Breakfast At Ruiz — Restaurant in West Columbia

I visited Ruiz a week ago & finally got time to write this review. My friend and I were the first guests for the morning. The atmosphere takes on a fresh look, and the Latin background music added a nice touch. The wait staff was okay.. My friend ordered the classic breakfast with cinnamon French toast, cheese eggs, & turkey sausage($15.95). Beautiful presentation. The French toast was pretty good - this meal was almost perfect, with the exception of the temperature of the food, which confused us because we were the first guests. I give the dish an 8/10.

As for my meal; I ordered the Shrimp & Grits ($19.95) with a side of eggs and was terribly disappointed. The plate had a sloppy presentation to start, but this was understandable with the runny wine cream sauce. Unfortunately, my meal wasn't consumable. Like mentioned earlier the food was lukewarm at best, which I could've possibly tolerated, however the grits were thin, grity, hard, and stuck in your teeth when trying to chew (stone grits or not that's not suspose to happen). As for the Shrimp, they were simply not cooked long enough & some of them were still gray (I noticed this after my 1st bite:(). I sent this meal back- I kindly & briefly explained for obvious reasons. The waitress/Mgr offered to get me something else, but I declined (this spoiled my appetite). The charge was removed, but not without the manager doubling down to let me know her sister-in-law, which was the cook, had also tried my "plate." She went on to say, "This is how WE cook our shrimp." I just smiled and said thank you. As if I've not been eating this dish for the last 30 years. If ordering the shrimp and grits please let them know you'll like both items done. Of course, dont over cook the shrimp just let be "done"Especially Shrimp & Grits...

WARNING: DO NOT EAT HERE FOR PARTIES LARGER THAN 4!!!

We called the day before and let them know that we would be coming for breakfast at 10:30 AM with a party of seven. At that time the person we talked to was very accommodating and said it would be no problem. They told us that they do not take reservations so we just need to arrive early enough to get our name on the list which we did. We arrived two hours early to ensure that we would get on the list and be able to eat at our start time of 1030. When 1030 came around we got ready to sit down and we told that our entire party could not sit together because they don’t move tables in their restaurant. we were told initially that there was not enough room in the facility to move to tables together, so we asked to speak to a manager. When the manager came over, we explain to her that we would like to sit together as a party and we were again told that they don’t move their tables because of the size of the restaurant. As we kept talking and pointed out that moving the tables together takes up no more room, more room the manager told us that the real issue is that when people sit together as large parties, they stay for hours and keeps them from serving other customers. We then told her that the policy should be that if you have a large party that requires tables to be moved you give them a time limit as opposed to just saying no you can’t sit together with your out-of-town family and friends for your sister‘s birthday. It is unfortunate that we were not told any of this when we called because we could’ve made other arrangements. So now hours have been wasted, and now we have to still find somewhere...

Vibe: 1st time going and it’s was pretty amazing. Small space but they use it very efficiently. It has a real higher class breakfast brunch vibe. I think it’d be great for a first date, or intimate small group brunch. It was a little wait for the tables so me my 2 friends went to the bar while we waited. We got the mimosa flight and it was really good, you’ll definitely feel a little buzz after finishing. We decided to go ahead and order at the bar and our food was ready by the time we were almost finished our drinks.

Food: I ordered the Ruiz Monte Cristo and it was basically perfect. It’s kinda like a bacon egg and cheese but on this cinnamon twirl buns and it’s a great mix of sweet, salty, and savory. It came with home fries and they were some of the best I’ve ever had. Very good portion size and I was pretty full after cleaning my plate. The food was hot when we got it as well.

Pricing: The mimosa flight was slightly expensive around $35 but I will say you do get full size glasses of 4 different mimosas and they are very delicious so it was worth it to me. I feel like I got a bottles worth of champagne. The food is actually very decently priced. Anywhere from $8- $20 and all the portions are decent. My food was $11 and I left very satisfied.

Overall I really enjoyed myself and Lauren was an awesome bartender. Checked in with us offer and gave us updates as our food was getting ready. All the staff was very personable and polite. I will...