Rubattino's Restaurant — Restaurant in Renton

I hope management sees this! Love to support this local spot but you are currently way understaffed for a Saturday morning.

We have been a couple times before the renovations and always loved Rubattino’s old school diner vibes. The renovation is nice and we like that they maintained the retro feel. It looks like prices went up post renovation, but I can live with that.

It was fairly busy when we arrived before 11am and only got busier. Just two servers working the floor; they were busy constantly and so it took a very long time for us to be served every step of the way. From where we were sitting at the bar we could see a note at the register that said “stop looking at the time buddy :)”. Seriously? That left such a poor taste in my mouth seeing how overwhelmed the waitstaff was. Of course I prefer to support a small local business over a big chain, but not if your staff is overworked and under appreciated!

(Speaking of poor taste, we asked if the water had lemon in it because it tasted like cleaner lol. Found out there’s no lemon, so yeah, probably cleaning product)

After dining for well over an hour and with even more patrons coming in, with no bill in sight we decided to leave cash in the amount we estimated our bill to be plus tip. We hope it gave the staff one less thing to do ringing us out...Funnily enough we were actually offered our bill once before we even received our food: that’s how slammed the staff was, not realizing we hadn’t even had our meal yet, probably because we were sitting there so long.

We will probably come back another time. The food is still fine and maybe a little overpriced post-renovation, but in the meantime I hope management will consider better supporting their staff during peak times. You have a popular spot! Invest in...

These 2 stars are simply for the food and how fast the kitchen got our order out. The food is cheap and decent, however service was far from acceptable. We walked in and sat at the front counter and watched our waitress run around absentmindedly for 20 minutes plus before we even got a menu. There is no assistance from fellow co workers. I watched 2 employees walk by with their hands in their pockets and not help anyone. 5 tables walked out during our meal because they couldnt gwt any service. I watched a couple walk in and seat themselves at a dirty table and wait for 35 minutes for someone to clear the table and give them a menu The restaurant was not even close to being full and anytime someone walked in they were greeted with I am very very busy right now so......

I work in this industry and I am beyond embarrassed for the industry as a whole by what I seen happening in this place. I wanted to get up and help these people myself. This is not a place I will be back too simply because of not only how we were treated but also because of how everyone around us was treated. The greeting that a family received while walking in with a young child was....oh God and an eye roll.....listening to customers getting snapped at for trying to be nice.....the...

Since the renovation this place has been completely and totally slammed every time I walk by, and I live just one block over so I walk by a lot.

First of all, management needs to recognize this and either hire more people or get on the floor themselves. The front of the house is always working hard, rushing around, and doing their best to cater to a completely full restaurant (literally all seats filled).

When I did brave the crowds recently we were helped by Tyris who is an absolute powerhouse, and another woman whose name I did not get. Both were incredibly nice, patient, and hardworking despite the full house and additional customers waiting for seating.

However, no matter how hard they were working, it was clear they needed more hands, there was simply too much work for the two of them.

From the time it took us to get our simple 2 dishes it might have been the case that the back of the house also needed an extra set of hands.

Overall I love the location and the vibe of the place. The staff is friendly and the diner vibe is excellent. I just hope the staff gets the recognition they deserve.

Also the food is quite pricey compared to pre-renovation. The quality of the food is largely the same but the prices are...