Ruth's Chris Steak House — Restaurant in Walnut Creek

My wife and I drove 2 hours from the Bay Area for a much anticipated dining experience at this restaurant. We saw the reviews online and it seemed like a serious place on the high-end side of prices, so we made a reservation.

I believe first impressions are so important, and they last well beyond that moment. Once we arrived we went upstairs and unfortunately we didn’t experienced that cordial and courteous welcome from the receptionists. One of them simply verified last name and told us to wait on the side, just like in your typical DMV appointment. No hello, no smiles, and a bit of attitude. Not a good way to start creating a memorable and enjoyable dining experience for customers. Smiling is a winner when it comes to great first impressions, and it’s so easy to deliver as an employee. You just need to be a people person and do your very best to make sure customers walking into the restaurant environment feel that warmth and hospitality, especially when you know they're going to spend money at the restaurant. This is not charity.

Anyways, moving on to our waiter. His name was Joseph. We liked him, but there's room for improvement. I had the impression that the restaurant was understaffed which, in one way or another, shows in the quality of service the restaurant provides, and that includes waiters and waiting-time.

To the food now. We ordered some appetizers, and I must say the lobster bisque was horrible. I’m not a lobster expert by any means, but perhaps try adding more lobster meat and less of that watery broth to get that rich and thick soup creamy texture. Just an idea for the chef.

I asked Joseph if I could order American Wagyu beef, and he kindly explained to us that the restaurant offered steaks and other cuts of beef from the Midwest, but not Wagyu. Fair enough. My wife ordered the filet, nothing exceptional but satisfying, and I ordered the ribeye for $66. Now, this ribeye steak was no doubt the worst piece of meat I’ve ever had. And this is probably an understatement. Chewy, extremely fatty, poor quality, awful taste, almost inedible. This thing was so bad that I had to stop halfway through because I just couldn’t eat it. Half the plate was covered with fat. Joseph, our waiter, eventually came back to ask us how was everything so far, and I told him about all the fat in the ribeye, to what he replied: “Hey, this is where the flavor is my friend”. Geez Joseph, maybe if you’re reading this review you now understand my tip. It reflects what we experienced that day in the restaurant you work for. Not entirely your fault because you probably have nothing to do with the process of selecting and preparing the beef the restaurant serve, including the grade and overall cattle quality. The owners or maybe management should raise the standards because you can get better high-end cuts in Costco, probably at Safeway too. I think that the least you can do as our waiter if you want to make it rights for customers, is to take the plate away from me and show it to the kitchen. It’s a disgrace, and if anyone reading this doesn’t believe me, check the photos in the review to get an idea. We asked to get the rest of food to go, and Joseph added not just the other half of the stake, but also all the fat he believes tastes delicious. This story ended up with us throwing it in the garbage. It was inedible. We are so disappointed with this experience. Never again.

P.S: The bread was hard, and dry, and cold. You can get better bread just...

Service is going down, quality is dwindling, they have become pretentious and classless. I have been dining with RC for years. From Sac, WC and Oahu and have spent thousands of dollars on meals and gift cards. This was to be my wife’s and I first time dining since the pandemic. I called them on Thursday to confirm my reservation for Saturday, as it was our anniversary, and I wanted to inquired about the steps they were taking to maximize safety. Morgan answered my questions and informed me of the dining capacity limits and the table separation. She asked me if it was my first time dining with them, to which I replied no I’ve been there many times. I then asked her if she could confirm our reservation as I had booked it through open table and I wanted to ensure all was set as we would be celebrating our anniversary. No happy anniversary, thanks for choosing to celebrate with us, none of that but whatever. She asked for my name and I gave it to her, then she immediately went into “oh and just so you know we have a business casual dress code, no hoodies, sweats or sneakers”. I was like what, I just wanted to confirm our reservation and I already told you we’ve been here many times. Then she said yes your reservation is confirmed for 6:30 and then she started talking about the dress code again! “We are just informing our guest because we started enforcing our dress code now since reopening”. To which I replied, well that’s your problem, maybe you should have been enforcing it the entire time since it’s not new. But it seems you didn’t mention the dress code until after I gave you my name, did you just profile my name? Furthermore, did I not mention we were celebrating our anniversary, who dresses in active wear for their anniversary? Then she tried to say something else and I was no longer interested in conversing with her. So that was on Thursday. Then she calls me on Friday and leaves a message to confirm our reservation for Saturday (didn’t I just do that?), AND.... once again she reminds me of the dress code!!! Now for the record, I do not wear hoodies, the only hoodies I have are from my alma maters and I haven’t worn them in years. Furthermore, I have seen people violating that dress code for years, yet my wife and I have never been one of them. Lastly, if you know someone was annoyed by your lack of decorum, you don’t double down and leave them a message doing it again.

It was distasteful enough for me not to come to this RC again. I’ll spend my money and time enjoying quality dining experiences elsewhere. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the last time I was at this location I was also disappointed in my lamb chops, which were smaller and more fatty than times before. I will still patron other RCs but this one has spoken loud and clear. I will just take the extra time to visit Morton’s Sac more often, where I’ve had nothing but first class meals with equally amazing service, and of course the best carrot cake this side of heaven. Sorry to say I will not be coming back to RC WC. At least not until they get some class. Since you are now finally enforcing your long-standing dress code, put it as auto message when people call in, or say it first thing when you answer as a general address. Both better options than profiling...

Where should I start with this review... maybe straight from my previous experience, the time three steaks wore cooked incorrectly, Our waiter bumped me while I was drinking a sip of my wine which ended up staining my $585 dress, and dealing with someone that smelled like pot sitting near us. I was with my in laws. So of course I wasn’t going to make a big deal if front of them, so I called when my husband suggested we visit the same location again. Wish I knew it was a HUGE mistake in the making!! I spoke with Rachel. Told her about the experience and she “claimed” she wasn’t able to find me in her system. Okay...? Little weird. I didn’t even get an apology! Only a attitude while offering a complimentary appetizer. I then asked my husband if he still wanted to go, deciding if we should go to Fleming’s instead, but we chose to give RC another chance. The waitress sat us at our table and noted that Rachel will stop by to ensure everything is okay. Never happened! Extremel disrespectful. The service was actually fantastic. Our waitress was very kind and brung our drinks and food out in time. It all went down hill when our entree’s and sides came out. My husband scooped a spoonful of the au gratin potato’s for himself, and as he was scooping another for my plate a reddish colored piece of hair came along with it. I have brown/black hair. So I couldn’t even let it pass with the assumption that it might’ve just been mine. We we’re so disgusted it was difficult for us to continue eating the rest of our food. I literally only took one bite of my filet mignon, which was over cooked. Rachel, and the GM Scott Anderson came over to the table saying “There’s a problem, and we need you to leave because things are looking suspicious since you’ve complained about the last experience”. If I knew this is how I was going to be treated because of a lousy $16 appetizer comp I would’ve never accepted it. He literally kicked me, my husband, and my 7 month old daughter out of the restaurant for something that was his restaurant’s fault! While telling me “ he trusts his staff” by judging by the previous reviews of bugs inside of the food and $60 meat cooked incorrectly you should definitely work on your trusting techniques. He even had the damn nerve of asking if I wanted the food boxed up like I was going to appreciate the offer after being kicked out. This humiliation was unnecessary and unprofessional. I could’ve gotten treated much better at the Cheesecake Factory across the street.

BTW, I hope you had the common sense to notice the waitress’s hair was the same shade of red as the piece of hair that was in our food. Which is a normal mistake, and the proper way to address the issue was to ask us if we wanted a new order of the potatoes. We weren’t looking for free food, only a...