Ruby Tuesday
http://www.rubytuesday.com/menu.asp
Recently, as a way of differentiating themselves in the fast casual market, Ruby Tuesday has started serving brunch. In this brunch, you get four courses:
1. Made from scratch biscuits.
2. Berry Good Yogurt Parfait (you can substitute the Fresh Garden Bar for 99 cents).
3. Entree of your choice (options include omelets, eggs benedict, etc.) served with brunch potatoes.
4. Gourmet Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies (you can change the cookies to a slice of cheesecake for $2.99).
Since I was feeling like a little something different, I decided to check it out.
What I Got: Spinach & Mushroom Omelet with Fresh Garden Bar substituted for Berry Good Yogurt Parfait $11.98.
Let’s just address these in order.
1. Biscuits: I’ve never been a huge fan of biscuits because you rarely go to a place where they are done correctly, so I’ve basically just given up on them. Usually you end up with something that is hard or overly dry and flaky. Ruby Tuesday’s biscuits were the latter and really unappealing. I tried putting butter on them to make them a little bit more palatable and they just crumbled in my hands as I was trying to spread the butter. Not cool.
2. Fresh Garden Bar (substitute for Yogurt Parfait): I love the Fresh Garden Bar. Lettuce salads, pasta salads, potato salads, etc. In all honesty, it is one of the few reasons to go to Ruby Tuesday and every time I go, which isn’t often, I end up just gorging myself with multiple trips up there since it has so many delicious items.
3. Spinach & Mushroom Omelet: This omelet included spinach and mushrooms (obviously) along with feta cheese (MMMM…). There’s not really you can say about an omelet unless it is overly bad or overly good. This one was just middle of the road and if it didn’t have the saltiness of the feta cheese to add a little flavor, it probably would have been a bad omelet. It was cooked fine, but was just mostly bland. As you can see from my picture though, that didn’t stop me from devouring it and nearly forgetting to take a picture of it. Hey, what can I say, I was very hungry and it’s one of the perils of being a food blogger…sometimes you eat too much before you remember to get the camera out (I had already devoured the potatoes). As for the brunch potatoes (think fried potatoes in a cube shape), they were actually pretty good and had more flavor than the omelet. They were crunchy, salty and delicious.
One little gripe here though: I LOVE ketchup on my eggs (I even scraped some off for the picture so that you could see that there was actually an omelet under there) and also on potatoes and all they brought me was a little side of ketchup. I asked for them to just bring me the bottle of ketchup so that I could slather my food in it, but all they brought me was a little side again. Seriously?! Is there a ketchup shortage or something that is making Ruby Tuesday ration ketchup? Losers.
4. Chocolate Chip Cookies: I have a bit of a problem with chocolate chip cookies or cookies in general. Specifically, I can’t stop eating them because I love them too much (I gave them up for Lent because I have a bit of a problem when I’m around them and had gotten out of control recently). So, when they nearly forgot to bring these to me (I had to flag down a different server), they nearly had a riot on their hands.
Anyway, personal preferences aside, I refuse to refer to them as “gourmet” because I really don’t know why they would be classified as that. I’ll never complain when someone gives them to me, but calling these gourmet was like putting lipstick on a pig…it’s still a pig, no matter how much you dress it up. Regardless of calling them gourmet or not, these cookies were small but fairly tasty. The chocolate chips on the inside were still gooey, so they were obviously fresh, but the cookie batter was slightly overcooked and they were a bit crunchier than I’m sure they would have intended. Still, anytime anyone brings me a cookie, I’m a happy man.
Would I Buy It Again? At these prices, no way. The omelet was the cheapest thing on the menu and when you add in the garden bar extra charge and a drink ($2.29 for a watered down Diet Coke! Unreal.), this meal was well over $15.50 (without tip) and that is way too much to spend at a fast casual restaurant where you are just going to get a middle of the road meal. It’s not like the meal was bad, it just wasn’t notable in any way (not including the garden bar) and that is prohibitive in my mind. I just wish they would allow you to substitute the garden bar for the biscuits because I saw the Parfait at other tables and it looked delicious.
In the future when going to Ruby Tuesday and for the sake of my wallet, I’ll just stick to the the Turkey Minis (see my prior review, there are things there that are actually tasty) or the fresh garden bar…
-IndianapolisEater
Tags: Breakfast, brunch, chocolate chip cookies, Food, omelet, potatoes, Ruby Tuesday, salad bar
Their brunch may suck, but they remain the only restaurant that I know of whose name originates in a Rolling Stones song. I just thought that was worth mentioning. I’m with you on the salad bar though – whenever anybody mentions that place, that’s my comment “They’ve got a really good salad bar.”
I went to RT for lunch, pretty lame. Not in a rush to get back, they are trying too hard to be modern. I find their restaurants to be a lot nice than Applebee’s, but the food at all of the mid range chain places is pretty underwhelming. However, I like the salad bar option for about a $2.50 add on.
Dude…what is going on with the ketchup on that omelet? Try salsa, same tomato flavors, but a ton better for you.
Btw, notice the squares in the middle of the cookies. That is break and bake action…totally lame.
You lost me at Ruby Tuesday + brunch…
I am in love w/ their salad bar.
@wibia: Not a big fan of salsa on eggs. Plus, with as much as they rationed the ketchup, I’m sure I would have had to pass a background check to get salsa.
I know brunch equals breakfast + lunch. But honestly, in my head it just means “I was too lazy to get up for breakfast, so I’m just going to call lunch brunch, and have the same breakfast items.”
So a salad bar, chocolate chips cookies, and diet Coke completely lost me! LOL
They didn’t bring you the bottle of ketchup?! It’s a hamburger place!
Agree with WIBIA but far more radical. Ketchup on eggs is ridiculous.
Never tried ketchup on eggs. I’ll have to try it sometime. My favorite way to cook eggs? Melt a golfball size clump of butter in a pan. Add one drained 15 oz can of diced tomatos ( I use unsalted), cook until slightly thick. add four large eggs and SOFT scramble. add black pepper and serve on 2 slices buttered toast. Serves two, or one really hungry person. Sounds terrible, looks like its already been eaten once, and tastes great. Add a little can of drained sliced mushrooms to the tomatos if you want to be fancy. and I drink diet soft drinks because the regular ones are too sweet for my taste, not for weight control.Guess thats why I like unsweet tea, water, Or beer ….
Why even eat the eggs if cannot taste them? There is no worse food smell than steaming eggs slathered in ketchup. If I was sitting at the table next to you, I would have requested a new table elsewhere. Combine that with soggy asparagus in the middle of that mess and I am not sure how you got more than 1 bite down.
The cookie squares make me not want to ever go back to Ruby Tuesday. How hard is it to make some homemade cookies that they can actually be proud of serving? When I found out Noble Romans used microwave lasagna back in the 90′s I never went back there again either.
All gourmet means to me, is that I’m going to pay more, get less, and it’ll be served on a fancy plate. Two terms I hate, when it comes to food, is gourmet and bistro. They mean nothing more than overpriced and trendy to me. that being said, those cookies hardly look gourmet, and I have to question if any cookie can be called as such.
As for Ruby Tuesdays, they do have a good salad bar, but beyond that, they have nothing that makes me want to ever go back. I’ve never had anything there that made me go “wow”.
As a Ruby Tuesday server, I can tell you that we don’t have bottles of ketchup anywhere at all…in the back there is a large metal pump and we fill ramekins with ketchup . Bottles of ketchup (or bottles of any sauce for that matter) are apparently too casual for us.
However, I will agree with anyone who said that the brunch has strange options..definitely not the healthiest. And I can tell you that Ruby’s was expecting it to take-off like a rocket and it hasn’t.
My 90 years old wife and I went to our loval RT’s and we split a rack of ribs. The menu said a side salad with an entree was $2.95 so we both ordered a side salad. She also asked if we wanted anything on our baked potato and we said butter and cheese would be nice.
Our bill had one side salad at $2.95 and the other salad was billed at $8.95. (One one allowed per entree and we were’nt told) Then a .50 charge for condements on our potato. (It’s extra if you actually want something on it.) We had a 25% off couple and had NO drinks. Our bill was $27 for two seniors sharing a meal with a salad. Outrageous. I’ve been penciled whipped here before when we ordered to wines and a mixed drinki and ended up costing over $25 so never again for this old man.
I agree with the consensus that RT is middle of the road food wise, but a lot of people here in CT must not agree. My husband and I get BOGO coupons in our e-mail occasionally and when we try to use them on a week-end, forget about it- the lines are always way out the door- and personally even for 1 meal free or $10 off, the food is not that wonderful for me to wait more that maybe 25-30 min. BTW we did try the breakfast when they first started it and as you say it was adequate- think we had a coupon for that too- and yeah I think we had to remind our server about giving us the cookies too.
The biscuits ae the worst.To be so small,they have too much garlic in them.They need to get a tip from Red Lobster.They are either too hard or not done enough also.
They didn’t bring you a bottle of ketchup cause they don’t use bottles. We have one giant despenser. I work at a RT. Let me just say that if you ever go and have a bad meal, LET THE SERVER KNOW. Please. We do try our best to make eveyone enjoy their trip. If anything goes wrong I would grab my manager and let them know. The manager could do anything from buy your meal to buy you desert or give you a coupon. As for the biscuts, well it is sometimes a toss up. If the person makes them right we have a hard time keeping them in stock. They ARE made from scratch and cooked fresh all day long…as I learned one night when all I did was make biscuts. Lol but most often they are so delicous I admit I sneak one away when I get a chance haha. As for the food, sure its a little pricy, but I often find myself craving Ruby’s food. The smokehouse burger is my favorite, along with broccoli chicken pasta, and the chicken fresco. If you’re going to ruby Tuesday…don’t get a soda. Not because it isn’t good, but because we have THE BEST non alc drink menu out there. Hand crafted Flavored teas and lemonaids, strawberry, raspberry, mango, peach, pomegranete, blackberry, and mixed berry. And did I mention free refills? On all of the non alc drinks too. I only named half of that list. Anyway…I would encourage people to give Ruby’s a second chance, we try our hardest! Also, undersand that (almost) anything is possible. Want those fries without sea salt? No prob! Want water without ice? Lots? You got it! Light seasoning? No seasoning? We can do it. Just remember if you give a complicated order, be nice and leave us a tip. We don’t make enough per hour to spend time and energy on a table that leaves us $2. So if you read all of this, or any of it lol, thank you for taking your time. And I hope I’ll be seeing you soon for a delicous meal at ruby Tuesday!