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| - The story of Ruth Fertel is a remarkable one if you ever wanted to learn about it. Ruth's has a loyalty program that gives you 10% of your purchase back which is good for 90 days. I get it, it's an incentive to return and restrictive since you need to use it before your points expire.
Recently Ruth's offered a Black Friday/Cyber Monday promo that if you were to purchase up to 250 dollars of gift cards which come in 50 dollar denominations that we would receive up to 125 dollars in loyalty points. That's a lot considering you normally get 10% on any other given time but for this promotion they're basically offering 50% (125 on a 250 purchase). That's substantial and attractive and I ended up going with that and purchased 250 dollar's worth of gift cards on Nov 24th. The promo said to allow for 8-9 business days before receiving the cards through the mail.
I was glad that the gift cards came before I had planned to use them which was just this past weekend (December 9th). I had made an online reservation the same day I purchased the gift cards. The restaurant is visible from the street near the north west intersection of Dixon and Carlingview in Etobicoke which is basically as far west you can go and still be inside Toronto. If you were go west about 500 feet towards the Hilton on the same side of the street you'd be in Mississauga at that point. This location is new as Ruth's "moved" from their previous location near Square One to this place which is essentially part of the grounds of the Holiday Inn.
There's a parking system in place but the restaurant will validate parking for their customers and there's even dedicated ground level parking past the ticket gate as well through the structure and towards the restaurant, there's a sign stating that space beyond "this point" is reserved for Ruth's Chris customers.
Ruth's entrance faces the hotel's main entrance which is the north side of the building, not directly attached to the hotel. The check in area is through the doors on the right. The décor is very modern with brighter and different colored lighting. While the Hilton location downtown has a much more old school, big booth, classic wooden wall - library feel to it, this place really does seem to feel more flashy and new. They are newly opened and the place isn't the downtown location which has been there for longer. The Toronto airport location is just that, different.
The service is rather impressive however. Between arriving, being seated, drinks, dessert and mains served, food brought out, sides being served, parking validation, loyalty card points added and payment we must have interacted with at minimum half a dozen team members.
Besides a wine menu there's a cocktail menu in the main menu at the back. Otherwise the menu is laid out with apps and salads on the first page and then options for steaks on and other mains following. I noticed that they didn't happen to have the satay sticks like they do downtown but we ended up going with the sizzling crab cakes and the heirloom tomato salad to start.
For mains I went with the cowboy ribeye which is a bone in version (22 oz) while the wife went with the regular filet (11 oz) cuts that we ordered medium. The server warns that the plate will be a hot 500 degrees when it comes and knowing that the steaks still will continue to cook a bit afterwards considering the residual heat. The family style sides we chose to go with were the cremini mushrooms, lobster mac and cheese, and creamed spinach which were all good. The mac and cheese is larger than the other two serving trays and was good enough for the 3 of us and we had leftover as well.
The meat is high grade while the quality and cooking method is special. 1800 degree broilers and the experience to cook with that much heat with these cuts is something you have to master if you have a name to live up to and gladly they do. Considering the average for a steak here is around 75 dollars, one would expect this to be something special and I have to say I believe it to be that.
This place does make some of the best tasting steaks I've had and it's that something special that would have me coming back for more. Regardless of the contrasting ambiance and menu differences you get from the downtown Toronto location and this airport location the quality of the food to me is the same. The steaks we had ordered were both very different cuts but done perfectly. My wife and friend both said they were the best they've had and I'd also have to agree.
Between Morton's and Ruth's, I prefer Ruth's. While they're both different with some similarities , I just like the way Ruth's cooks their steaks while their sides are very complimentary.
The area we were in was preparing for a large party and instead of being rushed out, one of the servers offered us a complimentary cocktail at the bar but I had said we were leaving anyway. For the validated ticket, feed it into the machine, don't scan.
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