| Food | * * 1/2 |
| Service | * * |
| Ambience | * * |
| Value | 6.5 |
| Cost | $ |
| Dish | Price |
Value | Rating | |
| Rubicon Wings | $ 6.25 |
* * * 1/2 | * * 1/2 | |
| Dinner Salad | 3.25 |
* * * 1/2 | * * * 1/2 | |
| French Dip | 5.95 |
* * * | * * * | |
| Bubba Burger with Bleu Cheese | 5.55 |
* * * | * * * | |
| 1/2 order of fries | 2.95 |
* * * | * * * |
Rubicon is located in a fairly nice area, with an even peppering of restaurants. Immediately next door is the restaurant that replaced Americo's (which was still around at the time of review), and down about a block is Paesano's. I suppose if you were cross cultural enough, you might pop into Rubicon for a beer before enjoying a fine meal nearby. Rubicon is mostly a glorified beer pub, with a small selection of soup, salad, and sandwiches to complement their small selection of beers. I began with a pale ale, looking for something with a little more flavor than your basic lager. J opted for her customary Coke 'n' ice.
We did have more than a little trouble getting service, though I suspect there were only two servers for 20 tables. Rubicon is a bit of a tight squeeze. Most of the restaurant is consumed by the brewing tanks, as well as a long bar, which doubles as a sort of 'diner counter.' The remainder is set out in 20-4 person tables; ours was so close to another that J had to get up each time the people at the other table wanted to get out!
When we did get our server's attention, we ordered a dozen Rubicon Wings for starters, while we decided what sandwich with what 'fixin's.' I chose the French Dip and J went with the Bubba burger with Bleu Cheese. For their burgers, you can add a type of cheese (bleu, pepper jack, cheddar, swiss) or a topping (bacon, salsa, avocado) for $0.60. We also decided to order a dinner salad and a 1/2 order of fries to split. Meanwhile, the hot wings arrived, and boy, were they spicy! The mustard sauce was a little on the greasy side, but the combination of spicy wings and bleu cheese dressing was excellent. The wings also came with carrot and celery sticks, presumably to cool down the mouth in between fires. As we were about done (in), or at least dousing our throats with our respective drinks, the server came to take our "dinner" orders. The server was a bit aghast at the amount of food we were ordering, but we assured her we were trying a bunch of different foods for our review. Unfortunately, this revelation did not particularly improve the attentiveness of our server.
Unlike the server, the food arrived rather expeditiously. Our salad was brought out in one bowl, but the server brought us a second bowl, as well as the dressing in a small container, so we could split it as we pleased. All the ingredidents in the salad were extremely fresh (and not entirely iceberg either!) and refreshing, with delicious croutons. Combined with more bleu cheese (slight theme here), it was a great surprise for a mostly beer joint. Our sandwiches followed closely behind. Each sandwich came in a basket, with a dill pickle and tortilla chips. Unfortunately, the meat was a little overdone. J commented that although her hamburger was dry and overcooked, it still had a good flavor. My French dip wasn't too much better. There's nothing worse than chewy meat on chewy bread. At least the au jus contained little salt, but there was really too little sauce to make the sandwich less heavy than a McDonald's Arch Deluxe. There was a lot of food, and so we barely touched the fries, which were artistically cross-cut, but we were so full, the effect was pretty much lost on us.
Again, we had trouble finding the server. We weren't able to signal anyone, and it wasn't due to the meeting of the Sacramento Tall Club (They were all sitting down.). Finally, she brought us our bill, and asked if we were going to write a favorable review, and how did we like the food. "It was good," I replied, generically. And she seemed satisfied with that response. Rubicon is good for a quick drink and snack. The beer is priced fairly at $2.50/pint. The wings had a good flavor, and but for the overcooking of the meat, the sandwiches were good. For the price, Rubicon is very affordable and good value.