Ranch House Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Red Deer

The one star on this review applies solely to the server we had on our outing at the Ranch House last night. I arrived shortly after 4:30 p.m., and there was not a single vehicle in the parking lot. This should have been my first clue. The server was attentive enough, and the drinks were cold. Beyond that, I was sorely disappointed. I opted for the Chicken Cordon Bleu, as it's not a dish I regularly make at home. It was bedded on a tablespoon of mushroom sauce (with literally 3 shriveled dry mushroom slices in it), overcooked, and quite hard to cut into. There was no cheese left to be found within the main course, as normally prepared. The chicken was accompanied by a handful of severely freezer burnt green and yellow beans, and baby carrots. The stuffed potato, once you broke through the crust, was the only edible item on the plate. Needless to say, I sent my meal back, after maybe 3 bites of trying to find the cheesey goodness I sought in the main dish, which never did appear. My other half, ordered the New York Strip, and splurged to add the Neptune to his meal. To this point, I'm still not sure what he received for meat, as it appeared to be boiled, leaving a filmy, murky, grey liquid to flood his plate. His "steak" was also accompanied by the same array of freezer burnt vegetables. Let me tell you, this guy never complains. He eats everything. So you can imagine my shock when he threw in the towel on this meal. Our collective bill neared $70.00. When we approached the front to see what the outcome of the damage would be, after only consuming the starter soup and salad, and a few bite of each dish, we were, for lack of a better word, "attacked" by a woman, who raised her voice at us, and rudely said " Nothing was wrong with your meal! There was butter, and cheese, and nothing was wrong! So you pay for it!" I said "Well yes, something was wrong, and also the vegetables were freezer burnt". To which she replied "Those just come in this morning! You pay for everything!" The server, bless her heart, looked to this woman and asked if she could comp our drinks. To which this woman replied "NO! NOTHING! THEY PAY FOR EVERYTHING." Then she waved her hands in our faces and disappeared into the kitchen. Clearly, we will not return. And I will be sure to pass this unfortunate story onto others. Save your money. You'll receive better food at the adjacent McDonalds, I'm sure of it. Not to mention a little more respect from management. And to our server, thanks for trying, and best of...

YOU WILL WANT TO READ THIS REVIEW IN IT'S ENTIRETY.

Okay, So I have been waiting a while to write this review for no other reason than that I just had to work and was really busy this summer.

I had a conference in Red Deer and what with it being fathers day I really wanted steak for dinner and my wife found the Ranch house online.

Everyone got what they wanted from the menu and of course I ordered a 16 ounce T Bone Steak, This is where it gets interesting.

Everyone got there plates and they looked amazing, I get my plate and my T bone looked like shaved ham, I mean it was thin. I also asked for it medium and it was cooked through and no wonder, it looked like it was run over by a street paver.

I took 2 bites and when the server came back and asked if everything was alright I told her that I didn't believe the steak was 16 ounces and it was overcooked. She right away went in the back to let them know and she said the cook told her that it was 16 ounces and that she weighed it and I said I didn't believe it.

She then said she wouldn't charge me for the steak and I said that that wasn't necessary and that I would pay. She then came back to the table with a phone and said the owner would like to speak to me and when I took the phone, He apologized and offered to pay for the whole meal.

I said, that wont be necessary because the rest of my family really enjoyed their meals and the server was really kind and sweet, and he said at least let me take your plate off the bill, I said okay. He then told the server to add a complimentary dessert for father's day.

What a nice treat to what could have otherwise been a disappointment for an evening and father's day.

To the Ranch house I say thanks for great meals minus 1, but thanks also to our server who was a sweetheart and an owner who knows what it is to not only take responsibility for errors but also take pride in his restaurant and it's great ambiance.

We will be back.

Kim...

If I could rate this lower than 1 I would, we hadn't been here before so we took our 6 kids with us and when we arrived my husband ran in to check and ask if we could be accommodated and if they were kids friendly...well if the only thing about your restaurant that is "kid friendly" is the change table in the washroom...you need to rethink what your idea of kid friendly is, there is no kids menu which if I was aware of before we started ordering I would have left, anyway we ordered appetizers for our kids since that was the cheapest and smallest meal alternative, so meatballs we decided on 4 plates of them they were pretty much almost black and when we brought it to attention because my kids are good eaters and out of 40 meatballs they ate 7 between them we were told by our server that the boss said they were fine and not overcooked and dry at all, and that he was only going to take one order off of our total bill, then I ordered my food that came with "soup and salad" well there was only one kind of soup and so I opted to just have salad and it came and right away it looked unappealing, if I was in an Asian restaurant I might expect bean sprouts in my food but in a salad at a "ranch house?" quite weird, not to mention the piece of bread with garlic on it that was meant to be "garlic toast" it was completely untoasted, also there was a hair in my food and my husband didn't touch his salad either and he ordered the beef and Yorkshire pudding meal and had like 3 bites, we didn't complain about anything else since the blow off with the first complaint we figured it was a waste of time, the only positive thing at this restaurant tonight was the server she was fantastic, very attentive and quick to replace drinks and remove plates etc, other than that the best thing about this meal was the mints we got at the end with the bill.... definitely would not go again and I would not recommend it to my...