You cannot get a good ruben sandwich in Tacoma. This is disappointing and I can’t understand why this can’t be done. It is a simple recipe, which I won’t go into in detail, but it involves rye bread, sauerkraut, and corned beef.

Today was the first day of the Memorial Weekend and the weather couldn’t have been better in Tacoma. I went to Shenanigan’s on the waterfront with one of my daughters. We wanted to take in the view and have a nice lunch. You can usually get both at Shenanigans.

We sat on the deck outside and as you can see from the picture [taken with my cell phone cam] the view was terrific. People were boating, parasailing, basking in the sun and a good time was had by all. The view of Commencement Bay was fantastic as usual. There was a little haze blocking the Cascade range and Mt. Rainier, but that was no big deal.

The waitress took our order. I was happy to see that they offered a ruben sandwich on the menu so I ordered the ruben sandwich with “yam fries”. Brittney had the fish and chips. It was about mid-day but my mind was a little hazy so I had to have my coffee, and it was OK, not great.

The meal came and I took a few bites of the yam fries, they were good. They were served with ketchup, I felt they would have been better with blue cheese or ranch, I asked for ranch. Then I realized that the ruben sandwich was prepared differently. One of the main ingredients was missing. They had replaced the sauerkraut with COLESLAW. Dear Lord! What has happened with restaurants in Tacoma? They don’t get it! You don’t change the main ingredient in a ruben when it is such an integral part of the sandwich.

I hailed the waitress to ask why they did this, and was told, “Yeah, that’s the way we make them. It is listed that way on the menu”. Checking the menu, it does say “Reuben–corned beef, marbled rye, sweet chile slaw, melted swiss 12″  That’s $12 for a sandwich that has cole slaw where sauerkraut should be. Ridiculous!

To her credit, the waitress offered us free desserts. Thank you. But, don’t play around with the ruben sandwich. If you change it, call it something else. It is not a ruben without sauerkraut.  Please, somebody, figure it out and serve a decent ruben sandwich!! We’re starving out here!

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