Address: 369 East Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101 (Ruth’s Chris is actually pretty well known and has a bunch of locations, I’m sure you can find one near you if you’re not in the 626!)
Parking: We did street parking because we weren’t sure where to park. (I should’ve done the research, I know, but that’s why I’m using my experience to help you!) Now that I’m preparing this post, I found parking information on their website: “We have valet parking available at our front door for $10. Paid parking is available at the garage on Union Street. Street parking is available but limited.”
Expense: $11 – $136 (this excludes drinks and any seasonal/special courses)
Dress code: I dressed business casual but found some customers wearing casual clothing. Later, I read that it’s acceptable as long as it doesn’t look inappropriate.
Ruth’s Chris has an interesting story of how they started out. In 1965, Ruth Fertel took a gamble and bought “Chris Steak House”. Almost a decade after being bought, the restaurant was destroyed in a terrible fire. After trying to reopen the restaurant, Ruth couldn’t reopen under “Chris Steak House” and decided to name it “Ruth’s Chris Steak House”. From there, the first franchise opened and the rest of it is history.
My boyfriend and I have heard a lot of good things about Ruth’s Chris, so we were excited to try it for our anniversary. Making a reservation for them wasn’t hard since our anniversary is a few weeks before Thanksgiving. But I do recommend booking one anyways so they can prepare for your special occasion.
Let me set the mood:
You’re walking into Ruth’s Chris with your significant other for your anniversary, and they tell you to have a seat in the lounge as they prepare your table. Once they’re ready, they walk you into another room a little more secluded for the two of you. You have a seat and they lay down two types of menus for you. One of them is a customized menu wishing you and your significant other “Happy Anniversary”. They ask if you would like some extra decorations on the table for a small charge (I want to say it was like $1 or something). You say yes, and they sprinkle tiny hearts and happy anniversary confetti all over your table, then leave you two so you can check out the menu.
You browse their menu looking to see where you want to start. You find that they have a Prix fixed menu that includes a starter, an entree, a personal side, and some dessert. Perfect. So let’s dive in and see what we got and how we like it, shall we?
Drinks
Blueberry Mojito: 10/10, you can’t go wrong with a mojito
Raspberry Cosmo: He rated it as a 2/10 because he hates cough syrup. I personally rate it 4/10 because it wasn’t bad, but it did taste like cough syrup though.
Starters
Caesar Salad: We felt like you can’t go wrong with a caesar salad. 10/10
Lobster Bisque: We’ve never really had lobster bisque before, but I ordered it because I like tomato bisque so we tried it. But I’d rate it overall 5/10, it wasn’t my cup of tea.
Entrees
Surf & Turf (x2): Buttery cold water lobster tail paired with a 6 oz filet. We paid extra to upgrade it to a 16 oz Ribeye steak because we felt like 6 oz is tiny.
Steak: We’d give it a 7/10. Even though it was on their “famous hot plate”, the steak was a little cold in the middle, and it was rare when we asked for a medium-rare.
Lobster Tail: We’d give it an 8/10, it was good, but a little too buttery for us.
Sides: Garlic Mashed Potatoes: If you know me, you know I love mashed potatoes. 12/10
Dessert: Chef’s Seasonal Selection — in our case, we got bread pudding. It was so good. 11/10.
For our anniversary treat, they gave us more free bread pudding and champagne, leaving us with an overall rating of 9/10 for our first time.
