Claudia S.
Yelp
The other day I was "up North" and saw Pizza Ranch. I don't know why, but I felt called to try this new place. My friend lives in the area and I asked her about it. She told me she thought it was a buffet of gourmet pizza, but hadn't heard anything about it. After reading other reviews and viewing their website, I was pretty sure it wasn't gourmet, but I still really wanted to give it a try. I'm not a big fan of buffets because I typically don't eat huge portions in one setting, but we like to try different places so I decided we'd go for Friday supper.
Of course it was pretty busy, but there were still plenty of open tables. When you come in and pay you walk right through the busy buffet area. There are several employees bustling around and you find yourself feeling like you are trying to cross a busy highway to get to the dining areas.
The selection was much smaller than I'd expected and the price was pretty hefty. I eat at Pizza Street regularly and like it, along with the prices. This was about twice as much as Pizza Street (although drinks were included) and I feel like the pizza selection was about half. Of course, this place has fried chicken and a better salad bar.
I got a couple of waffle fries and a potato wedge. The wedge was cremated. The waffle fries were okay, but unnecessary. I tried the baked beans (bleh) and mexi-corn (bleh too). The coleslaw on the salad bar was pretty good. We also tried the Wisconsin cheese soup (yeah, Wisconsin probably wouldn't agree with them on that) and minestrone. The minestrone was pretty good, but I'm never a fan of the herbs used in minestrone, so I only ate a few bites.
I'm not sure if Pizza Ranch has something against mushrooms -- I love them, but there were not any on the salad bar or ANY pizzas. I made a small salad, which was great: spinach, cranberries, cheese crumbles. The ranch dressing was really good.
Then i went to grab some chicken and pizza. Honestly, most of the pizza options didn't thrill me at all. I got a Green Chili slice, and a couple others and a chicken thigh. I did really like the green chili pizza. It was spicy, but not overly so. If it'd had meat on it, I would have loved it. The other pieces of pizza were so-so. The chicken was delicious.
After that, I decided to try dessert. I ended up with a slice of cherry and a slice of what was labeled apple, but I'm pretty sure was peach. Mom ended up with apple that had been labeled peach. The ice cream is that gross icy milk substance that is just barely edible. We both really loved the cherry dessert, but the others were nothing special. I still can't figure out what made the cherry so good, but it was awesome.
So, my advice: If you go, get chicken. Maybe a green chili pizza (add some sausage or something) and the cherry dessert. Since they have a drive thru, you might want to do that because this place is a little hectic.
When you leave, you have to fight your way back through the entrance (there was a huge line of people), they could really use a second door as an exit!