Amy Ruth's — Restaurant in New York

I have been eating at Amy Ruth's for over 20 years. It is a classic part of my routine New York City experience. Every time I am in the city, I stop here for some classic soul food. ALWAYS!

Food: I am a creature of habit, so I always get the President Obama special - fried chicken with macaroni and cheese, and collard greens. Sometimes, I'll add potato salad and usually treat myself to banana pudding. The banana pudding is deadly, no sinful.

Location: It is in the heart of Harlem (uptown) on 116th and Malcolm X Blvd. Short walk from the 2/3 (green line Express) trains. If you're driving, there's usually plenty of parking on Malcolm X Blvd.

Dining Options: Over the years, the inside dining has changed. Where takeout is now located used to have dine-in tables, but that all changed years ago. They also used to have upstairs dining, although I don't think that's no longer an option. If you get seated on the left side of the restaurant and there's small children there, BEWARE!! There is an echo on that part of the restaurant, so fussy children yelling and/or screaming can easily become unbearable if you're trying to enjoy your meal with some sort of peace. Its like they have a microphone.

Restaurant: The restaurant is one big artistic mural full of many popular and renowned black artists, mostly performers, but some politicians.

Menu: The menu is broken down in homage to some of the black community's greats. For example: Barack Obama's name is how they identify the fried chicken dinner.

Amenities: I am funny about public restrooms. I typically never use them, holding my bladder until I can get to a restroom that I trust and know (preferably at home), but the bathrooms here are always kept very clean. I usually stop here on my way back home from NYC, so I stop in the bathroom to freshen up before the long drive back. Now, its an old Harlem building, so keep that in mind, but you can expect a very well stocked and cleaned bathroom experience.

Competition: I don't fool with the other soul food restaurants in Harlem. No, ma'am. Only Amy Ruth's. Its been tried-and-true since Day 1. I love this place and the staple waitresses who have been working here for years. If you want good soul food, go...

Sending much love from DALLAS, TX!! Ok, I will try to make this as short as possible but it’s extremely hard when this place is absolutely AMAZING!!! I visited this place on 1/14/23 while visiting NYC for the very first time. As a “down south” girl who LOVES southern home style cooking, this place DID NOT disappoint! Y’all, when I tell you I have NEVER tasted a waffle like this before, I kid you not! They put Ihop, Dennys, Waffle House, Pancake House, even Roscoes chicken and waffles to shame! I can’t even explain to you how good this waffle was. I got the chicken and waffle and my boyfriend got shrimp and waffle. Y’all……….umm umm umm I’m really just speechless! The chicken was fried to perfection and the shrimp also. The syrup that came along with it went so perfect together. Normally, when I’ve eaten chicken and waffles in the past at other places, I eat the chicken and waffle separate. But this dish just seem like you HAD to eat it together to get the whole experience. from the crispy outer texture of the waffle to the soft fluffy almost cornbread or cake like center, to the crispy fried chicken with the sweet syrup drizzled on top……they put their foot in this dish!! You don’t even need the butter for your waffle! Then the cornbread they serve as you wait for your food……smh….it’s definitely no Jiffy or Martha White baby, that’s all AMY RUTH! Then I looked around at other peoples dishes and saw huge helpings meat loaf, yams, mashed potato’s etc… they give you so much two peop could actually share one dish but the ish so good I PROMISE you will prefer your own plate! Staff was friendly, place was clean, and service was quick! I will definitely be going back! I want to catch a flight just to come get me a plate and come back to Dallas lol! I pray the business expand and y’all get a spot out here in Dallas one day. Thank you so much, it was my favorite meal I had eaten in NYC during my 4 day stay (Joes pizza was #2) instead of me calling it Amy Ruth’s, I’ll refer to it as “Ainee Ruth’s” because it taste like something your auntie hooked up when you came to visit! Y’all please drop by and show these peop some love! I promise you won’t be...

FOOD POISONING ON THANKSGIVING

Now that I’m feeling better, I think it’s time for me to write my review. I’d like to start by saying my mother and I come here as often as we can and we never have any issues. That’s why I’m giving the service and atmosphere 5 stars. The waitress we had was great ! She went out of her way to make sure my mother got the Kool-Aid that she wanted. It was busy and she didn’t have to do that, but she did! Shout out to her! Thank you ! Also, the food was good and didn’t taste bad at all.

However, five of us dined there on Thursday for Thanksgiving, and four of us ended up fighting for our lives. We are from Jersey so it took us about 45 minutes to get home with traffic….And that’s how long it took for the food poisoning to set in for my immune compromised mother… about an hour later, it set in for my diabetic wheelchair bound Uncle (Imagine having the runs but can’t walk) and two hours after that, it set in for my mother’s cousin. Thank God, my aunt , who just turned 84 the day before and is a picky eater, only picked at her food at the restaurant and then decided to throw her food out when she got home, because if she had gotten sick the way we got sick? I might’ve crashed out and called the health department. And as for me ? A fairly healthy 32-year-old, I thought I was just bloated from being full. But no. All hell broke loose Friday morning.

We spent our four day holiday weekend, sipping Gatorade and eating crackers because I assume someone decided not to wear gloves?

It’s Monday morning and my mother and I are still not OK.

I don’t know if you guys dropped the ball because it was busy and it was a holiday but please for the love of God take more precautions on busier days because there is no way in hell we are the only four people that got food poisoning that day.

And No, we did not consume any other food besides the food we ate here that day. We came early about 1 PM and it was all of our...