Pizza Ranch — Restaurant in Eau Claire

My Husband and I stopped into the Pizza Ranch in Eau Claire on Sunday, April 7, 2024 at around 2 p.m. We have been to many other Pizza Ranch restaurants around Wisconsin and this was by far the WORST experience. The facility itself was dirty and needed a good cleaning. We waited approximately 5 minutes for anyone to come check us out originally - there wasn't a waiting line. There were a few employees walking around who saw us waiting, but still nothing. The buffet was a HUGE disappointment. No bread sticks or cheese bread, empty marinara sauce, 3 half full pizzas that were cold, no dessert pizzas or cookie pizzas. The chicken was partially full as well as the other items on that buffet. Chicken was warm, not hot, biscuits were cold and sausage gravy was also luke warm. Thank goodness the salad bar had items on it - but nothing was clean. You could tell nothing fresh had been put out in a long time as salad fixings were mixed in with other salad fixings. The containers of salad dressings were very dirty and slimy. And half of them were empty. Only one of the soda machines were in service. I didn't even pay attention if the ice cream machine was in service. After being there for 45 minutes, half of which was spent waiting for fresh/more pizzas to be brought out, we were both so disappointed that we left. Lastly, I don't usually like to talk bad about people but I feel like I need to mention something about the staff I observed. There was one gentleman who seemed to be really hard, he was the one who eventually checked us out and he was also bringing pizzas out as we were leaving. There was a young gentleman, not in a Pizza Ranch uniform, that I noticed after we had been there about 15 minutes, behind the check out counter, more interested in what was on his cell phone than anything else. I never saw him out on the floor helping. And lastly, there was a young gal actually picking up used plates and cleaning tables.. not cleaning very good as there were numerous tables with food particles on them around the facility. What was a major let down on this young lady, was the numerous ( at least 5) hickies that were very obvious on her neck. (And yes I can tell a hickie from a birth mark...) The whole experience left us feeling disappointed, disgusted and still hungry. When traveling through Eau Claire, stear clear of the Pizza Ranch. You will be very...

The employees are some nice people. The kid who rang us up was very helpful, and very quick with the register. They seem to be understaffed, as almost every time I come here he is going back and forth between restocking the salad buffet and helping the people at the front, as well as a multitude of other things. One time I came here, there was a woman doing all of that as well as restocking the pizza! I don't know why the crew is so small, but I know it can't be easy having to spread yourself thin like that due to an understaffed kitchen, despite this, they all are very good at keeping up, falling a little behind sometimes, but they always bounce back in no time.

They have the BEST chicken in town. I can't stress enough how good it is, if there's any reason I keep coming back it's definitely the chicken. If there's a pizza you want that isn't on the buffet, you can just ask for one and get it sent right to your table for free, and you can even get stuffed crust! The guy who served us our pizza was very kind too. They have some unique stuff here you won't find at many places, like mac n cheese pizza, dessert pizza, taco pizza, etc

Overall they provide a very unique and enjoyable experience at a very good price.

As far as potential improvements go, I would say the area between the double doors when you first come in could be touched up, they said the coffee has been broken for some time and to fill a cup you have to push the button a lot, and they don't label the decaf coffee so you can't really tell which is which, they only have one trashcan in the main area and it's a tiny one by the pop machine, and I was only able to get ice cream once in the 6 times I've been. Again, understaffing crates a lot more issues than most people realize, I just figured these are worth mentioning, as the employees have shown that they are very understanding of their customers when something goes awry or when there are potential improvements and are good at coming up with solutions. And I said it before and I'll say it again, the best chicken in town is found at...

Our family loves Pizza Ranch and used to make it a family tradition to attend after church on Sundays. We have not been able to keep up this tradition this year, but yesterday my husband and I decided to treat our kids. Instead of a fun family dinner, we paid $70 and just as we were getting our plates for the buffet, a verbal altercation (complete with terrible swearing) broke out between a man and a woman at the dessert station. Staff did next to nothing, everyone working seemed very young and inexperienced. The verbal argument quickly turned into physical threatening laced with swearing and I had to herd my children into a side hallway while my husband and other patrons tried to keep the argument from becoming an all out brawl. No one called police despite many calls from customers for staff to notify police. Staff stood by and watched while customers broke up the almost fight. One female staff member did manage to get one of the man to leave, but by then we had all been treated to 5 minutes of extreme swearing and an almost physical beat down between a 6’4”+ man and a 5’5” overweight woman. Needless to say, my kids were not very hungry and it took us all evening to calm them down. My 5 y.o. had a nightmare… I understand the argument and craziness was not caused by staff, but it was poorly handled by staff who seemed ill-equipped and possibly not life-mature enough to deal with the situation. No customers remaining in the restaurant after the fighters left was offered anything (gift card?) or addressed by a staff member. It was especially a bummer for us, we hadn’t even made it from the counter to the buffet, and didn’t feel much like eating. Definitely didn’t get our...