Ruff Food Pickup — Restaurant in San Jose

Went at lunchtime because of an ad for a Vietnamese coffee place that came across my FB feed. No idea what to expect. It was in an old office building or warehouse, busy parking lot, and oddly full of older Priuses. Guys standing outside around the door. I went inside into a small undecorated waiting room with more guys standing around waiting, phones out, There was a wall of maybe 40 white lockers on one wall, and a little counter window with a person sitting there. The strangest to-go place I’d ever seen.

Drivers came in, held their phone up to a reader, and if their order was ready, one of the locker doors popped open automatically. The driver would grab their order in a brown paper bag with handles and leave. I just had to ask someone if all these guys in athletic type wear driving Priuses were all Door Dashers. They said yes, mostly everyone was doing delivery.

Where were the kitchens? I could see a hallway of closed doors behind the lady sitting at the counter window. Guess that’s where the magic happens. I wondered if they were separate businesses or just one huge kitchen with chefs that cooked many foods.

I placed my order on the one kiosk they had there for walk-ins. Quite a variety of vendors and cuisines to choose from. No one else used the kiosk during the whole time I was there haha, so it is clearly an on-line business model.

In 20 minutes I had my food, after phone notification came through. Kinda slow. Waiting inside or on the sidewalk among the door dashers was not optimal. Somewhat sterile and impersonal 21st century dining experience. Best to sit in the car to wait i suppose but i parked looking at a large trash bin. Not a garden spot, not a date destination. Definitely grab and go. I did like my Viet coffee and sandwich for $10. Banh Mi was...

I really like the Ruff Food drive concept and some of the food we have tried is very high quality (shout out to 8 mile pizza)! However, we have run into several issues with ordering food there and it is only our second time visiting. I'd recommend that customers that come here be extra patient, expect errors from time to time and always check-in at the counter to make sure the restaurant you ordered from is actually open.

Today we ordered from 8 mile pizza again, flawless experience with great pizza; however, our orders from Drops of Dough and Cambodia Kitchen did not go as well. Drops of Dough was out of something we ordered, so when I got a message that my order was ready I was informed that they needed to cancel the entire order and have me submit another order that did not include the item they were out of. Not the worst thing in the world, but it was annoying. It would be nice if we could swap for another item or just cancel part of an order instead of the whole thing.

Lastly, we ordered from Cambodian Kitchen and got the text that it should be ready in about 30 min. We checked-in with the people at the counter after 30 min and they said our order was second on their list, so it should be done soon. Another 20 minutes went by and we checked-in again only to be told that Cambodian Kitchen was now closed and they did not make our food. If I was the Ruff Food organizers I'd boot this kitchen out of the group. This was a very poor customer experience that needs to be addressed.

We will be back for 8 mile pizza and other restaurants, but not Cambodian Kitchen. I just hope the ordering issues are resolved for our...

While food is really great and safe for people with celiac, if their online ordering system glitches or goes down for any reason, they have no ability to accept or move forward with orders placed any other way. A huge hassle and waste of time.

While the staff was helpful in trying to resolve the problem for me, it was an extremely frustrating experience to know that the restaurant I wanted to order from was literally just inside around the corner, was ready and waiting to take orders, but had no way of serving me the “old fashioned”/manual way. Plus, there was no option for me to go inside and access the restaurant directly, face-to-face.

That’s the irony of using a format that tries to be so tech-heavy; when something goes down, even the easiest solution (in-person ordering) is unavailable, despite every other necessary part of the scenario being ready and available to get it done. A very frustrating and unfortunate experience today. As much as I love their food and their mission, I don’t think I will be returning to this complex in the future, despite it being one of the VERY few takeout options that’s safe for me as a person with...