I fell in love with Ruby Tuesday’s the first time I went there. Great burgers, though very expensive ($9.95 each) and the Asian chicken dumplings with spicy ginger peanut sauce are out of site. The ribs with Jack Daniels sauce were excellent, fell off the bone. Service was friendly, warm, and professionally quick and attentive.

I felt so pleased, we would return there quite often, drawn in by happy, attentive faces and consistent, great food, and the savory delight of huge chicken bites in dumpling wrappers covered to perfection with peanut sauce that lit up my mouth and senses with fresh, bright, delight. Burgers, thick and juicy, cooked to your personal preference with crispy fries are the pinnacle of the big burger anywhere in the country. They are almost emotionally moving when they come out of the kitchen properly. Pick your meat; Bison, beef, turkey, crab, etc; pick your cut; rib eye, sirloin, etc; pick your cheese, you can pick almost anything you want on your burger here. That’s enough about picking. (and just a note here, don’t believe the hype about Red Robin; they can’t touch a well presented and properly cooked Ruby’s burger and are not much bigger than a Big Mac for about the same price as Ruby’s, way less value, not as good and not worth it!) Now here’s the change. Consistency is next to Godliness in the restaurant business.
The last three times I was at Ruby Tuesday’s in Springfield, I would say the service was abysmal and the food fell below average diner standards, and management seemed to be okay with this.
Spicy shrimp breaded so thick and grease filled, you can’t taste the shrimp; they are a definite item to run away from. Steak like beef jerky, cooked to the wrong temperature. Service is inattentive, if not non-existent. Each trip, things got progressively worse. Until the last trip, we ordered Asian dumplings and the triple play, which had ribs, doughnut shrimp, and BBQ chicken tenders with veggies and a starter cup of broccoli-cheddar soup. Four of the seven items were served cold. No one asked us how things were, different people dropped things off, but no one checked on us. The soup, veggies, and dumplings were cold. The dumplings were actually half frozen.
When my server came back, we were almost completely full, but I asked to speak to the manager. She showed up about 10 to 15 minutes later well after we were done eating. I told her I thought she might like to know how many things were cold so she could adjust it, but she kept missing the point and repeatedly offering me hot broccoli and mashed potatoes even though we had finished long before she arrived. I have learned this same manager has had people quit their jobs at other restaurants by telling them she is giving them one at Ruby Tuesday’s. Then she never shows up for two weeks and multiple appointments when they are supposed to meet her to start. These people are left screwed and on the streets without work after they gave notice and left their old jobs, and Ruby Tuesday’s needs good servers! This overall uncaring attitude is reflective towards people (i.e. customers) in service and quality at Ruby Tuesday’s in Springfield and sometimes Granite Run.

So, expect this…
Ruby Tuesday’s will soon go the way of Bennigan’s and specifically steer clear of the Springfield unit. Goodbye Ruby Tuesday’s! Go there for great burgers when cooked right at big prices, but eight, nine, and ten bucks for bad cooking isn’t worth the gamble, chicken dumplings are excellent when heated, ribs are very good. Stay away from breaded items and tough, chewy, small steaks. Forget the soups; there is just no excuse for cold soup, why bother?
Do not expect attentive, well-trained service, even in slack times. Bathrooms are always littered with towels all over the floor, unkempt and unchecked.

Ruby Tuesday’s is open 7 days for lunch and dinner and can be reached at 610-543-7509.

Dropped into the Clam Tavern to see what all the scuttlebutt was about. I was in search of the best fried shrimp in town; may have found them. They are huge and great here. 6 shrimp were so big I actually couldn’t finish. They are a steal at $13.95. They came with a side of fresh horse radish, as did the clams on the half shell on my first trip; my server said this was the standard here! This allowed me to adjust my cocktail sauce to suit my taste. I thought it was an awesome idea, but on the second and third trips, much to my surprise, they didn’t do it; in fact, I did not get lemon or cocktail forks. One time you get one thing, the next time you don’t, but the inconsistency mostly ends with the presentation and the seafood is always stellar and fairly priced.

The first two trips, the middle neck clams on the half shell were the absolute best in Delaware County, bar none. They couldn’t be beat anywhere else unless you pulled them out of the sea yourself; magnificent, and that comes from the old raw bar chef himself. However, the third trip, they served little necks, no horseradish, and I was surely disappointed.
The Clam Casinos were moist, very moist, like stuffed clams with quite a bit of breading. They were not served with lemon, butter, or any sauce on either occasion that I tried them. My wife loved them; I thought they were pretty good, but would have preferred them browned off on the top to add texture and flavor instead of just heated. Melted butter could make them fantastic, but they are not served with anything but kale, sometimes not even a cocktail fork.
My wife and I sampled pan-seared salmon one occasion, blackened Mahi-Mahi on the second, and both were as fresh as a daisy, cooked by real pros. Very, very nice for $15.95 each. Mine came with Pasta Aglio that was not drained properly and the sauce was like dishwater with no flavor whatsoever. Do not order Pasta Aglio.

Crab balls were four ping pong sized, bread filled pieces, tasty and well seasoned, but to my surprise, on our next trip, I ordered the Crab Imperial dinner and it was a large ball of what appeared to be the same dry crab ball mix lumped on one side of a scallop dish with raw Japanese Panko bread crumbs sprinkled on top. (Very odd, like an after thought) Just get the crab balls and save ten bucks. We were told on our third trip, soup or salad can be had for 50 cents extra with dinner. I wish I had known the first two times, but no one told us. The salads are very fresh and excellent for a little extra.
We tried the seafood bisque and it rivals the awesome taste and quality of those served in the best French restaurants, except for the tiny balls of uncooked flour, like tapioca throughout the whole soup. Still, it was exceptional and most non-chefs would assume they were bits of seafood. It’s a home run!
On later trips, we sampled a special filet with jumbo lump crab meat which came in a Madera wine sauce that tasted nice but had not been reduced to proper consistency. The sauce was thin and watery. If corrected, it’s a 5-star dish.

Then we tried blackened tuna that was served, believe it or not, without the vegetables. The tuna was great, the vegetables were missing. So…

Expect this at the Clam Tavern:
To be conflicted like when your teenage child, whom you love dearly, fails to do their chores correctly, or at all. I thought long and hard on how to express my feelings after four trips there because I received such mixed messages at the table. As an ex-seafood chef myself, I want to love The Clam Tavern; it has the freshest, best seafood since Bobby’s Seafood Restaurant closed years ago. The owner, Tony, purchases first class product. There should be a line around the block to get in, but there isn’t. The first time we went, mostly everything was fantastic; the other three times, some things were off.

You fall in love with the food, but next time it’s different. Expect pot luck and inconsistency, but first class, excellent, fresh seafood, all prepared to perfection most of the time for very reasonable prices. Stay with basic seafood offerings and avoid sophisticated sauces and dishes and you will be thrilled. Ask for what you need; the friendly service will get anything you desire. Go there for clams on the half shell (if they have midnecks), jumbo fried shrimp, fried calamari, homemade fried mozzarella (which is to die for), awesome fin fish, and superb seafood bisque, but prepare to be surprised.

The Original Clam Tavern is open 7 days for dinner. Directions and reservations can be made at 610-623-9537.

I keep going back to Red Lobster and just keep being disappointed. The four half lobster tails and grilled shrimp dish from the TV commercial were a huge disappointment for $21.95; the tails and the shrimp are the size of your finger. New management says the four tails together are 3 to 4 oz’s before cooking, but when overcooked, the 1 ½ oz. half tails shrink to next to nothing. I felt jipped, but not as badly as the two previous visits when I just felt robbed. Those times I had the smallest King Crab and Snow Crab legs ever served in a restaurant. They were so small I thought they may actually be under legal size and should have been thrown back. None of these dishes are a fair value.

The lobster/crawfish pizza is always unbelievably good. This is a super treat, along with the best margaritas anywhere, and the Caesar salad is excellent, but everything else is all T.V. commercial and no meat. Where’s the fish!? The Springfield restaurant is actually being cut down in size because they are losing so many customers. Here’s why, where’s the fish?! So…

Expect this at Red Lobster:
Overly tiny portions at high prices, all TV commercial; some appetizers are worth it, but in general, quality has crashed, along with the kitchen. Go there for oysters on the half shell, lobster pizza, margaritas, live lobster, and all you can eat shrimp.

The Red Lobster is open 7 days for lunch and dinner. Directions and reservations can be made at 610-544-0315.