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| - As early 90's rapper Tone-Loc once said "Let's do it."
Unless you have spent your first 20 years or so in a subterranean nuclear fall out bunker, odds are you know of Ruth's Chris. The legendary steakhouse is supposedly the final word in steak outside of NYC and Texas. If this is the case then my oh my how the mighty have fallen. I have been to several Ruth's Chris locations around the PA, NY, and NJ area, but the one here in Market Square is truly a disappointment.
When I go to a real steakhouse, like Peter Luger's, or the Old Homestead, or any other Ruth's Chris location I have visited, I expect to pay top dollar for top dollar steaks. I will never complain about the price so long as I feel as if the quality and quantity of food as well as the dining experience I recieve is fair in proportion to what I pay. The cheapest steak in the M2 Ruth's Chris will run you about thirty dollars. Normally, this would not be a problem had the establishment lived up to its reputation. Sadly, however, they did not.
First, let's start with the decor. Ruth's Chris is a chain, first and foremost. That being said all locations are going to have the same basic look: old wood, magnum wine bottles, white tableclothes and red walls. I expect this sort of thing in a steakhouse. They are the last holdouts from the old industrial capitalist era. I feel as if I were to walk in, I might see Andrew Carneghie or John Rockefeller sitting at the bar discussing how unffair anti-trust legislation is.
Continuing with the bar, Ruth's Chris offers a fantastic wine selection that has a pleasant mixture of affordable, yet quality, choices as well as a few that would cost me six months' rent. They also have a decent coctail menu, no doubt created by a corporate mixologist, that I must say is good. My girlfriend is not a fan because she can actually taste the alcohol in the majority of the concoctions, but I think that is a good thing. The bar is about the only place where you get the quality for the money you are spending.
The most dissappointing aspect about my last few visits have been the steaks. Ruth's Chris is known for basting their steaks in butter, which I do like. Fat is deliscious and that is proof enough for me that we are meant to eat it. This is where the goodness ends. On my second to last visit, a member of my party was served a rancid steak. The server tried to say it was dry-aged, but dry-aging does not produce a metallic, green beef. On my most recent visit, I was served a filet mignon that was tough. I have no idea how they were able to serve a tough portion of the least used muscle on the cow, but they did.
All of this brings me back to the service. I understand you are working in a fine dining, expensive steakhouse. I get that you throw down $300 plust dollar checks thirty or so times a night. I get that you are on first name basis with the Pens, Bucs, and Steelers that call themselves your regulars. That does not make me chop liver. I feel that if you are not wearing at least $3,000 worth of clothes or accessories, the staff will basically ignore you.
The saving grace to the place would be the bar and decor I already mentioned, and the sides. Ruth's Chris, like most fine dining establishments runs an a la carte menu. The sides are usually very very good. I like the sauteed mushrooms, sauteed spinache, lyonaise potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and the wedge salad.
All in all, this place gets a two in my book. I think that this is kind of sad given the fact that I was hoping to give them a five, but the quality of the food compared to what you pay just is not up to standard. For $250 I can feed and booze six friends at my house instead of me and my girlfriend at Ruth's Chris.
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