For several years we’ve been customers at the RC here in San Diego. Last few visits the service, and now the food seems to have dropped a notch. Various sites on the web claim revenue is down, which might be the culprit. Anyone heard or know anything about this? How would one find out the facts?
Here’s the financials for the parent company, Ruth’s Hospitality Group Inc. (RUTH):
I don’t know if that’s good, bad, or baseball, but there are more numbers at the end of the link.
More to the point, I’m not sure that the parent company beginning to tank would necessarily lead to worse service at the little minion restaurants.
Worse food and worse availability of food, perhaps, but it isn’t like they get their waitstaff shrink-wrapped and ready to microwave direct from the mothership.
A friend is a regular at the local Garden City, Long Island branch. He hasn’t been since this theft of $230K was reported. I’ll be interested if his visit shows any changes from previous.
Moved to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
This seems to be a common trajectory of a LOT of restaurant chains. Eventually, they start getting lousier and eventually the whole chains goes out of business.
There used to be a chain of smorgasbord-style restaurants called Smorga Bob’s. They used to be quite good, I thought. Then, over a period of some years, some of the branches disappeared and those left became noticeably cruddier. Finally, they were all gone.
I’m seeing that happen now with another smorgasbord-style chain, Hometown Buffet. In the last few years, I’ve been to several of them and they seem to be doing downhill. How much longer will this chain be around?
There was a chain of all-you-can-eat salad-bar restaurants called Fresh Choice. I don’t recall ever noticing them going downhill, but one day the entire chain just went out of business and vanished, and all their locations closed. The one in Modesto has been vacant for several years now, not even rented out to some other restaurant. The place must be cursed.
I don’t visit them often enough to perceive the trend…but I hope they can turn it around, 'cause I really like them.
The “Souplantation” chain has recently put a big chunk of money into refreshing and renewing their restaurants, so they may have staved off a similar kind of fate…at least for a while.
I think Souplantation is the same chain as Hometown Buffet, just operating under a different name in a different region. I really like Hometown Buffet too. I mean, I used to really like eating there. Last few times I’ve eaten there over the last 2 years or so, in two different cities, not so much.
Not that I can see. Hometown Buffet is Ovation Brands, whereas Souplantation is Sun Capital Partners, which owns a number of other restaurants (and other chains) but not Hometown Buffet or Ovation Brands that I can see.
There are both of them not too far apart in the L.A. area, so the presence of one doesn’t seem to exclude the presence of the other. I’ve never been to Hometown buffet, but I’ve been to Souplantation. It seems to be a different kind of appeal.
I’ve noticed this with one-of-a-kind restaurants around here. They start off pretty good and they quickly become popular. Then it seems as if they decide to coast on their reputation until they cease to exist or they become a distant memory of what they were. There are 2 local Chinese buffets that were fairly decent, and now they’re just barely mediocre - I’ve quit patronizing either of them.
There are a couple of other buildings which have housed a variety of restaurants over the last 10 years - one just recently died again, and the other reopened a few months back, but it doesn’t seem to be doing well. I don’t know if it’s the same owners with different themes, or a string of unlucky/inexperienced/naive owners. I know the restaurant business can be tough, but the food and the service can make or break any venture, and it seems when one declines, the other isn’t far behind on the slide. No matter how nice your decor or how trendy your menu, it’s all about a good meal presented by an attentive and competent server.
I suspect buffets are a separate case, since they’re squeezed between offering many items (with a high level of waste) and their appeal to budget-minded patrons.
I’ve noticed the same effect with grocery stores. A new grocery store is built and it is all new, brightly lit, clean, with good service. As the years go on, it is almost never renovated, it slowly gets darker, and it employs fewer and fewer people. Soon it is closed and becomes a shell in the center of a dying strip mall. It will probably be turned into a call center or an extension office of some online university.
But don’t worry! A bright new grocery store will opened down the street and start the process over again.
Ruth’s Chris was never really that good, to begin with.
OOPS, you’re right. I was thinking of Sweet Tomatoes, a still-living buffet salad-bar that is indistinguishable from the late lamented Fresh Choice. Souplantation is the same company as Sweet Tomatoes. It’s a much smaller chain, with far fewer restaurants than Fresh Choice had.
Hey, come on, now. Let’s not go there.
I agree. My wife and I have tried them three times in different locations. The food was definitely not worth the money.
Of course, I live in Omaha…
I know nothing about Ruth Chris in particular, but I do know that beef prices have been on the rise over the past couple of years. Couple that with an improving economy, especially among the higher income classes probably means a greater demand for higher end restaurants. That could affect service quality as waiters move from restaurant to restaurant.
I have friends that are chef and cook at a RC. Very high standards in the kitchen. I always get the filet Mignon, and I have noticed it is not as tender as it used to be. If they are no longer getting the excellent prime steaks that they did, and I cannot say because I do not know, that would explain it. But I find the service to be perfect and the food quite excellent, with the exception of not as super tender as it used to be.
I was only there once and was very underwhelmed. I have had much better steaks for far less money.
They opened one in Santa Barbara and put a ton on money into it. It was a very ill conceived idea. This town is too small to support it and they chose a really stupid location. They also had the poor luck to open at the start of the last recession. It didn’t last very long and the space is still empty.