Ruckus Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Raleigh

Keeping it real….. (I was in the service industry for years)

Service-Saturday lunch with only 12 tables sat, took the very young waitress 7 min to greet us after she gathered herself from her group of waitresses. There’s too many inconsistencies with our experience with her to even state them all. Confused, interrupted mid order to give us more time to look over menu when I was literally ordering still. Wings came out first when we ordered them with our pizza, sent those back to sit under an assumed heat lamp. Got charged for sauce she said I would not get charged for. Got charged a second beer when her trainee said that I would not. So I had 2 beers sitting in front of me with one getting warm that I was still charged for. How in the world this girl is training somebody is speaking volumes for the service. Then takes my debit card at the end and runs it only to give me the slip to sign without an itemized receipt, so I had to ask for that. Just aggravated in an aspects.

Food- definitely overpriced for the value. Roughly $2 per wing when ordering 1lb and a 10” pepperoni pizza is a whopping $19! That’s all we ate.

Atmosphere-wide open, no privacy at all anywhere. Bright lights with tvs all around, didn’t see any picture decorations. Was stuffy temperature. Mostly tables with a few half booths.

Management-couple guys came around and were nice. Obviously didn’t know any of the issues we were experiencing. Assuming the one was an owner in his sandals greeted us suggesting how “perfect” our food is, I didn’t have the heart to tell him it’s just mediocre.

Put this exact place with atmosphere and service with its pricing around more restaurants like Brier Creek and it would not last long at all.

If you want wings and pizza with good beer selection then Lynwood Grill is a popular go-to. Brixx pizza is pretty solid also. Just don’t see this place making it, location is its only hope. Bar might, maybe keep it thriving like the Taproom did for so long. Some post high school football crowds on Friday nights will most likely happen just the same of it makes it to football season….and that’s it. Coincidentally ran into an old neighbor in Harris Teeter after leaving and her and her husband felt...

We finally decided to try this restaurant after hearing so many good things. We arrived on a Thursday evening around 6:00, and it wasn’t busy. There were five of us, but they seated us at a very small four-top and simply pulled up an extra chair, even though plenty of larger tables were available. That had a lot of TVs to watch a multitude of sports which was nice

We sat for about five minutes before anyone came over. A waitress eventually passed by and said she’d be “right with us.” When she finally returned, we were ready to order everything at once—drinks, appetizers, and meals. We specifically asked for the sushi to come out as an appetizer.

Another five minutes went by and we still didn’t have drinks. I asked a different waitress, who apologized and said the tables had been mixed up. Our waitress finally returned with the drinks and then our food, but the sushi appetizer never came—until after the meals were already on the table. They brought plates for the sushi, but our table was so small that they had to set the plates in front of my son, blocking him from eating. We ended up moving the plates to another table just so he had room.

A manager stopped by and apologized, saying we should not have been seated at such a small table.

As for the food, the sushi was mediocre, and the salad was fine but missing toppings I had to request. My daughter’s buffalo chicken pizza was very doughy and lacked flavor, and the onions were not cooked—they were still raw.

Overall, it wasn’t worth the $100 we spent. I would not completely rule it out as a restaurant watch sports option. It was a bit disappointing considering the reviews...

Came here with my wife and a married couple and had an overall enjoyable time. The service was super-attentive and friendly, and the manager also came to check on us and thank us as we were leaving. I had the Surf & Surf – Grilled Mahi Mahi with Shrimp – which was rather impressive; it was well-cooked with a nice outside char, the portions were excellent, and the shrimp was huge. The mashed potatoes blended in very well with my vegetables and what I believe was jerk sauce? Overall, a very good value. My wife had the French Dip, which she found to be on the saltier side than her preference, but still enjoyable to eat. Even thought we are admittedly not sports bar people, this would be the kind of atmosphere that can accommodate people like us while letting the sports fans and us coexist in harmony.

Being that it's a sports bar vibe, it was difficult for me to hear my guests on the opposite side of the table. (We were also seated near the kitchen, so there's that.) I should have remembered to bring my AirPods Pro and set them to noise cancellation, but that's on me. (It was funny that there was a very small acoustic panel foam square on the side wall to us, which was probably left over from the previous owner?)

Would we go back? Yes, if we were going with someone else who wanted the sports bar...