Ruthie's Steak & Seafood — Restaurant in Riverside

We made a reservation several weeks ago, to spend valentines weekend up here. We drove approximately 2-3 hours and chose Ruthies for dinner, as we are HUGE mignon fans. Our reservation was for 8pm. We showed up promptly, and just before us a couple walked in. I heard the hostess ask if they had a reservation and the couple said no. She sat them at a nice booth, and came back to us. She had us wait a couple minutes while she checked for a table. She came back, and had us follow her to the very back room, where right next to what would have been our table, was a very loud roaring party of 12. She didn’t ask us if it was ok. She didn’t ask us if we’d like to wait. I understand nobody can control what size parties come in - but if I’m going to pay $150+ for a meal, that I’ve driven nearly 3 hours for, I’d like the hostess at a “fine dining” establishment to at the very least ask us if we were okay with the location. She set our menus down and took off without a single word - and we were very irritated when it was so incredibly loud in that room we couldn’t even hear each other speak. We decided to let her know that we’d like to see about waiting for a different table. When I flagged the same blonde hostess down, and explained to her that we’d like to see the wait for a different table, she scoffed and said there wasn’t one. She rushed off to get her manager(?) who promptly told us they understood and that she would get us the next available table. She sat us at the bar. We waited around 30 mins with no word of how long it would be to get our table. Nobody offered a drink, or any sort of anything for our wait. I was irritated that the couple who walked in basically at the same time as us without a reservation had been seated when there was really only one open table and we’d had a reservation for quite some time. We finally got seated, and our waitress was very sweet, and apologized for the bad experience. The mixed drink selection was very limited, we ordered an Aviation, and neither of us liked it at all. Our server took that off the bill for us, since we barely touched it. My filet came out perfectly, but my husbands had to be put back on the grill, and was half the size of mine. We paid the same price, and ordered the same size filet. So that was also disappointing. We were never offered anything for having to wait, or for the hostess who basically told us to kick rocks. The food was decent, but not $150 decent. We paid those prices in Vegas at a steak house and the food was 10000x better, as was the service. We definitely were disappointed for how far we drove, and how long we waited after making our initial reservation for what we received. We definitely will not be back.

The managers attitude was polite, the bartender was very friendly, and our server Gracie was...

Normally enjoy Ruthie’s but my last visit was a scene out of a restaurant training video on what not to do…

Dinner at 5pm no problem with the reservation. Waiter greets us and brings out bread and butter. Mentions that one of the flavors of butter was something and what we heard was anchovies. I questioned anchovies and he looked at me and said “No, I said Ancho.” I proceeded to ask what is an Ancho and with a very disgusted (are you stupid look) he responds it is a pepper.

We order shrimp cocktail to begin with. I have ordered that many times before and it normally comes out with a good amount of cocktail sauce and large prawns. The waiter brings out a plates with a small strip of cocktail sauce with some kind of green sauce with the shrimp lying across all sauces. After trying desperately to even get any cocktail sauce on one prawn the taste of the green sauce made these terrible. Asked the waiter and he said this is how they always serve shrimp cocktail. I said no I have been coming here for years and this is the first time I have ever seen this. He says he is new and then says he will get the manager. Manager comes and he says he is new as well and I explain very clearly we just want shrimp and cocktail sauce. Nothing fancy. He takes the plate and brings back shrimp on a plate with a micro bowl of cocktail sauce and says I see I will need to get another cup of sauce. We get to the 3rd shrimp to separate them and find cocktail sauce and green sauce in between the shrimp. They replated the other shrimp and didn’t even bother to rinse them out let alone they served us the same shrimp. I called the manager back over I told him he needs to talk to his kitchen and make sure things like this should never happen. He asked if we wanted new and I said no we are done. He took the plate and never offered to remove it from our bill.

Steaks and potatoes come. Steaks are cooked well but definitely weren’t the size promised. 10oz fillet shouldn’t look like 6 ounces. Mashed potatoes tasted like instant.

Received bill - shrimp was on there. You would think for a place that has been in business for so long would take care of every customer in a manner that goes along with the high prices. Very disappointed and probably won’t be back for a long time if ever.

Do better! Treat guests with respect and teach the staff the ins and outs on how to be successful.

Update: Management did reach out and refunded me for the dinner. I changed this review to 2 stars because of this. Unfortunately, the rudeness of the staff that night doesn’t...

Our party of 4 decided to try this restaurant in spite of the mixed reviews, however we really should have placed more weight to the lower ratings. Although this establishment has a very nice location sitting up on the 6th floor overlooking rolling green hills, is very tastfully decorated, and has polite staff the food is truly mediocre. We found the pheasant appetizer to be like over microwaved mush and we left it basically untouched. The sides were something worthy of a Cracker Barrel restaurant and the steaks although nice sized, cooked to the requested temp really lack any true flavor. They have a very nice desert selection which redeemed the bland meal. For the prices they charge we were left feeling very underwhelmed by our meals. If your looking for a true fine dinning meal this not the place to go you would be better off staying home and...