Wood Ranch — Restaurant in Chino Hills

I believe the last time I was at a Woodranch was over 7 years ago. I just remembered going here for my birthday at another City, and remembered their TRI-TIP being amazing. After so long it is still amazing. I ended up eating here celebrating my dad's birthday, and getting togo twice before I could get out a review. So I will be writing on both the dining experience and the togo experience. This by the way is during post Covid.

Dining In Anyone that is planning to eat here they do take your name and your phone number so you can feel free to walk around the Chino shops until they text you that your table is ready. Tables seems spaced a good amount apart from each other, and the time we went we did have a nice server. She recommended popular items and made it easier to order for the family.

Togo I completely didn't know that they had a togo section of the restaurant through a different entrance. They even have a step on the bottom of the door to open the door without your hands. There is also a 10 min parking area for anyone picking up, making it super easy to find parking and getting your order. I do have to mention that you do need to ask for utensils or other things like napkins if you want them. They also accept Apple Pay for anyone that was wondering.

Food Both dining in and togo we seemed to have ordered almost the same food. I'll list the food that we have gotten:

Kids Sliders with Fries - These burgers were perfect size for my kid, and the fries were amazing. I believe fries tasted sorta like McDonald's fries, but with them actually being fresh, and being able to see the skin on them as well Kids BBQ Pork Ribs with Fries - Fries are the same, so good, but I would say the Ribs were a bit on the dryer side. They did have a good flavor, and I think its a great amount for a kids portion Tri Tip 10 OZ- This is a MUST have. I had to order this Medium Well due to my wife being pregnant, but still it was juicy and delicious. Be sure to ask for their creamy horseradish that has chives in it as well. BBQ Beef Ribs - These ribs were packed with flavor, but a little more on the tougher side. We ended up getting 4 because of the pricing, you can see it would make sense to just get a few more. BBQ Chopped Salad Chicken - So good, order it! Nice and cold (how all salad's should be) and great flavor with fresh ingredients. Even the Corn is corn from the Cobb.

Sides Loaded Mash Potatoes - Packed with Bacon, cheese and mashed potato's. Macaroni and Cheese - Good, what you should expect from Mac and Cheese Peanut Coleslaw - I believe one of the better sides, different then the typical ones with mayo Sweet Potato Fries- Just as good as the Fries, something they do with their fries, so good.

It's been a great experience no matter dining in or getting togo, and we cant wait to go back. Just need to make sure we space it out, because well you know how bbq is, it's so good but you cant have it all the time!...

It takes a drastic experience to give one star to a place with good food and all it takes is bad management. I was at this restaurant on Sunday for dinner. There was a very short wait and we were seated. Our drink orders were promptly taken and delivered. We ordered right on the spot, together with drinks. We decided to order 4 different BBQ meat combo and share. Our server has read back the order to us and everything was in order. All is well up to the point where food hit our table. Out 4 variety plate was missing an item and another item was served twice. Yes there were 4 portions of meat but not 4 different varieties I know it is not our server's fault, because he read the order back to us. Someone in the kitchen screwed up the order. No biggie, it happens every once in a while. We called our server back and pointed the mistake. He apologized and went back to get the missing piece. In less than 5 minutes, he came back with the piece of meat, put it on the table. This is where it went south. He asked us if we wanted to keep the extra piece of meat, that was double served by mistake. The question was asked in a way that, if I Wanted to keep it, I was going to see it charged to my bill at the end.And there was a lot of food. So we said we did not really want it. At this point, I would expect the staff to say, something like "keep it anyway" but our server, instead, went to the kitchen, came back with an empty plate, no utensils. And asked me to put the unwanted piece on to the plate he brought. I looked at his face as if, "do you really want me to use the fork I put in my mouth ?" kinda way and he did not say anything. I stuck my fork, straight out of my mouth, 10 seconds ago, into the meat and moved it on to the empty plate. He went back to the kitchen and disappeared behind a cloudy glass screen. So, if you have ordered a chicken salad that night or the very next day, you might have ended up getting more than what you bargained for. My apologies. You might say "well, you did not have to deal with it. ewhy are you complaining?" But, if this was done to me, I am seriously wondering whose saliva I might have eaten that night ? Who refused a piece of meat before it was served to me and they gave it back to me instead of tossing it away ? This is a very bad management of employees. I am not sure if the owner of the place is so cheap that he/she can not tolerate loss of a piece of meat, selling less than 10 bucks a-la-carte or the kitchen staff is trying to hide their mistakes, but somethings gotta give. Needless to say, I am not coming back to this establishment, ever again and suggest...

Wife and I continue our recent pattern of medical appointment and eating well. I must profess that I don't usually go to chain restaurants. However, my experience at Wood Ranch was so good that I must re-examine why I automatically equate chain establishments with not as good a dining experience. It was definitely a case of bias confronted and rejected.

Food: we shared a ribeye steak, a Natalie's salad. I ordered an Arnold Palmer and wife had hot water with lemon to drink. First the ribeye is a large cut (14 oz?) perfectly cooked Angus beef to medium. It was tender, juicy, the delicious wood smoke wafting off of it. In fact, it had that elusive mouth feel when I bit into it that I wondered if it's gone through some dry aging process. Natalie salad we ordered had that tangy, citrusy dressing with fresh greens and avocado. It sure helped set our palate to appreciate the full goodness of our ribeye. For the Arnold, it's quite good. But I would ask for easy ice and a 70/30 blend on lemonade to tea ratio next time. It was a hot day and the quickly melting ice thwarted the drink's taste quite rapidly. But it's not on the restaurant or our server to account for 100+ degree day. Any restaurants that could've done so on the fly deserves its Michelin star and, as much as we liked Wood Ranch, it was not quite a Micheline caliber place.

Service: It was above par for restaurants of this caliber. We were seated quickly. Our order was entered quickly. Since we told our server that we were starving, she probably helped get us our food out more quickly. Kudos!

Ambience: The decor was kind of American Huntsmen Woodsy. It was not as in your face, fake-kitschy-fun as you'd find on the Strip in Vegas. Well, they were going for a theme and definitely hit the mark. Not sure if I fully bought into this look but, heh, food was great, service good and the ambience was unobtrusive enough.

In final analysis, I'd unequivocally recommend Wood Ranch in Chino Hills to anyone who hankers a hunk of meat. Its food is unexpectedly excellent, menu priced reasonably. I would definitely come back and try their...