Comments on: Pig Out Cheap at Ridgewood Eats

By: ridgewoodwatcher

ridgewoodwatcher — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:51:13 +0000

You know the phrase “a good thing can’t last forever”. Well that’s the best way I can describe the now infamous Ridgewood Eats. I use to live right up the block and would go there all the time. I would even have them deliver and take friend and family there. In the beginning I was very impressed with the food and service. At that time I would give them an 8 for service and a 7 for food. Not a bad score for the area.
Just last week my mom and I went to the old neighborhood and decided to revisit our favorite little dinner in Ridgewood. Service was quick as always. The wait staff friendly as ever. I ordered a waffle and my mom a veggie burger deluxe. As soon as I saw my moms order I said yuck! There idea of a veggie burger was best described as a mush filled with peas. The total presentation was poor. Even the portions were cheap a meager. I had to ask them for a pickle and coleslaw, which should be a no brainier on a deluxe. Once my mom picked up her burger it fell apart. But the worst part of it all was the taste. OMG! I almost gagged. I told my mom she had to send it back. The waitress took the order back with no problem and replaced it with a grilled cheese sandwich as requested by my mom.
We finished our order and asked for the bill. When I looked at it the total was $15.95. I looked at my mom and looked at the bill again. They didn’t remove the veggie burger from the bill. I called the waitress over and asked her how much was a grilled cheese sandwich. She told me to hold on a second and walked away. This is when a bad afternoon at Ridgewood Eats became a nightmare. The manager comes over and tells me, “I didn’t charge you for the grilled cheese sandwich but I had to charge you for something” I told him that I didn’t expect a free meal but just to pay for what I had eaten which was the grilled cheese sandwich and a waffle and $15.95 was really overpriced for such a small order. He tells me that I had to pay for the veggie burger because I ordered it and nothing was wrong with it. I told him hell yeah something was wrong with it, it was nasty and should be removed from their menu because it was far from edible. He then says, ” it’s good food and I’m not throwing it out because you didn’t like it” That grossed me out. I said to myself, this guy is going to put that nasty burger back in the kitchen and serve it to the next poor customer who orders a veggie burger. He refused to remove the charges from my bill and I knew if I continued to argue with him any further I would end up losing my cool so I paid my bill but before I walked out I told him it’s a shame that you would treat a long time customer this was and lose our business forever instead of doing the right thing. I told him he could have my $15.95 but it would be the last cent Ridgewood Eats would get from friends, my family and me.
So if you are looking for bad food and love to be treated like crap instead of a paying customer, look no further then the neighborhood favorite Ridgewood Eats. Just keep in mind, the next time you order from there you might be getting someone’s leftovers because like that guy said, ” I’m not throwing away good food”

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:51:21 +0000

I remember Sammetts well and fondly — it was on the corner of Onderdonk and Linden. How I’ve missed Sammetts. Their sauerbraten was absolutely the very best I’ve ever had. For around $13 you could get an appetizer (eggs a la russe or marinated cucumbers), soup, salad, main course including veggie and side, plus coffee and desert…the black forest cake was delicious. The ambience was so inviting, like going to a relative’s house to eat. Loved the old wood bar area, too. We passed many happy evenings there. Never ever had a bad meal there in the dozens of times we ate there. It was a sad day when it closed.

McZaks on Metropolitan Ave was another fun place. Good crowd, good food, reasonably priced, and great staff.

By: franny

franny — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:44:06 +0000

John:

I used to have lunch in Sammetts. My uncle and aunt had their wedding dinner there in the 1930s and my cousin and his group would have club meetings there. He lived on Linden St and Woodward so you could have some brew and walk home.

Great memories!

By: bushwicknative

bushwicknative — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:15:12 +0000

John D you are right I forgot all about Sammetts. It was a favorite of my parents. I do not recall the address but certainly recall the name.

By: Judy

Judy — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:24:09 +0000

Ridgewood Eats has been around for a while now. They’re completely rakin in the dough here – always packed. As much as I like this joint, the burgers are NOT that good – but it suffices when you really need one and are in the ‘hood. Lemonade rocks. Service could be better but hubby and I still keep returning.

Rudy’s next door could do better with the iced cappuccinos…

By: John Dereszewski

John Dereszewski — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:09:15 +0000

I very much remember this place when it was the Bank Restaurant. During my days in Bushwick during the 1970′s, there was practically no decent place to eat on the Brooklyn side of the border. So, when I went to lunch – usually with the Directors of the local HPD Neighborhood Preservation Office – we would meet at their office on 300 Wyckoff and then walk up Myrtle to the Bank. The food, while never spectacular, was very solid and provided the background for many very memorable conversations.

On the topic of long lost German restaurants, let me add the name of Sammetts, which was situated on the corner of Onderdunck and – I think – Linden. This was the real deal, by far the best German eatery in the neighborhood. I found the very heavy fare at Gebhardt’s to be far inferior and Niederstein’s, despite its wonderful, and much lamented, ambience, very overrated in the food department. Sammets provided a wonderful variety of Middle European dishes – and some terrific desserts – in a modest, though very comfortable, environment. One thing that I particularly remember was the large tables that allowed you to really spread out when you were consuming this very “spreadable” fare. It was really heartbreaking when, sometime in the mid 1990′s, I passed by and found a Chinnese take-out joint in its place. Thus time goes on!

By: Ridgehooder

Ridgehooder — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:31:17 +0000

I lived in Ridgewood for the past six years. Occasionally I would step in to the theater to look around and the lobby seemed intact but rundown. Unfortunately it was not an inviting place to see a movie, so the lobby was as far as I got. Considering the neighborhood that it’s in the only way to “save” the theater would be to lift it off its foundation and have it moved. Otherwise I think there will be another 99¢ here soon.

By: BornOnWyckoffAve

BornOnWyckoffAve — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:33:58 +0000

Actually, an effort to save the Ridgewood Theater is underway as we speak. I’ve tried to help in my own modest way by putting two parties (with certain common interests) in contact with one another. That’s all I should say about it for now. Just keep your fingers crossed.

By: FormerRidgewoodite

FormerRidgewoodite — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:20:24 +0000

Actually, the Madison Theater was built as a legit theater. It only became a movie theater later. Originally it was a Vaudeville House. It survived prettun intact until about 1978 when it closed. It sat abandoned, and Soon after, the Madison Theater burned. After that it was gutted and became a Consumers store. That’s a store like Service merchandise, where you flip through catalogs, write down on a slup what you want, and then they bring it to you. At that point, the old theater was being used as a warehouse, and the retail area was strictly the old lobby area.
After that closed, it became Odd Lot, which was a discount store, and the whole auditorium became one big store.
Then it became a Busy Bee Compartment Store, which was a flea market style store. That didn’t last long, and some years back it became Liberty Department stores, which it remains to this day. Their furniture department is upstairs in the old balcony mezzanine.

All the while, the Ridgewood Theater puttered on until last week when it too closed it’s doors. It had been the oldest continuously operating theater in NY State until this point. Sadly, it appears the Ridgewood Theater will also be gutted for retail now. A shame, as even though it was chopped up and multiplexed, a lot of it’s original features remained until now.

By: bushwicknative

bushwicknative — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:17:55 +0000

Great picture The Kolettys sign also brings back memories. Did you also notice that the Madison actually had a stage show.