Ruby Tuesday

Disturbing surreal experience.

I never thought about going to Ruby Tuesday because I generally do not have a good impression about chain restaurant. However, I was told this is an American experience that I need to have, since my stay in DC is limited, I need to try this out. I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised about the food.
The service is another story, but it is not that bad.
I had the seafood trio, which I can pick 2 sides or 1 side and then pick salad myself from the salad bar. The Seafood Trio consists of 1 lobster tail, 3 shrimps and 1 piece of tilapia. They were well cooked and not overcooked either. The portion is smaller than I would have expected, but it is good for me. Ordered a Thai Spring Roll, but it did not make it to my table because the busboy bused it to the table across, but the couple eat it anyway!!! Seriously, what kind of people eat someone’s appetizer, unless they have Alzheimer, they should know what have they ordered. The server apologized and said that he will take it off the bill but still packed it for me to take home.
My dining buddy’s Rib Eye was also cooked well, for a medium rare, it could have been a bit more rare, but then again I put it down to the difference between European cooking and American cooking.
The hostess had no smile we waited and waited and she was still not with us and with another client, our server come and I asked for a booth, she then come and wanted us to sit on the right side of the door. I would have stepped in to say something, but our server just head to the booth, which is fine by me.
I read a lots of negative review, I think this is a place where you can get a reliable economical meal, but don’t have any expectation.

I seriously jus come for the happy hr. Customer service sucks, ghetto. U name. This is really a last result place

I went in with a friend to grab some chain restaurant fried apps and a few drinks on a Friday.
We were seated in the bar area which was just fine. Everything seemed clean, it wasn’t busy at all. The hostess and our waitress seemed friendly enough. Unfortunately that’s all the good I can say.
I asked for a yeungling. The waitress had absolutely no idea what it was. She literally told me she had never heard of that before. I had to tell her it was a bottled beer and point to it on the menu. I understand if you aren’t a beer drinker or just never tried the beer before but KNOW YOUR MENU. Especially if you are working the BAR SEATING AREA. Plus, it’s a fairly common beer. That was annoying but I kept it moving.
My friend ordered one of the new signature fruity cocktails which she said had absolutely no alcohol in it. The waitress explained that they are premixed and an extra shot would be $ 5. My friend was annoyed by that but I wasn’t surprised. It’s a chain restaurant. That’s how they make money.
When we first sat down the waitress placed a plate of random biscuit items on the table but never explained what they were nor asked later how we liked them. So I’m not sure if that’s something new the restaurant is trying out and needed feedback or what that even was.
We opted to just go for some appetizers. The food was mediocre. Unfortunately some of it was lukewarm while other parts were hot.
It was just a bad experience all around. Definitely don’t recommend this location nor will we go back.

So sad I had to write this but oh well. I am a faithful regular at this location but last night the service was so bad it pushed me to this point. Jaremy was the bartender. He is completely rude, horrible and does NOT follow great steps of service unless he chooses to!
A coworker and I sat down to his bar last night. It took him FOREVER to acknowledge us and even ask us what we wanted to drink. No bueno. We watched him smile and cater and coddle to various OTHER patrons at the bar. Finally he took her food order but once again took FOREVER to come back to us. Forget the «2 minutes to bites „rule (obviously JAREMY did) not once did he even come to ask her how her food was. She got so angry about it and that she had to wait more than 10mins for her drink (the bar and restaurant weren’t that busy)
Finally JAREMY took my food order and brought me my drink. I ordered the Rib’s & Tenders meal. When it finally came out the ribs were cooked so well done it was like eating beef jerky with some fake bbq sauce. I ate half of one and felt like I was crunching on bbq pork rinds!!! It took Jaremy FOREVER to even look at my disgusted face. He just asked me“ well you want something else?» Wow…
So some 10 minutes passes before I was finally able to order something else. I got the New Orleans Seafood. Jaremy never once asked me how my food was or was there anything he could get for me. One would think a bartender worth his salt would come to check promptly on a patron who sent their first order back!!! It also took more than 15mins for me to get another drink… as I watched him coo all in some white guys face… and cater to other patrons around the bar. I sat there looking miserable. The whole experience was awful.
I sat there feeling hurt… disgusted like I didn’t matter worth anything. He treated me like a piece of shit and less than a human. I don’t know what I did to JAREMY to deserve such treatment and even if I had I’m customer you don’t EVER treat a guest like this.
Jaremy is again… completely rude, catty, and fake. I witnessed the ways he’s treated other customers and in a normal establishment that would not fly. To think he’s also a manager in this location. Doesn’t speak much for Ruby Tuesdays

Came here during a busy graduation Saturday for lunch. I was seated immediately with my party, took 15 minutes for a server to acknowledge us, 15 minutes to take our drink orders, 15 minutes for the manager to come over and ask where our server waa, 15 minutes to go to «The Heights» located one block from here.
I wish Unilocal was out of 10 stars instead of 5. ¹⁄₅ is too high of a rating for this place.

So for little lunch me and my girlfriend came here. We were seated immediately but our host was terrible! First of all we had to sit and wait for our drink order to be taken and it took forever for us to receive them and then my order specifically said it came with a side already meaning I have one other side of my choice he said No when it clearly said I do. He was rude and short. Needless to say the absolute worse service ever. Never will I come back here!

No way in he’ll am I coming back here!
First of all. we were seated promptly which was a good sign that service shall proceed the nice hostess but ohhh no
We sat and was passed by 3 different employees and not acknowledged once… finally someone identifies themselves as a «bartender» and stated but she can help us anyway so I went on to order. I asked here «how are your southwest eggrolls»? She completely disregarded my question and proceeded to add that to my order. She then bickered with me about my orders… I didn’t want the eggrolls I just wanted to know if they were worth my time and money buy I put my order in for a shrimp scamp pasta but was told I couldn’t get it because it was after 3 when were clearly there before but was ignored… so the bartender apperaance should have told me something just the beginning. She had a extremely long weave and long black fingernails not what you expect in the food service industry. We sat for over 15 mins with no water no hello no nothing
I decided after ll that I’m leaving I cant take the awful service. While I’m making my departure the manager who had walked by us multiple times came and offered us a free salad bar… um no thanks
Long story short I left still hungry and ended up at z-​burger

Whomp, whomp.
Yep, the all you can eat salad bar and buy 1 get 1 50% off entrée deal may be enticing, but it is not worth waiting ²¹⁄₂ hours for the whole experience.
Also, may I note that only the right half under the entrée and salad bar combos menu in fact are combos. Everything on the left side is just randomly placed there for confusion.
Totally could be so much better if they tried. That doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon.

Good food, slow service, not very customer oriented. Also I have yet to see the same server in the restaurant twice! Overall DO NOT expect to have a good experience here. They take a very long time to take your order, bring your order and give you your check. It’s a shame because I think their food is not bad, definitely better than TGI Fridays (which is opening a location nearby). Good luck Rubys! (C)
Spanish:
Buena comida, servicio depacio y pesimo a el cliente. Nunca he visto el mismo mesero (a) mas de una ves. No esperen tener una buena experiencia aqi. Se toman demasiado tiempo para tomar su orden, llevar su orden a la mesa y traerles la cuenta. Y es una lastima por que su comida es rica, definitivamente mejor que TGI Fridays (que por cierto abriran un restaurante cerca de aqui). Buena suerte Rubys! ©

I’m surprised I made it through the night without food poisoning or the runs.
My friend and I ordered drinks. They were supposed to be frozen. Mine was practically a bunch of mini pieces of ice with chunks of strawberries. My friend’s was pretty much on ice. We asked for sodas instead because they were so bad. So far this is the only time I’ve ever returbed a drink. Ever. Because usually its worth drinking even if it isn’t what you ordered. First time for everything.
The waitress was rude and asked, «So what do you want me to do? «with an attitude. We rold her sodas would be fine.
We ordered guacamole and out came a small brown blob of avocado smushed. When my friend asked if chips would be coming out the waitress lied and said that only the big serving came with chips and then said, «but fine I’ll bring you some» and walked off. We thought her attitude was bad but we found it hard to believe that you would order an avocado dip and not have chips with it? We looked at the menu and it stated that unlimited chips came with it.
My meal was missing a side and the waitress walked off, came back and said something and rushed off without even giving me the opportunity to hear what she said. I still don’t have the slightest idea of what she said.
We asked the manager to come and speak with us and requested a different server. The new server was polite and great.
Out comes a new plate of avocado dip. They had dumped the brown avocado on a new plate, added chips and salsa. My friend tasted the salsa and immediately asked me to taste it. The tomatoes we’re sour and rotten. She asked the waiter to taste it letting him know we didnt double dip just so he would know we weren’t just trying to be difficult. He tasted it and ageeed. He got the manager who came back and said he would get a new one and plucked it off the plate before leaving. The brown blob of guac he didnt pay much attention to. If your avocado is brown then its not fresh. How can that be completely ignored? My side came out and it consisted of zucchini soaked in oil.
We we’re so disgusted we grabbed our check and left to eat frozen yogurt. They took off the guac but kept the drinks on the tab. We paid and left never to step back in there again.
My friend took a photo of the food to forward and place a health complaint in. The food was old and rotten and you should beware before stepping here and eating. Its a health risk! Unacceptable!
Froyo nearby made up for it. now that was good.

CALL POISON CONTROL! My guest and I got sick off their food. Diarrhea can screw up post-​meal sex (especially for gay dudes) and lasted for 2 days. I think it was the crab cake appetizer that we shared.
The tables smell like they were cleaned with a dirty rag. The food came out really slow and the waitress kept pumping us for ordering alcohol (which makes me wonder if it would have killed those microbes).
I will never go back there again.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
Let’s break this down.
1. Waited 40 mins to be seated at 8:30 on a Friday night. You would think restaurants would have a wait on a Friday night so we sucked it up. When we finally got seated, half the tables were unoccupied; they were just covered with unbussed dirty dishes.
2. The server came over after being seated for 20 mins and advised us that it would be «a few more minutes» before he could help us because it was a «mad house». There are 30 guests in a place that can hold at least 120! At this point I was ready to leave, but we were here to celebrate a graduation so I didn’t want to rain on the parade.
3. When 2 of the 5 drinks (sodas and lemonade — nothing that required the bar — where are the other drinks?) showed up, they were in dirty glasses. Literally had pencil eraser sized blobs of food stuck to them. Benefit of the doubt here. The server brought some new drinks in glasses that didn’t appear to have detritus on the outside.
4. We ordered the spinach artichoke dip and the server brought three appetizer plates to our party of five. The plates were wet and one had — guess what?! FOOD stuck on it! The second looked like it was just wet so we wiped it with a napkin and although it appeared clean and just wet, the napkin came away yellow-​brown. REALLY PEOPLE?! At this point we are really just trying to hold the party together otherwise we would be long gone.
5. Dinner comes. Chicken breast something, Fried Shrimp, Pasta and Two «Prime» burgers. Visually from across the table, the shrimp didn’t look like anything I would touch –tiny, dry, been-​in-​the-​freezer-​a-​while looking. My «prime never frozen burger»? So bad I couldn’t even eat it. It arrives with the top off and the bacon is in two fifty-​cent sized pieces stuck on congealed cheese. The bun is so stale that it is crumbling and this «prime» meat is rubbery and tastes like armpit. There is no way in H#LL this thing wasn’t frozen for at least a year unless maybe they made it fresh and then they refrigerated it fully made for a couple of weeks and then microwaved it for serving. I managed to choke down about half the meat patty because I was so hungry by this point.
Remember all those unbussed tables? Not one has been cleaned off. We have dirty dishes piled on three sides of us. The fourth side was saved because it was a wall.
6. I’m not sure how to put this delicately. Montezuma’s Revenge is only supposed to apply to travelers, but apparently they imported it. By the time we left the restaurant, I was feeling a little off. By the time we made the 15 min drive home,. . well, we almost didn’t make it home. Bad cramps and. .. Montezuma. My wife who was with me in the car had the same problem. We live in an apartment with one facility.
Chain restaurants are supposed to have some kind of minimum quality level because everything at all the restaurants is supposed to come out the same. This place is so far below ANYTHING that I have been to in a long time!
DO NOT EAT HERE! Horrible service, terrible food, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the health inspector shut it down.

I’ve visited this particular Ruby Tuesday’s location a few times in the past 2 months and it’s disappointing every time.
First of all, the restaurant has a weird musky smell the second you walk in. You get used to it, but every time I’ve walked in I’ve smelled it. And it’s so dark in there too.
Second, the service here is really odd. I have never seen staff so committed to their cell phones. I don’t think I’ve ever had a server flip their cell out in the middle of taking orders or have it ring/​make a sound when they’re talking to customers. This has happened all three times I’ve eaten here. And 2 out of the three times I’ve had the servers tell me way more about their personal lives than I need to know. No need to tell me how tired you are of working and can’t wait to leave, or how you wish you could be drinking, or having the manager tell me that his assistant manager called out that night because he parties too hard on Thur and Fri nights. Also, I’ve walked in twice for dinner and eventually walked out to go to The Heights because 5 – 10 minutes would pass without anyone sitting us.
The food is exactly what you’d expect for a Ruby Tuesdays, so my main complaints are about the environment and the service. I’ve never seen the place full, so that tells you all you need to know.

If you’re looking for a good, cheap meal in Columbia Heights (and by good I mean tasty, and by cheap I mean reasonably inexpensive) then try this Ruby Tuesday. Whenever I’m in the mood for a quick meal on the cheap in a restaurant that’s clean, in the neighborhood, and with a staff that for the most part is recognizable and pleasant, I go here.
A majority of the time everything that I’ve ordered has come out exactly as I’ve ordered it and is delicious (from the chicken to the ribs to the dessert to the drinks). This is not to say that this particular Ruby Tuesday does not have its issues, namely a staff that is in and out like a revolving door leaving service that is either really very good or really very bad. Sometimes slow, sometimes forgetful, all the time is the staff young.
Bottom line: The food is good, but check your patience at the door with the hosts and the wait staff (the hosts can be snippy – which I do not tolerate, and the staff can be slow on the uptake, which is as painful as a visit to the dentist).
My advice: Always have a back up plan, like a restaurant you can escape to quickly if its an off night. And in the always bustling Columbia Heights, that’s not a tall order to fill.

The food and service here are generally decent. We’ve had some problems with service at the bar, but from what I’ve heard that bartender has since pulled an Elvis and «left the building.» After complaining about some bad service, the management responded appropriately and gave us a couple free appetizers, so that was nice.
The food and appetizers are reasonably priced, and the salad bar is really good (though definitely pricey if you’re not pairing it with a meal). I’d definitely suggest getting a meal, adding the salad bar, and then taking the meal home for another night. The beer is decently priced and their happy hour food and beer specials are pretty good.
As far as taste, you can count on a reasonable chain-​style food. It’s not great, no. If you’re looking for great, go somewhere else. But when I can’t think of somewhere else, or when I want to eat a lot of salad and not pay for a fancy salad, this is definitely my go-​to spot. It’s also a good spot when I just want something that doesn’t require thinking or to sit and have a beer in a low-​key, usually not very busy spot.
So keep your expectations in line and go there knowing what you’re getting yourself into.

So… it’s a chain. Americans love chain restaurants because you are mentally prepared for (and expecting) the same quality of food, ambiance and general familiarity of a dining experience — at any given location.
This Ruby Tuesday’s is obviously a weak link in the chain.
The food is fine but this is THE ABSOLUTE WORST SERVICE in Columbia Heights! Expect your waiter or waitress to leave you alone for 30 minutes at a time, ignore you when your drinks run dry, and get confused about splitting the bill. Also, don’t expect another server to help you out if your server is missing … if you can even find another server. Obviously, you are not his problem.
Oh, and if you wish to pay by credit card, don’t expect to get a pen or anything with which to sign your credit card receipt. After our server slipped away yet again, I ended up signing my receipt with a crayon. Yup, a crayon.
If you want service with a smile you’re better off going to Chipotle.

One of the poorest restaurant experiences of the year! On a Saturday lunch, my party of 6 waited 30 minutes to get our order in a nearly empty restaurant. I’d normally have nothing else to say but the waiter left without taking my order only to return 5 in later, take my order, and show up in another 10 minutes asking me what I ordered again. We waited a good 45 minutes, drinks depleted and no word from our waiter. After our the food came out 2 orders were incorrect and my order didn’t show. After an additional wait I finally got my order and my chicken sandwich was dry and cold.
If lunch is going to take nearly two hours it should be at least good. This experience would require a lot of improvement to get to crappy. Don’t be fooled by the tables available… it’s empty for a reason!

I’ve been to almost all restaurants and cafes in my neighborhood. I passed by Ruby Tuesday almost every other day but never had a meal there. I’m not against big franchise restaurants but I was never interested in Ruby.
Well.. last Thursday was the day when I finally got tired of all restaurants in my neighborhood. I decided to try Ruby Tuesday.
I wanted to order take-​out but I didn’t see any server for good 5 minutes. Finally I went to the bar and a bartender said she could get my order but then she was busy talking to others (regulars or friends. I don’t know). After waiting for her to finish talking and laughing with others for about another 5 minutes, I finally had to call her to order something. While she was taking my order, she couldn’t stop talking and laughing with people at the bar. What a multi-​tasking performance.
Now when the food came out, again she was on the phone and I had to wait another 5 min to pay and get my food.
So, for the service, zero star!
–FOOD: Lobster carbonara has lobster meat. VERY overcooked mushy lobster meat and pasta. Perfect for dog food.
New Orleans seafood was just creamy mushy fish and shrimp.
What a waste …
Again, I am not against franchise restaurant so I regret that I chose Ruby over McDonald’s that happens to be just cross the street from Ruby.
It made me wonder if things would have been better if I were there on Tuesday but then I know it’s just wishful thinking.
PS: What’s worse? I feel like reviewing Ruby Tuesday lowered my bar. Never again!

Great location, disgusting food!
I had their brunch which consisted of three courses for $ 12.99:
1^st course: garlic cheese biscuits. These look great in the picture, but tasted okay. Wasn’t too garlic-​y, which was great. They claim to be made from scratch, but I’m not too sure about that.
2^nd course: berry good yogurt parfait (or a garden buffet for $ 0.99 more). I opted for the garden buffet. Fresh veggies and a wide variety of toppings and dressing. Not too bad. I definitely wasn’t feeling the sun dried tomatoes though that I put on my salad. Gave it a weird taste. Although I could have went back to get more, I chose not to.
3^rd course: bella chicken omelet (grilled chicken, baby portabella mushrooms, and artichoke in creamy spinach sauce with Swiss cheese). Can we say disgusting?! This was the worst omelet I’ve ever had! They advertise these omelets as «light and fluffy», which they were definitely not! My omelet was overcooked and it had waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much creamy spinach sauce. It was basically an omelet with creamy spinach sauce with some large chunks of chicken thrown in there. Ummmmm yeah… digusting! If I wanted to eat pure creamy spinach sauce, I would have ordered that instead.
Service was good, our waitress was attentive. If it wasn’t for good service and the great location, I’d give Ruby Tuesday one star.