[QUOTE=Flutterby]
Where’s Caesar’s? I’ve never heard of it.
Then again I haven’t heard of a lot of restaurants here. I don’t get out much. 
[/QUOTE]
It’s right next to a Mac’s store, I think it’s on 3rd or 4th Avenue. On the South side of the road,
[QUOTE=DMark]
Am I the only one who thinks the name of the business, “Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse” is almost a tongue-twister and hurts my throat to say?
I found learning German easier than saying the name of that business.
[/QUOTE]
IIRC the original concept was called “Chris Steakhouse” but the people who started “Ruth’s Chris” were not allowed to use the “Chris Steakhouse” name.
But yeah, it’s a real tongue twister.
I wasn’t blown away by Ruth’s steak, and for that matter was never blown away by the quality of a Morton’s steak. They were very good, but not fantastic. Their steaks are unquestionably better than what you’d get at TGIFriday’s or most hotel restaurants, but you can find plenty of good steak houses with better steaks and prices. If you’re in a reasonably large city, I assure you you can find a better steak than Ruth’s Chris.
It’s great if you’re being treated 
I always order lamb chops & the creamed spinach - I love it.
VCNJ~
I have to agree with the majority: Ruth’s Chris has good steaks, but you can find better in major cities (like my own). I’ve dined in many high-end steak houses, and now tend to go to Ruth’s Chris only because my brother and father like it. Morton’s and Palm are better; Smith & Wollensky is on par. Even then, I have Peter Luger’s, Wolfgang’s, and Del Frisco at my fingertips, plus a list of other’s I’ve yet to try.
Ruth’s Chris does not “infuse” a steak with butter; they serve it on a extremely hot, buttered plate. The sides are good. I can understand that three surf & turf’s with sides can run over $100 / person, as the lobster costs are very high in these types of restaurants. A lot of high-end steakhouses do the family-style sides. If that isn’t your cup of tea, then you will be dissatisfied with an expensive and usually very good meal.
It is really sad if most people can’t get access to prime at a specialty meat market, and I would think most cities have to have some.
I Love this place.
http://www.cooksfreshmarket.com/groceries_butcher.html
Although Prime Ribeye is over 20$ per pound so it’s still a rare treat.
I used to work on the same block as Ruth’s Chris in downtown Minneapolis. I’ve eaten there twice.
Meh. Way overpriced and absolutely nothing special. Glad I wasn’t paying for it.
Went once in SF. The meat was good, and cooked exactly as requested, but the cheapest cut of meat was ~$45. Most were $60-80. Most of the sides were good, but I remember at least one I wasn’t so fond of.
Eh, overpriced for what you get. (A-minus-minus, would not buy again.)
Flutterby, here’s an idea:
Calgary Dopers hit the Farmer’s Market off Crowchild Trail SW, and get some top-grade Alberta beef steaks. We go back to somebody’s place, and grill them up so they’re done just as we like them.
Then (some days or weeks later) we all hit the Calgary Ruth’s Chris and have their USDA prime steaks. Again, they wil be grilled to order.
Then we compare the Alberta steaks to Ruth’s Chris’ steaks.
I’m not sure what we’ll find but if nothing else, it’s a good excuse for a couple of Calgary Dopefests and great meals at the same time! 
My wife and I ate at a Ruth’s Cris in San Juan,. Puerto Rico, It was pretty good, but there are three or four places locally that have as good or better steak dinners at less than a third of the price.
[QUOTE=anamnesis]
I can go to Ruth’s for a filet, a side, and a bottle of wine for $60 a head, maybe $70 if I decide to splurge with a dessert, so I don’t know what you ordered …
[/QUOTE]
I agree that one doesn’t go to a good steakhouse like Ruth’s or Morton’s or Palm and get a “budget meal”, the whole point is to pay primo prices for primo food that you can’t get yourself or at another, cheaper establishment. If your particular wallet/palate combo doesn’t feel it’s worth shelling out 3x the cost of a steak at Sizzler for the same cut but dry aged, prime grade, and broiled at 1800 degree temperature steak, then by all means, only go when someone else is paying for it 
That said, I find your $70/head cost amazingly low. The steaks alone are $35-40 and that includes no sides or appetizers, much less wine and dessert, and don’t forget the tip. I would expect a tab to run to $100 to $125 a head for a “fine dining” experience along something like the following per capita breakdown:
Appetizer - $10 (could be a salad, or splitting something fancy like tuna tartare)
Steak (the main event) - $35
Half of two side dishes (e.g., spinach and potatoes) - $15
Dessert - $15
Half of a bottle of wine - $25
That’s $100 right there. Add in tax and tip and you’re up to $125 per person.
As for how this can possibly be worth it, and why not grill steaks yourself: I can get dry-aged, prime grade beef at my local butcher, but there’s no way my grill can get up to the broiler temperature without setting the steak on fire. The $35/steak cost is not much of a markup for the meat; dry-aged prime grade beef costs me at least $20/lb. for the cuts they serve at a steakhouse (Porterhouse, Ribeye, NY Strip), and the steaks they serve are generally more than 16 oz. in size! They’re really making a profit on the other parts of the meal (appetizers, desserts, wine, etc.).
I love a good steak, and can grill a good one, if I do say so myself. But sometimes I just gotta splurge and get the really good stuff at a good steakhouse. I admit it’s not a linear scale – I’m not getting 4x the quantity or even necessarily any fourfold increase in some quantified “enjoyment factor” over simply grilling a normal Angus steak on my Weber grill. But it’s a level of enjoyment I can’t get otherwise, and every now and then I just feel I want to indulge.
[QUOTE=askeptic]
YMVs. What is absurd is living in the city where Morton’s started and going to RC.
[/QUOTE]
I ate at the new Mortons in SJ. I came in by myself and was treated like I had leprosy. How dare I want to eat dinner by myself? :rolleyes: (Note that I came in in the early evening so there was no rush). They made me sit in the bar, where I did not get very fast service.
Yes, the steak was tasty. Very. But it came with nothing. It was also twice-3X Outback in price. I gauged it as 25% better than the Outback ribeye, and that comes with salad and side. Not to mention better service. (I judge Outback by my two local Outbacks, I have* heard *others are not as good. ymmv)
Now, I have had very expensive meals. I had dinner for two at the Arcadia in SJ. I had the Cowboy Ribeye, which was more than twice as good as Mortons. Dinner was just under $100 for 2, and I added a $20 tip. The service was *fantastic.
It was without a doubt the best steak I’ve had in a steakhouse since a trip to Japan in the early '60s when 1 USD = 360 Yen and Kobe beef was affordable.
Last year a friend and I went to the (then) new Ruth’s Chris here in Sac, expecting to pay a lot for the steak and vowing to scrimp on the side dishes. We paid $131 for two: steak, asparagus, some potato thing that we shared, 2 Manhattans and tea. We added a tip onto that. Service was exemplary - extremely good looking, attentive, well spoken Sac State students that made the experience even better.
I have no idea what the USDA rating is on their beef, but I’m sure it far surpasses anything I’ve had locally in the past.
A steak meal with fixins’ for two at Outback would have been about $40, at Morton’s about $80-90, if there aren’t too many extras added. (I’m one of those people who can’t spend $10 on a glass of wine when I can buy 2-buck-chuck at Trader Joe’s).
Is this something we can do often? No way! It was however, spectacular, and if you can afford it and are discriminating and can actually taste the difference between beef cuts, do this at least once.
I’m someone who thinks that Outback and Black Angus are perfectly fine. Ruth’s Chris, however, was pretty nearly orgasmic!
I’ve been once to the one here, and we ended up spending about $110-$120 without drinks or tip, so about $150 for a couple would be reasonable. That’s expensive (for us) but not outrageous – something we would do for a special occasion.
I remember the steak was fantastic, but also about on par with other high-end steakhouses around here.
I’ve been to two–one in Detroit and the other in Nashville. Both were good, but the Detroit one was better. The food was a bit better and the service was a lot better, IMHO. We have spent about $100 before tip–that’s a large filet for each of us, 2 side dishes, 1 salad and 1 soda. Well worth it.