Ruth's Chris Steak House

I was really curious whether Ruth's Chris's well-known name was worthy of its reputation, so I went there to eat a meal when I went to the city to watch a football game one day. When I looked at the menu, damn, it was more expensive than the century-old St. Elmo next door. I made a table to calculate. If you don't calculate, you won't know. Once you calculate... you will know. Ruth's Chris is more expensive than Monk's Love Mo in all aspects, especially the New York prime rib, which is nearly 1 dollar more expensive per ounce. More importantly, first. St. Elmo automatically comes with side dishes after ordering meat, while Ruth's Chris is just a piece of meat without anything else; second, St. Elmo's meat is 42-day dry-aged beef, with a loss rate of at least 40%, while Ruth's Chris's is just ordinary "wet-aged", which is nothing. So the price difference between the two is actually very large. And Ruth's Chris's meat has fewer varieties and is not as comprehensive and professional as St. Elmo. So, is Ruth's Chris worth the price? I ordered a small filet with shrimp combo, and then waited for the answer to be revealed. I won’t talk about the Caesar salad, it’s hard to make this thing taste bad. The ingredients were still a bit too much, but I didn’t find any dry bacon. The meat came. The 6-ounce portion was enough, fortunately I didn’t order the 11-ounce one, I could have eaten it all. The butter aroma was very strong, just like a certain M steakhouse in Chengdu, which follows the traditional French cuisine route. The meat was soft and loose from the outside to the inside, and the crust did not show the slight toughness of being grilled over high heat, nor did it have the aroma of grilling. The meat was good in nature, soft and juicy, but the aroma concentration was not as strong as St. Elmo, and the umami was also worse, so it must not have been dry-aged. I talked to the manager and confirmed two points: First, the whole piece of meat was directly put into the high-pressure oven salamander after it was coded. This oven can achieve the effect of sealing the juice, but it does not have the Maillard reaction aroma of grilling or the aroma of charcoal grilling, which are very important catalysts for the performance of beef. Second, they told me seriously that the meat was "wet-aged for 12 to 20 days". You can just say "the cow is killed, frozen, transported, and thawed" and that's it. You have to use the term "wet-aged" to excuse migrant workers. Therefore, the meat quality of Ruth's Chris is not bad, but there is no sincerity and little effort, which is very disappointing. Compared with St. Elmo next door, Ruth's Chris's food is a level lower and the price is higher. Referring to the per capita price of about 1,000 RMB in their Shanghai store, I think Ruth's Chris is not worth eating at all. Let me make it clear: Ruth's Chris's food is not bad, but compared with St. Elmo, it is a cold and ruthless steak assembly line machine, without any warmth, which makes people feel depressed when eating. Plus the per capita, haha. And this restaurant is not as good as the Ruth's Chris in Chengdu, although Ruth's Chris in Chengdu also made some serious mistakes. I'll add a review of Ruth's Chris in Chengdu when I have time.