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Ruth's Diner
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Lunch
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
21 reviews for Ruth's Diner
I am completely in love with Ruth's. I know that there are some haters out there who love to tear down famous places but Ruth's is easily in my top 10 places to eat in the world. Besides the food, you may never find a more picaresue location for a classic American diner. The mountains, the porch, the trailer, the hour wait. I love it all. Every time I visit Utah, I plan a trip around going to Ruth's.
Now the food. Here is my problem. I would venture to say that not all the food here is mind-blowing. In fact, a lot of food here is probably pretty average, especially the breakfast items. For this reason, I think some people who come for the first time, leave disappointed. But for me they do a few things better than anywhere else, and this is what keeps me coming back again and again, and the reason I am going full-5 on ya here. The burgers are outstanding. The mushroom swiss "This-is-almost-the-place" burger is a favorite of mine, but the ultimate is the Cajun Bacon Bleu burger. One of my favorite burgers of all time. The bacon is thick cut, the BBQ sauce adds a little kick of spice and sweet, and the bleu cheese melts in your mouth. Simply put, a work of art. The burgers pair perfectly with the crispy, delicious fries, which also blow me away every time I go.
And the famous mile-high biscuits are as great as you have heard. Load them up with butter and their signature raspberry jam and you will wish for the rest of you life that Ruth was your Grandma an could bake those suckers for you every Sunday morning. I am now drooling on the keyboard. Ruth's fully deserves it legendary status and I would recommend it to anyone.
Another stop on my DDD tour. The location here is up in a canyon outside SLC, and very beautiful.
The wait here was very long for lunch on a Friday. I was confused by the fact that the indoor dining area was completely empty, but the wait was 40 minutes. Maybe they only seat people outside during the day? I don't know because the hostess offered no explanation. Since the wait is so long, they should consider putting up some umbrellas outside for shade. There is plenty of seating, but the sun beats down on you.
We ended up sitting on the outside patio. It's a very nice setting. When you sit down, you get some of their "mile high" biscuits. They are tall & fluffy. I found them to be a bit dry, so I ordered a side of gravy. I wasn't crazy about their gravy.
My brother had a Bloody Mary. It was good, but almost too spicy.
For my entree, I settled on the Pulled Pork & Scrambled Eggs. I was not blown away by the dish. I should have gotten something else.
My favorite breakfast place around. It's especially a great place to take a nice drive to. I always get an omelet and eat tons of the bread (the real stand out here).
Try it out, you won't be disappointed.
We ate lunch there on a weekday in early 10/06. Our food was very good and our server was pleasant.
Ruth's has been in existence for 79 years, and it was only on its third owner when we went there. The diner is an old trolley car, and it was moved - from downtown SLC to its present site in Emigration Canyon, not far from the University of Utah campus (heading up into the hills, past the zoo) - in 1949. Their web site has a very interesting history.
Ruth's has very good diner food with a small amount of fancy diner car seating in the front, or extensive seating outside on a patio with lots of trees and shrubs. We sat on the patio and it was very nice, in spite of 98 degree heat. The sun sets fast behind the foothills, even in August. The meatloaf burger was very good, but the meat could have been larger. It didn't come close to filling the bun - which was an excellent bakery roll. Lots of sandwiches and some larger main course selections are on the menu. The ambience was a large part of the experience. The fries were basic batter coated potatoes, and very average. The desserts looked good, but we were too full to order one.
I would definitely go back, although go early to avoid the current crowds.
A few notes for the out of towners:
- it's the worth the drive (it's just down 1 long road and the scenery gets pretty). there was a 30 minute wait, so we our names down and went for a 15 minute drive into the snowy mountains - nice way to kill the time.
- the biscuits were good, but I didn't think they were amazing. I've had better many diff places in SF. I did appreciate that they brought them out before the entrees so we could enjoy them without the pressure of eating our other food, but the biscuits weren't warm so I guess there wasn't any rush to eat them anyway.
- the bloody mary was fantastic. best one since I was in Cincy and that's saying a lot. I loved it so much that my friend offered me the rest of his, but 1 sip into it, I said, this isn't the same as mine! His was a little bitter and not as spicy. Mine was spicy and bursting with flavor. I have fond memories of mine...
- the hash brown dishes are good, but prob not worth getting. the egg dishes were good and come with hash browns
- the green chile egg dish has meat chunks it in, though it's not listed on the menu (sad)
- the fries are tasty! good sub for hash browns which lacked salt or something...
- the service was fantastic! we were really glad we came. and even though we didn't order any of them, they had several vegan options that were clearly marked on the menu - very very impressive!
This place seems to get rave reviews from everybody, so either I am hard to please or everyone else is clueless.
The physical location of the diner is nice, yes, but the the restaurant itself is more of a dive in my opinion. On the patio the seating is white, plastic yard furniture and the table clothes are cheap plastic. The service each time I have been has been terrible and every time there is something wrong with my order. Granted I have been only a handful of times, but I feel that says something about the establishment.
The food is not very desirable in taste or presentation and make sure you check what night you're going because it seems that some nights there is live music and it wasn't exactly my taste!
For me, the physical location is not enough for me to go more times than I have already and I won't be returning to Ruth's. It has a great reputation but I don't feel it can live up to it.
It's pretty ridiculous how awesome this restaurant was on one of its Thursday night barbecues that supposedly go on weekly for the entire Summer. We didn't come prepared, so there was an hour and a half wait (but we had 10 people in our group), but it was worth it.
Basically, the patio of the restaurant is wide open, there are these two brothers that get up on stage and play acoustic songs from the 70s and a volunteer dad/son team are working the barbecues. It has a really good atmosphere; there's decent music that's not overwhelming, beer on tap, and people that seem pretty cool too.
The way the menu works, is you can choose from Ribs, or a few different types of meats, including sausage, pulled pork, glazed salmon jerk chicken and more. Rather than an a la carte style menu, you get to choose one of the combinations. You can buy 2 meats w/ 2 sides (corn, beans, coleslaw, potato salad, etc) for about $15 or 3 meats for about $17. I got the jerk chicken, the pulled pork and the glazed salmon with a side of potato salad and I was not disappointed!
The pulled pork had a tasty smoky flavor and the glazed salmon on a skewer was amazing. The jerk chicken could have been marinated longer and the potatoes in the salad weren't cooked to my liking, but the meal overall was a wonderful experience.
I highly recommend going to this place at least once for barbecue night that goes on from 7-10. If you have larger groups make sure you call ahead--I found out the hard way.
I've never tried any of the other food at the restaurant but the barbecue is enough to keep me coming back and I know I'll eventually eat there when the summer is over.
I have to agree with Ang R - one of the best things about this place are the Mile-High biscuits.
Over the years the quality has a gone up and it's gone down. Last time I went (mid-Sept '08) it was so-so. Service was poor, because I think they were under-staffed - so it took a LONG long time to get seated. Even with lots and lots of open seats on the patio.
It was still worth the wait simply because of one of the other main attractions - the location. It was a beautiful day and couldn't have been better weather. (Well, OK, it could have been raining gold coins at our table but other than that...)
So, back to the quality/service - timing of the food delivery really is important for any meal - brunch is no exception. Brunch should be served HOT. When we got out meals they had cooled significantly - knocking off one and a half stars from my review. The other half-a-star comes from the flavor having dropped a notch since my last visit.
I hope the quality comes back up again.
The patio in the summer is incredible. A great spot to drink a few bloody marys with your crew of friends. food is ok but being up in emigration and getting outta the city is great!
*** - Good
***** - The malt chocolate pudding dessert.
I hate to give this place three stars but so far since I haven't been to the famous brunch yet, that's what I have to give it. The food is fine, good, ok. The rolls we got on our table were old and hard. But yes it's popular so be prepared to wait in line if you come when it's busy.
That being said, as a chocolate lover, I tried the dark chocolate pudding made with malt and it's one of the best things I've ever eaten. This is the stuff you dream about and crave to go back for. It's very rich and they put a lot of it in a big old fashioned shake glass. Most people would probably have enough after a few spoonfuls but I bask in it's glory and finish the whole thing! They also won an award from a magazine about their brownie concoction being one of the best in the country but I haven't tried it yet.
There are only two good things about this place: the location and the biscuits. The mile-high biscuits were just awesome. And the drive up into the canyon is nice, and you feel as if you're farther away from the city than you are.
But the service is indifferent, the eggs were ordinary (and cooked very wrongly the first time for me), and the pancakes were tasteless and too...bready. The bacon, thick-cut, was floppy, which is really gross when it's thick-cut.
Like I said in my Rio Grande review, maybe I'm holding this to high standards because I'm from a better food town, but either way, if this is the best breakfast in SLC, that's pretty darn disappointing. I don't think I could really return, even with the niceness of the biscuits. (Biscuits do not a meal make.)
Ruth's was by FAR the highlight of our road trip. Salt Lake City, from the highway at least, is nothing interesting. I've had friends swear up and down that SLC has some merits, but we didn't have the luxury of time to search those out. What we did have time for was Ruth's - an idyllic, modernized version of the stereotypical, even cliche American diner. We took our breakfast here, sitting outside between the refreshing morning air and a heater, listening to a nearby stream and taking in the flowers before we trekked out again to the colorless plains between Utah and Colorado. The staff were exceedingly friendly, perhaps because it was a quiet morning, but still, pleasantly cheery. I ordered the special eggs benedict dish which came out perfectly cooked, and I should note that many of the dishes (if not all) come with a house special: a biscuit. It's an unexciting food in name, but these biscuits are incredible. Huge, pillowy, fluffy, and flanked by butter and jam. If the generous servings can't satiate your appetite, then the biscuit's a great way to top your appetite off. Ruth's has a great history behind it, and despite some ownership changes, it looks like it still deserves a spot in SLC's roster of culinary gems, if not always for the same reasons. Ruth, the eponymous former owner, seems like an incredible character, and while you won't get her sassy, cutting commentary today, her legacy carries on in excellent food and service tucked away in an idyllic corner of the hills.
I'm docking one star because they took my favorite item (banana walnut french toast) off the menu, but this is definitely one of the places I take out of town guests. Great view, great outdoor atmosphere, very good food. Just don't go on Sunday mornings unless you have a lot of free time.
My husband and I went here for brunch on our way out of Salt Lake City. It was raining and the back patio wasn't open, so there was less seating than usual and we had to wait about 40 minutes for a table. There were quite a few other people waiting and several that came and left to go elsewhere when they heard about the wait, so maybe it's not unusual to have to wait at Ruth's. Either way, the staff handled the crowd well and got people seated as soon as possible.
After we placed our orders, our waiter brought our coffees and two HUGE biscuits to our table (apparently the biscuits are included with the meals). After waiting for the table so long, we were starving and scarfed down the biscuits pretty quickly. They came with packets of butter and there was a small container of raspberry jam on the table. The biscuits were delicious (especially with the jam), but I wish that I had realized we would get them because the biscuit combined with the meal was way too much food. It's definitely a pet peeve of mine that restaurants serve such huge portions - I would much rather pay less for smaller, more appropriate portions and I usually eat too much when I go out because the portions are too big (my fault and within my control, I know). The biscuit is worth eating, but I would suggest possibly splitting one with someone else or taking it into account when you order and ordering a smaller dish (although I'm not sure if all dishes come with the biscuit).
For our meals, I ordered a polenta benedict and my husband ordered the breakfast burrito. My dish was okay. It came with hollandaise, another red spicy sauce, and chopped green chiles. The hollandaise and red sauce combo was tasty, although there was WAY too much of it (if ordering the dish again, I would ask for it on the side). I love spicy food and it's hard for me to critique whether a sauce is too spicy or not spicy enough because I almost always think it's not spicy enough. In this case, I added some hot sauce but others might not find it necessary. The polenta played the role of the English muffin, which is a play on benedict that I'll recreate in the future at home because I love polenta. It was good enough but it's hard to comment on its quality since it was swimming in sauce and that made it hard to taste the flavor of the polenta. The poached eggs were...well, they were weird. I don't know how Ruth's poaches their eggs, but they were really really firm (almost like a hard-boiled egg, although the inside yolk was slighly runny). I guess they were just kept in the boiling water too long. I actually didn't finish the egg portion because the texture was just off-putting.
My husband said his breakfast burrito was just okay. He's not really a foodie so I usually don't get more details than a thumbs-up or -down, so I don't have anything else to add about that. Both dishes also came with a side and we both got pinto beans, which were also just okay. I added hot sauce to those too.
If I lived in SLC, I would definitely give Ruth's another try (although I wouldn't wait so long the second time around).
Ruth's diner is the second oldest restaurant in Utah. (I wish I knew the oldest one). It was started by Ruth nearly 80 years ago. And by the looks of her pictures at the diner, I'm okay not ever having met her...she kinda scares me. I'm pretty sure she starred in a movie too...you know...she was that old lady in "The Goonies." And I'm pretty sure she used to sound like Harvey Fierstein in her later years.
Ruth's Diner is a fantastic example of a place that USED TO be awesome. It then became popular, more expensive and crowded, and has slowly wandered downhill ever since. It's still a great place to hang out (particularly on a summer or early fall evening on the patio) and the food is better than most places. You won't run into Ruth and her chihauha anymore, but at least you can see a picture.
Setting: 4 stars...a pleasant, spacious patio in a lovely canyon, enlivened by two enthusiastic guitarists/singers on a warm summer evening.
Service: 3 stars...place is staffed by polite and well-intentioned, if slightly spacey, local kids.
Food: 1 star...some of the worst food I've eaten since the mess hall at summer camp. Seriously, I'd be embarrassed to take somebody here. Bread rolls stale and tasteless. Fish and chips were gummy and tasted like frozen, topped with soggy french fries. Soup and everything else heavily oversalted. Corned Beef and Enchiladas also bland, salty....just really disappointing given the history of the place. And I'm a fan of diner food so I wasn't expecting haute cuisine, but.....the chefs oughta be ashamed to put out stuff like this.
I'd say average 2.5 stars, but I'll round to 3 stars just because of the setting and the great live music on a weekend. Just try to eat before you get here so that you can spend the inevitable 1.5 hour wait enjoying the patio and then leave before they try to sell you food.
I'm sure we had an actual meal, but the only thing I can remember are the mile-high biscuits (pictured). They aren't even on the menu, but are brought out to you FREE as you sit and then again on request. Oh yea - they were requested. I loves me some biscuits - and these are SO good - I even have a little shrine to them erected in my kitchen. mmm! I do remember it being a bit of a (scenic) drive to find this place, but it was tucked away in a gorgeous hilly nook in the cleanest city I've ever visited.
Look, lets face it, you only go for the location. It is up a canyon and it makes you feel outdoorsy and like a mini-vacation. The meal is ok and a little overpriced. But the scenery is worth my time to go and pay for this food that would otherwise be avoided in the city.
Best for breakfast but lunch/dinner is decent as well. Besides the "mile high" biscuits mentioned in another review, I like the fact they usually have specials for breakfast that are different then commonly found such as trout and eggs. Large choice of egg dishes, pancakes and so on. A bit off the beaten path but worth the trip. Can be crowded on weekends with a wait for a table. Good value.
