Ruth's Chris Steak House, Arlington, Virginia Restaurant Details

Food:

Great view but value is very poor. They did do a nice job acknowledging a celebration (graduation) dinner with cute table decorations and a free dessert but the rest of the dinner was not what it should have been at RC prices.

Wait staff was inconsistent in their coverage and questioned a little too much when a steak was returned for being overdone. A group of 4 of ordered steaks - 3 of the 4 were overdone (2 ordered medium, 1 overdone, 1 OK; the other 2 were ordered rare). One was sent back after the waiter almost tried to talk us into keeping it (something about the lighting making look more well done than it really was). The redone steak was perfect. I am wondering if the wait staff was slow in bringing the steaks out the first time and they overcooked on the hot plates after coming out of the kitchen.

All said and done, we were $400 into a dinner for 4 that I make at home for $75-90. I didn't mind spending the $ for a celebration dinner but at that cost it should be nearly flawless.

Food:

Mostly a disappointing meal for 6. The steaks were great except one was over cooked and one was totally forgotten. I made the mistake of ordering the sea bass which was ok but had way too much butter or coconut oil as the sweet potato/pineapple hash was practically submerged. The salads had far too much dressing. The calamari and the lobster mac and cheese were very good. The cauliflower was too hard as were the brussel sprouts; charred but raw. Mashed potatoes lacked buttery taste and were bland. Creme brulee was so firm and had starchy feel in mouth. True creme burlee has no starch added to make it set and has a velvety, creamy texture....this was not even close. Too much $$ to walk away with any disappointment.

Food:

I'm a fan. I didn't have a reservation and was told it would be a 10 minute wait for 2 people at 8 PM on a Thursday night- which was weird. So I chose to sit at the bar.

Luckily there was a very talented bar tender. He was incredibly attentive and helpful.

I recommend the appetizers:
Veal Parmesan, RC Chopped Salad (it has bacon!)
Meal:
Crab Cakes- nice size, 3 of them! Full of real crab meat less "cake"
Salmon with crab over top of sweet potato and pineapple - AMAZING

The restaurant itself was slightly older as far as carpeting, chairs, and overall decor. There are some great views here of DC and the river. The food beats The Prime Rib in my opinion, on par with Joe's. However for service and decor The Prime Rib and Charlie Palmer would beat it.

Valet is 5$.

Food:

Excellent Happy Hour with a great view. Menu choices on the Happy Hour menu for both food and drinks are good values. Cocktails are well-crafted.
Not on the Happy Hour menu, but worth it - the Lobster mac 'n' cheese, which is one of the best I've tasted.

The service was inconsistent - attentive at first, then less so as the place filled up. The server got our checks wrong (but we sorted it out ourselves as we didn't want to wait another 10 minutes for them to change them).

Food:

I've been twice with a group for a cocktail party and once for dinner with the family. The service for both group cocktail experiences was extremely slow. I was served about one drink per hour, waited for an hors d'oeuvre for 30 min, and had to track down the server on a couple of occasions. Fortunately, the dinner experience was great. Service was very good, and food prep was top notch. The server paired a great glass of wine with my dinner.