Ruby’s Hotel

Rubys serves great food in a homey atmosphere. Frank is a charming host and excellent bartender. Anna runs the kitchen as well as being an instructor at a cooking school in NYC. She uses locally sourced ingredients with inventive dishes like stuffed day lilies. Prices are very reasonable but they sometimes run out dishes that are popular. Open only on Friday and Saturday but not always so call ahead.
There is also an art gallery featuring local artists.

Really wanted to like this place, but too many irksome factors to let it slide…
— Service: really not good. The waitress apologized several times for service being slow, but slow was not the problem (it’s a casual spot where you don’t mind hanging out and enjoying the company of your party while you wait for orders to come out). She straight-​up forgot to bring our drinks (had to remind her after waiting well over 20 minutes), and, later on, when she filled my water glass, picked it up by gripping the rim with her thumb and index finger — not only is it unsanitary for her hands to be on the rim from which I’m drinking, but her index finger was literally in the water as she filled the glass. Big turn-​off and a major food service no-​no. Also, the dry erase board is tacky — print menus!
— No locks on the bathroom doors. Casual is cool, but we watched a woman scream and go running through the dining room after opening the door on a man doing his business. Yeah, she probably should’ve knocked, but this could also be avoided by installing a simple hook. No one wants to anxiously hold the door shut with one hand while reaching for toilet paper with the other.
— Fussy, inadequate kitchen. The waitress informed us they ran out of the butternut squash ravioli after we had already ordered it and there were no vegetarian entrée choices for my mom besides that. She tried ordering a side of mashed potatoes instead, which appeared elsewhere on the menu, offering to pay for it, and was denied. Not cool.
The vibe was nice and laid back and could absolutely be the setting for something special, but we left feeling underwhelmed. Ultimately, the food was fine, but nothing to write home about, really, and the service could use some improving. I’m always cool with letting mistakes slide as long as I leave a happy customer, but in this case I feel like something was just off energetically and that management could afford to step things up. May try again in the future, but standards really need to improve.

Great little restaurant with old NY charm to it. The menu changes with the seasons, and we’ve never had a bad meal here. Each and every time we dine here I’ve noticed how fresh everything was. The hosts — Anna and Frank — are super friendly, and they often feature live music in the front dining area. A great choice if you’re in this part of upstate.

Awesome place to eat good food and drink excellent wine. The owner/​chef is a teacher at NYC culinary institute, enough said

The only show in town! Seriously.
If you’re in the Freehold area for an extended period of time and you don’t LOVE crappy deep fried food, you’ll definitely want to hit Ruby’s every chance you get. The have an ever-​changing menu that won’t disappoint.
The owner and staff are always extraordinarily nice, offering recommendations, chatting us up, and even showing us the upstairs guest rooms that they renovated and now rent out.
I only wish they were open more! Currently just weekend nights.

My husband and I went Saturday night. We live in the area and can’t believe it took us all this time to go. The food was wonderful. It is Zagat rated and I see why! I had read that the crab cakes were delicious but they only came as an appetizer and I REALLY wanted to try the warm goat cheese salad do I decided to order both appetizers as my entrée. Both were absolutely delicious. My husband had the strip steak. It was cooked perfectly and was extremely tender. The service was very slow but we didn’t mind because the atmosphere was so happy and loud and FUN! There was a jazz duo and we had a wonderful time! You can sit in the back room if you desire a quiet atmosphere. For dessert — a pumpkin custard. Perfect– not heavy and not too sweet. I had a glass of wine to start and my husband had a local beer. So for drinks, dinner, and a dessert and 2 coffees with tax it was around $ 60.00. We’ve paid a lot more for terrible meals. We will make it a habit to go back!

We love Ruby’s ! Frank and Ana do a great job. Very locivore friendly and sweet people. Particulary fond of the chicken con fit and the salmon. Her greens and veggies are always fresh and locally grown in the chef’s own garden. Plus they aways have some kind of local art in the upstairs gallery. And the absolutely best live music on selected weekends.