First off, the interior of Jeff Ruby's is gorgeous. The decor is art deco with classical statuary here and there breaking up the lines. On the east wall is a huge mural (you can see a bit in the background here) of movie stars, starlets, waiters, and diners in a highly stylized, period-appropriate design. The restaurant is awash in brilliant colors (a small glimpse can be seen here) and rich woodwork.
The wait staff attended us in black slacks and matching, signature embroidered shorter-cut waiters jackets, white shirts, and simple black ties, and they were - to a man - efficient, personable, and spectacular. When The Girl left her purse at the table at the end of our meal, one of the waitstaff (not our waiter, the guy who filled our water glasses, swept up the crumbs after the main course, and was downright hilarious) came running down the street with her purse. Heck, I probably would've given the service a perfect ten before that, but that's worth a bonus point.
Our waiter went through a fairly extensive selection of specials - bison in two forms, a particular steak topping named the Collinsworth (asparagus, crab, some sauce) - and recommended a few items on the menu then headed off to let us make our decision. While we deliberated - wow, maybe the strip for me, huh? - our future street runner brought us a fashionable basket of bread options. All were tasty and fresh without being sticky. He also left us a butter pat of plain salted butter and a compound butter of wild mushrooms. The Girl liked the mushroom butter, but I found it a bit too earthy for my tastes.
When we put our menus down, our waiter popped right over to take our orders:
- The Girl
- Freddie salad
- New York Strip, medium rare - ChemGuy
- Tiffany salad with vinaigrette
- New York Strip, medium rare - To share
- potatoes anna
- green beans sauteed in garlic and shallots
- Mac Daddy and Cheese with six cheeses
The Tiffany salad was excellent with a strong basil flavor in the vinaigrette. The tomatoes are starting to approach high summer, so that's always a strong addition. In all, the flavors were well balanced and fresh with a nice mix of field greens and slightly bitter lettuces. I did, admittedly, pass the radishes along to The Girl's plate.
The Girl's Freddie salad was simple and well received. She got the Freddie at Carlo & Johnny's as well, but this time she forgot to ask for the dressing on the side. For her, that meant far too much dressing. Were I eating it, however, it would have been just about right. Her salad tasted just like a deconstructed BLT should taste - fresh, crisp, flavorful, and rich with bacon. Both salads were excellent and almost exactly the same as the offerings at Carlo & Johnny's.
When the main dishes arrived, our table required a fair bit of rearranging as we had more then enough food for the two of us and the room accorded us on our table for two. Our waiter helped us shift things around - insisting, kind of entertainingly, on where each dish had to go in order to fit all of our dishes - each of which came on an individual plate.
The steaks that arrived were, however, outstanding. They were perfectly red in the center and a rich brown-black on the top and bottom. The plates were marked with a bit of orange-red juice, partially blood and partially fat mixed with the spices that lightly topped each steak. This small bit of spicing took what was an excellent steak and shifted it up a bit to thoroughly outstanding. The Girl felt the spice mix had just a bit too much salt, but I didn't think so as the slight sharpness offset the richness of the meat marvelously. (The Girl, by the way, chose the NY Strip at the recommendation of our waiter who affirmed that the filet was the filet - we all know the cut (his words) - but the strip here is outstanding. He was right.)
To me, this was a perfect steak. To The Girl, it could have been a little more lightly salted.
The side dishes, however, were a more mixed bag. The Mac Daddy & Cheese (I swear that's what the menu said.) was far too rich with its six combined cheeses, half of which appeared to be added at the end before the dish headed under the broiler. The crust atop the dish was excellent, but the combination of all the cheese was too rich by far.
The green beans were outstanding with a bit of salt flavoring them well in addition to the slightly browned garlic and shallot slivers. These were similar - though not quite identical - to the green beans offered at Carlo & Johnny's.
The potatoes Anna were recommended by Cincinnati Magazine, and they appeared perfectly golden, quartered by our waiter before he set them on our crowded table. We differed on our opinions of the dish. I enjoyed the crisp crust and well cooked interior but looked for more flavor - salt and pepper, even - from the interior in particular. The Girl appreciated the simplicity of the dish as a contrast to the rich, flavorful steak.
With such a grotesque amount of food, neither of us felt the need to finish any of the dishes. So the waiters got to wrap up half of each of our steaks and a goodly portion of all the side dishes. We could easily have gotten away with a single steak and just two side dishes - something that we've found at nearly ever good steakhouse on our list and something that we'll likely be doing if we head back to any of the restaurants after finishing up the initial rankings.
With no appetizers to tempt us - seriously, what's with every appetizer being somehow fish- or crustacean-based? - we opted for a dessert instead. The Girl leaned, as always, toward the crème brûlée but gave me the final choice, so we got the key lime pie to split. The pie filling was rich and slightly too tart by itself, but the crust provided a brown sugar-cinnamon flavor and crunch that balanced the filling perfectly, particularly when the whipped cream was spread across the entire top. A great finish to an outstanding meal.
Do we have a new leader, folks? I think we just might.
- Salad/Dessert/
Appetizer- 9 - Excellent salads, very good dessert. - Steak - 9.5 - A solid 10 from ChemGuy, a 9 from The Girl averaged out.
- Side dishes - 7.5 - Total rankings get averaged here again (Mac 6&6, Beans 8.5&9, Potatoes 6&8)
- Atmosphere - 10 - Right there with our best yet and without the schmutz that C&J's had all over the place.
- Cost - 3 - Things were a bit pricey, but we over ate by at least one side dish.
- Service - 10 - Great stuff, very friendly and attentive.
- Bonus - +1 - They ran down the street after us.
- Total score - 50 (out of 60)
Realistically, neither of us thought it was that far above Embers (5 points is a huge lead.), but we both agreed that this was our best meal yet.
Summarizing things so far...
- Jeff Ruby's - 50 (of 60)
- Embers - 45
- Carlo & Johnny's - 44.5
- Celestial - 44.5
- Mitchell's - 44.5
- The Palm - 41.5
- Oakwood Club - 40
- Jag's - 38.4
- Red - 38
- Pine Club - 37.5
- Boi na Braza - 35
- Guenther's - 30
6 comments:
Just FYI, you gave Ruby's an extra .5 in the total rankings... I don't want the competition to be unfair here.
Thanks for catching that, CMorin. It's all fixed up now.
if you're looking for a Ruth's Chris, we have one here in Cary NC. Perhaps while you are here???
Just want to point out that the Jeff Ruby in Louisville is better then yours... cause ours made national headlines. :) See ya soon Lon!
If you choose the Ruth's Chris in Louisville and would like dinner companions, Meg and I would be happy to join you all. Loved it the last time we went.
THort - obviously, we'll take you up on that offer.
CoachSullivan - maybe Jeff Ruby's in Louisville?
Ame - just because the owner got all puffed up and made a scene doesn't make the restaurant better.
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