+1000% And they make you feel like sh*t if you dare ask for something less than cremated and with no butter....

Sorry about that. One of the best meals of my life there.

Have been there three times. The first time was unspeakably wonderful, the second time equally fabulous, the third time wonderful first three courses but average after that. Have always had the wine accompaniments, and here I think they could improve, rather than offering novelties that the sommelier is rather keen on at this moment in time. Some wines have been superb, others disappointing.

However, I have to say that the service has always been impeccable. (And we have had one private guided tour, a further visit to the kitchen, and a 15-minute conversation with CT himself, plus a number of gifts from him.)

I still think it's good value for money.

I'm going to have to echo everyone's thoughts on Ruth's Chris. When I first saw this thread, I was timid to voice my horrible experience's there, but now I'm amused that everyone agrees that they are nothing extraordinary!

The one meal I had at RC that comes to mind was a Thanksgiving Dinner I had there back in '07 in Seattle. The service was fair, but the food was horrendous -- not even an "OK" rating on my part. It was basically a compilation of your typical thanksgiving dishes (stuffing, potatoes, green beans, etc.) All I remember is that the food was cold, tasteless, and minimal portions.

Had a great meal at Ramsay - but of course it does help if your brother-in-law is a Michelin 1-star chef and knows all the staff there.

I have been going to Rules for 15 years, and have had one bad meal out of about 40.

My two nominations would be

(i) Roy's in Woodland Hills - had the most disgusting meal of my life there - no comparison with the Roy's restaurants in Hawai'i, Monterey and Chicago, which are great - with appalling lighting, food tasting like cardboard, badly-handled wine, rushed service, rude valet parking attendants..... And now, God help me, because I complained I can't get off their mailing list.

(ii) Valentino in the Venetian in Las Vegas. Overpriced, badly-cooked food, a sommelier who argues with you when the wine is corked.....

Agreed. I think they are some sort of remnant of a young country with lots of money, but with a population that wasn't nearly as cultured as that of Europe. Plain lump of steak. They charge you so much for it, but are afraid to actually charge what the meal would really be so sides have to go a la carte. It's like eating at a diner of some kind.

I'll have a plain lump of steak, no sauce because it is American cooking and nobody really knows how to make a full dish, two of the same generic side dishes that every other steakhouse in the country serves and while you're at it, nickel and dime me along the way and charge the more than is needed for everything. Of course my appetizer selection includes a shrimp cocktail, crab cakes, bacon wrapped scallops and lobster bisque and a chocolate lava cake is an option for dessert.

The kinds of people who eat these places normally eat at Applebee's so I guess it is sort of what they expect. I imagine 99% of people on this site wouldn't go to chain restaurants in the first place.

Any MacDonalds, anywhere.

Probably because their kitchen doesn't know how to cook beyond putting a charred layer on the outside of a piece of beef.

One of my London favourites. Been 5-6 times and had consistently fabulous food. Dodgy dining room though.

I loved TFL, but then I'm not a vegan.

On the other hand, the only really worthwhile meal I've ever had at a
Ruth's Chris was at the Crystal City one overlooking DCA; all the others
have been between really lousy (LAS) and decent but nothing to write
home about (IND).

I think most restaurants in the Indianapolis area are very overrated. Hoosiers don't really have very refined palettes. They are easily fooled and mistake quantity for quality. I get so tired of hearing about great places to eat (McAlister's) just to find out you get massive portions of very bland food. Places around here seem to use very cheap ingredients and most everything is poorly seasoned. It has been a long time since I've gone anywhere and thought "wow this stuff is great."

Last bit of really good food I had was lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express in the B concourse at IND.

Curious. I've been that one time only, though. I actually liked the dining room ;-)

My feeling was that it was a very odd attempt at doing Thai dishes using fine dining techniques and accoutrements. I have had much more satisfying Thai meals in Bangkok street kitchens.

I suppose I would describe my impression of Nahm "Calvinist Thai" if that makes any sense at all.

Cheers,
T.

I rarely eat at steakhouses anymore, but the first Ruth�s Chris I ever ate at was in Hawaii on my wedding night. My palate is refined enough to know an average steak from an excellent one. It didn't knock my socks off. However, back here in the Twin Cities, we have eaten there a number of times and I think my medium cooked petite filet is always outstanding. They always do a good job at the MPLS location.

Most overrated I have ever eaten in is Chez Panisse, the temple of California cuisine in Berkeley.

Actually, Chez Panisse consists of two establishments. Upstairs is the Chez Panisse Cafe, with simple fare such as pizzettas and salad.

Downstairs, is the restaurant proper, which only has one prix-fixe menu per night, and which changes every day.

Of course, the founder of Chez Panisse is the legendary Alice Waters, who is credited with creating the California cuisine movement, a movement which eventually changed the way Americans eat.

In this respect, I think it is safe to say that Waters is a seminal figure in the history of American food, perhaps more so even than Julia Childs.

The problem, though, is that the restaurant and cafe, while both highly rated, have always been very, shall we say, basic.

Of course, Chez Panisse has legions of unconditional fans, but almost all will also acknowledge that the food is very basic, bland, and simple.

Ultimately, Chez Panisse is a shrine, where patrons go to pay homage to Alice Waters.

As a restaurant it is nothing special. The Cafe has basic pizzettas, perhaps slightly a cut above your basic California Pizza Kitchen.

In the restaurant, the menu changes every night, and one must usually reserve weeks or months in advance, without knowing what the offerings on that night will be. There are no substitutions or choices allowed. Also, the cost of the prix fixe varies substantially between (these days) $60 and close to $100 per person without wine.

It has often been said that the best dish at Chez Panisse is the salad, and I would tend to agree. After all, Alice Waters, who was a French cultural studies major at UC Berkeley, is mainly credited with originating the notion of using fresh, local ingredients.

I have eaten at the cafe and the restaurant a number of times and I have never felt I had a good meal at either. Food is always bland and quite flavorless. The meats I have had there have often been tough and stringy.

The service can best be described as "Berkeley aloof," not especially professional and oh so aloof.

In my opinion, Chez Panisse is not a restaurant in the classic definition of the term, but instead essentially a grocery store that also prepares food. The ingredients are fresh, wonderful, but like any grocery store, they don't do an especially good job of preparing the food.

I have had better, far more inventive food in dozens of restaurants, including in unlikely places such as the exquisite American Restaurant in Kansas City's Crown Center, where chef Debbie Gold does all the things with local ingredients that Alice Waters' team ought to.

Ultimately, any criticism of Chez Panisse is met with a torrent of contempt, as an unforgivable heresy against the temple of California cuisine and its high priestess, Alice Waters.

Actually, as an homage, or an experience, Chez Panisse is fine, in the same vein as going to Tavern on the Green or Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower, for the experience.

But as a restaurant, it is horrendously overrrated.

The owner and chef is quoted this month in the magazine Bangkok101 as saying he was imitating street food..