The Picky Eater
a different sort of restaurant review

Quick Bytes

From the week of Halloween, 1998

The long-awaited Ruby Tuesday's opened on Chapman Highway and we tried it out the day after the grand opening (which was on a Wednesday--go figure). Clearly they are still shaking out the kinks. There seemed to be LOTS of servers there, but we still had slow service on drink refills and on fresh plates for the salad bar. They also made two mistakes (cooking and condiments) on my burger--the second Ruby's where I've had this happen. I asked for a well-done Wisconsin cheeseburger without the lettuce, tomato and onions and instead got a RARE one WITH all the garden stuff. They were quick to apologize (by the entire management chain--server, trainer, asst. manager) and they offered me a free soup or salad bar to tide me over while I was waiting for them to recook the burger.

I tried the potato-cheese soup and it was tasty (even tho' I don't particulary care for cheese soup). They only brought 2 crackers (1 small packet) with the soup, but eventually brought more when I asked. Meanwhile Andre was still frustrated with the lack of tea refills and extra plates for salad. Ruby's salad bar is heavy on prepared salads (tuna, pasta, bean, etc.) and light on plain ingredients, so it held no attractions for the picky eater but Andre really liked it. Gameboy and I both had cheeseburgers and they are large and quite good (once they are cooked properly). The fries are also okay. The tea wasn't worth the cost--go with soda or stick with water. The dessert (brownie tallcake) looked spectacular, but he was too full to finish it. Andre had no complaints about the quiche. All told our dinner for three was around $30.