Last week, the HCX Culture team took a trip down to Queen’s Street for a slap up meal at Exeter’s RUBY Modern Diner – and it didn’t disappoint.
‘Ruby Modern Diner’ is an eclectic mix of contemporary décor with a typical diner twist, which makes you feel like you’re in a modern day version of Grease. With its large red leather booths it’s the perfect place for a date, and its large wooden benches cater brilliantly for large groups of friends and family. If this isn’t enough, they also offer a fantastic takeaway service on all of their dishes, making it easy to grab a delicious bite to eat, on the go. If you needed any more persuasion that RUBY Modern Diner is the place to nab your next takeaway from, they have won the ‘Best Takeaway category’ at the Food & Drink Devon Awards… These awards celebrate the very best our county has to offer across food production, retail, hospitality and service.
RUBY brings a modern twist to the roots of the diner, serving fast food prepared with the finest, fresh local ingredients, and this really shows in the quality of the food they offer. We tried a variety of new dishes on the menu, along with some of their classics – and each and every one hit the spot perfectly.
The Jerk Chicken wings were a personal favorite of ours, the maple glaze and lime that coated them was a stroke of gourmet genius! The Turbo Nachos was another brilliant dish to share, or to have as a main meal – especially if you’re a fan of Mexican inspired food. They’re not for the faint hearted, with an explosion of flavours that included sour cream, chunky salsa, cool guacamole, RUBY’s infamous chilli, jalapeno peppers and lightly salted nacho chips; all of which blended together to make for a superb dish.
Now, you can’t go to a diner without testing the burgers and fries; they are synonymous with the image of ‘the diner’ after all. This classic is given a real twist at RUBY’s, however, with a vast selection ranging from, ‘The Classic’ to ‘Blue’ (a 6oz hamburger, chestnut mushrooms, Devon blue cheese and red onion marmalade), and for those who don’t mind getting their hands (and face…) dirty, the ‘Chilli’ burger – a bit like an American ‘Sloppy Joe’, a 6oz hamburger, RUBY chilli con carne, Hawkridge mature cheddar, Roquito chilli, sour cream – hot, messy, and totally worth it! RUBY also do a great twist on traditional fries, which, never fear, they do serve and are delicious, in the form of the sweet potato fries (what’s not to love; they are tasty, and they manage to incorporate a healthy super vegetable into your meal!) .
On to the beverages… The milkshakes were, quite frankly, colossal and really made you feel like you were in a classic American diner with the whipped cream and cherry on top. Their cocktails weren’t too shabby either. I opted for an ‘Amaretto sours’ – which consisted of Amaretto (shock), lemon juice, sugar syrup, maraschino cherry and Liquid Haribo sours! Needless to say it was extremely tasty and dangerously drinkable.
This is only a small snippet of the brilliant menu RUBY offers and, for the quality of the ingredients which are locally sourced where ever possible, the food is great value for money. Other dishes include Smoky Pulled Pork, Hot Salt Beef… plus great breakfast treats such as homemade waffles and fresh bagels. Check out their full menu here.
RUBY Modern Diner was a pleasure to eat at, with a great, laid back atmosphere, friendly and helpful service, and fab décor. Plus, it’s a great champion of local suppliers which feature heavily in their recipes, including Emma’s Bread at the Real Food Store, Copplestone Barton Farm, Hawkridge Dairy, Sandford Orchards and Flat Cap Beers in Cornwall. All in all, I would highly recommend dining here.
Photo Credits: www.facebook.com, www.tripadvisor.co.uk, www.thisisdevon.co.uk