cleared as soon as she saw us finished. Though, short-staffed you would have never known with her. Carli, thank you for a wonderful experience!

Original post 8 months ago: Just left the foolishness. My Ruby Relaxer had black stuff floating in it. The water (which I didn't drink Thank Goodness) had food particles stuck on the INSIDE of the mug. The food was lukewarm and not flavorful (the vegetables with my fajita my tasted burnt). The waitress was NOT pleasant. The atmosphere was dry. I couldn't wait to leave!!!!! I watched a waitress clean the tables haphazardly and put the dirty dishes on another table and not clean that table off. The issue is I have been at this establishment before and was happy with the service and food....

I didn’t have very high expectations dining at a chain restaurant but was pretty let down regardless. I’m giving you 4 stars because as a restaurant owner I hate getting bad reviews and don’t want to destroy your average. I will however give you an honest assessment of my meal. So let’s talk about my dinner. Our server was nice but service was on the slow side. Wasn’t very busy. Took a while for everything to come out from our drinks to the food. I got a combo with ribs, chicken and shrimp for like $26. Chicken was decent, run of the mill tenders. The shrimp were very small, I think like 31-40’s after the breading. They were just lackluster. I know corporate decides all these things but I’d rather have 4 nice sized shrimp than 8 tiny ones. Food cost would be similar. Let’s talk about the ribs. Basically inedible. If I had to guess, I’d say they were leftovers from the day before and had sat in the fridge or in a warming box uncovered for a very long time. You can see from the photos that they are beyond dead. It takes quite a while for meat to get that dry and grey. Couple pieces between the bones had a little moisture, but overall they were not good. My wife got chicken tacodillas. They looked ok when they came out, then we flipped them over and they were just destroyed on the other side. Nice of the cook to just put the burnt side down instead of taking 2 minutes to refire. My wife isn’t super picky and ate them anyway. Said they tasted alright. My kids got some burgers and chicken and were ok with what they got. Overall it was just a...