[Rating:1/5]
I’ve always found the Ruby Tuesday experience to be impeccable though they have come up with bloopers in the past w.r.t. their food. The service at Ruby Tuesday however has always been above par and unreproachable.
With this incident however, their equity, at least in my mind has dropped vastly.
Every once in a while you come across a specimen of humanity who really should be have been doing something else. You also come across situations where a picture isn’t really worth a thousand words.
Take for instance my meeting with Deepinder yesterday. It was late in the afternoon and Ruby Tuesday was one of the few places still open and serving lunch. Coincidentally, I had my trusty camera with me and planned to take a few pictures of the food at Ruby Tuesday. On entering the place, I asked the waiter if I could please take some pictures. He said I could not and I asked him to please speak with his manager, just to be sure. This has happened in the past and most managers are perfectly willing to allow a couple of photos of your own food.
Here’s where the shocker came. A few minutes later, a chubby little man ambles across, looking for all the world like he wanted to punch my lights out (if he could reach up that is) and fairly rudely informs me that it is corporate policy and that I may not take any photos. If I could get permission from corporate, he would be happy to oblige.
Fair enough. I did recall one gent I had met from that company and asked him if his permission would do, to which the manager replied in the affirmative. Since I didn’t have the number, the manager pulled up the number from his mobile and held it up to me. Thinking he wanted me to call, I took the mobile and pressed the dial button.
You could have thought I’d fondled the man or something. His eyes spewed fire, his mouth curled into an expression of extreme distaste and defying the laws of physics, his hand shot out, snatched the phone away and he spat out an admonition in a voice quivering with rage, to the effect that I should use my own phone.
I’ve read other people’s reviews where they mention the manager did such and such rude thing, and always thought the customer must have done *something* to get the chap’s hackles up. I believe them now. I’m a fairly polite and mild mannered person and if I managed to arouse Mr. Pathak’s extreme ire, I shudder to think what the average Delhi-ite goes through at Ruby Tuesday GK-II.
For various reasons, we couldn’t get through to anyone we thought we could get permission from and decided to continue with our lunch and drop the idea of taking any photos. Here’s where the Ruby Tuesday Manager really crossed the line.
We were refused service unless the Ruby Tuesday staff were allowed to confisticate our camera bag.
Reliable sources at RTC restaurants who wish to remain anonymous confirm the no-photography is an edict issued by the company, however, not serving customers with cameras is in no way endorsed by the company. Apparently Mr. Pathak was acting on his own.
Things turned out okay in the end and we were allowed to sit in, with our camera bag and finish our meal. The food was the usual high calorie mixture of good and okay food that is normal for Ruby Tuesday.We ordered a vegetable Biryani and one New Orleans Seafood Platter. The vegetable Biryani is quite unlike normal Ruby Tuesday fare and probably an attempt to Indianise the menu. It used different flavors than one is used to in a Biryani but was ordinary otherwise. The New Orleans Seafood platter is an old Ruby Tuesday favorite and was good as usual. I don’t like their tendency to mix raw vegetables with rice, but then that’s me. The prawns were good while the fish was dry and could have done with a little more flavor. The sauce was nice (as in anything with loads of fat tastes good) and needed a little more seasoning.
The managers behavior however is something that came as quite a surprise. RTC restaurants seems to have at least two schools of thought – one that hires outstanding gentlemen like Pradeep at their Mandarin Trail outlet and another that poaches helpers from Dhabas or thinks ex-collection agency personnel make excellent restaurant managers.
Not allowing photography is fine, refusing service to people carrying cameras isn’t.
Verdict: Watch out for Ruby Tuesday in GK II M Block Market. Do *not* carry cameras or you may not be served. Do not take out your camera or you may find the roof shattering and black clad commandoes rappelling down and beating you into submission – or that’s how it felt anyway.
- Sid
Sid, you haven’t explained how we got the only photo we have on this blog post!
@Deepinder: Yeah, it didn’t fit into the flow of the story. I also haven’t mentioned the klutz on the phone who very smugly asked me why I was taking the trouble of shooting my own photos when the marketing department can provide photos much better than anything I could have taken. That sounds like he was saying, ‘why bother having your own kid when you’re not the most intelligent or good looking chap around. Why not let your good looking and intelligent neighbour do the job for you’.
@ALL: We ‘smuggled’ out bits of food and this photo was taken on the pavement. The brown thingie is the garlic bread from the New Orleans Seafood Platter and the rest are veggies and bits of rice from the same. I believe a photo taken within the restaurant would have been far better than this POS. So much for inane corporate policies.
You could have taken the video from your mobile phone easily. Take a spy camera pen (from ebay) and you can use it for all such activities. It works.
Thanks…….
Rajat
I want a spy camera pen.
WOW i am suprised that all these things can happen with known brands too….quite shocking!Did they try to make it up to you guys??
@Kishi: Yes, quite surprising really.
No, they didn’t try making it up to us. In fact, the manager in question was seen snickering in the background while we were trying to find someone to give us permission.
After serving food, seeing me writing on one of their disposable table mats, he comes over with a sheaf of papers, a smart alecky smirk saying in an exaggerated manner that he “wanted to help us” and finally…
the klutz I spoke to on the phone was talking non-stop about how the marketing department would help even while I was trying to tell him we were being refused service till the camera bag was with us. when he finally condescended to listen, he was silent and then hung up after saying he would ‘do something’. there wasn’t anything in way of an apology from anywhere, even though there was no provocation for the behaviour exhibited.
hey i am a big time foodie too.. i am from chennai but i am in delhi now. will chek this restaurant for sure soon!
btw u write awesome reviews, do u write on delhi.burrp.com? i write for them and got movie tickets for my review
jus thought u mite b interested so let u kno.. ur welcome to chek my blog too sansmerci.in
happy blogging!
@swarna: thank you. yes, i used to write on burrp.
Deplorable…. simply walk away! Such business do not deserve any hard earned money of mine! And also write/email to their CEO to let him know of how this staff lost money for his company…….. it works for them to take some action.
Well, I would agree with Sid when he talks about the behavior. I have been almost a regular at the Ruby Tuesday’s Centerstage Mall outlet, in Noida. The staff are pleasing, polite and the food, of course, is good. The last visit was on 21 Sep 09, and I also wanted to take some pictures. I did take a shot of their bar, and one of their seating area, when I was subtly informed of the corporate policy by the manager. Now, this is the way to inform your customers. It was a request, unlike an order or admonition as narrated by Sid. People really need to learn their manners, and I would suggest the manager of this GK outlet to do the same. He might like to visit the Noida outlet, and take tips on etiquette from a server, let alone the manager.