Pizza Ranch — Restaurant in Elkhorn

Update 03 DEC 2023- Almost 1 year later and nothing really has changed....Arrived at 2:45pm, no one at register, had to ring a bell to get some to register. Still no napkins on tables, BUT they added more to on top of the buffet stations. Floors still dirty as littered with food from salad bar, not sure why it takes 3 people to work the pizza line when it gets busy in the dining room? Did buffet my way request, no one came out with pizza we requested, but found they put the pizza we requested directly on the buffet, not a single slice brought to our table/attention like they advertise. Service still is a dirty word at this location. I hope that this is not what can be expected when they open up the locations nearby?

.............. Like others mentioned, no S&P on tables, plus no napkins. They have 3 napkin dispensers located on top of the buffet stations so if you need napkins, don't sit down because you will need to go back up for those refills. Pizza selection was dismal. The featured pizza was the Sicilian, and in the hour we were here, one was put out. Just the basic sausage, pepperoni, or cheese were coming out regularly. They had 5 pizzas sitting at the pass waiting to go out while the buffet sat empty, and there was 4 or 5 sitting at the end of the oven (probably takeout). The manager was busy drinking his coffee by the drive thru and one young man kept bringing out clean plates. If he would have made as many pizza runs as he did plates that would have been an improvement. They had a spinach/ tomato thin crusty pizza that tasted like stale crackers and slowly died up there over 30 minutes. Plus, if your a chicken on your pizza fan, tonight was the night, at least 3 pizzas had chicken on them in some way.

The chicken bar was ok and serviced regularly, but the sides were old when we arrived, especially the Mac cheese. Chicken kept getting brought out as well as the waffle fries. The floors around all the stations were disgusting especially the salad area as there was potato salad that was still there when we left.

The salad bar lettuce was disgusting, wilted, and never switched out while there. I couldn't bring myself to even try it. The soup had a skin on it and no one was eating it because it was sad looking.

Dessert pizza was cactus bread, cactus bread or cactus bread. They had a cookie pie and that went as fast as they brought out but only saw a peach desert pizza when we arrived, no other varieties until we got ready to leave, cherry that we couldn't tell until we took a bite. Even then it was a toss up. More frosting/ crust than fruit.

For a Sunday nite, was not worth the premium pricing. Staffing was plenty for the crowd and established size. We had 10 plates stacked up and after 40 minutes finally asked if he could take, must explain why he made so many plates out because they loaded up the washer and plates were out on tables.

Visit date 12/11/2022 Time 1650-1800 Employee count 5 (seen regularly) Guest count: arrival, less than 20 but after 530 two large groups of 10 each arrived.

Conclusion: Visit when it's busy because they really don't care to keeping variety up, rotating inventory, and keeping guest satisfaction up to expectations when it's slow. There is a mural here that says: "The Ranch, Life is good" maybe at other locations, but this one fell short for one that's rather new. This location had been here since 2011, and just went through a renovation...Why? Must be profitable because the product going out is not up to par, or they do a ton of carry out. My 10yo daughter even pointed out that this location was not equal to the Waukesha one and I agree, May be worth the extra 30 minutes drive of you want a...

This is the 3rd visit in the last 6-8 weeks and the buffet has been scant! Everyone has been waiting for pizza, breadsticks, chicken, potato wedges, chicken fingers, chicken, biscuits, salad, & cactus bread, so when it comes out, everyone descends on the buffet like vultures grabbing heaps because you don't know when the next round of food is coming out. When the food does come out, you are hard-pressed to get a plate or silverware nearby because at least half of the plate dispensers and silverware cups are empty. This seems to be a longstanding trend in Elkhorn, such that even although this is our closest Pizza Ranch, we may reserve eating at PR when we are travelling.

It is not worth the price to eat here when the majority of what you want to eat is not available. Before we visited this 3rd time, I called ahead to make sure they would have the items we like on the buffet and we were assured that if we request it when we paid it would be brought out to us. We requested a cheese pizza and the potato wedges. When the pizza was brought out, the server was going to take our number tent away when I asked about our potato wedges. He put it back and we waited some more. I asked upfront and she went to check on it. We waited some more and just as we were finishing our meal, she brought the plate of potato wedges out to our table. Not quite ideal when it would have been better eaten with our chicken.

I get kid's night, we have 3 of our own, but we accompany our youngest one to the buffet. It would be nice if PR would require this of parents so kids are not taking a 1/2 plate of chicken fingers, 1/2 a pizza, or leaving piles of ice cream are on the machine, melting and dripping onto the floor. The latter happened twice this visit - and the piles filled 1/2 of the tray 5 inches tall. What a waste! What a mess! The server straightening up the salad bar seemed oblivious to it and was shocked to see the pile when I told her about it. I wanted to get some ice cream, but I did not want the melting, drippy mess on my clothes.

At least on this visit we had a server remove our plates a couple of times. The last couple of visits it was hard to find a clean table and perhaps once toward the end of our visit did someone come remove our piles of plates and bowls (salad, soup, pizza, and dessert multiplied by 5 people = piles) To top it all off, twice when I asked where the potato wedges and pizzas were, the supervisor was having a an obviously social conversation with a couple at a table and she took time out to say they were short-handed and they were working on getting the pizzas out as fast as they could.

VERDICT: Love the food (when we can get it). 3 strikes and you're out! It will take a lot to get us to go back to Pizza Ranch as a family...

I'm going to give the Elkhorn Pizza Ranch the benefit of the doubt with this 3 star review. For their sake I hope the time and day of my visit (4 pm on a Thursday) had something to do with my disappointment. To their credit the pizza bar was full but the cheesy bread and bread sticks were dry and tough (they did eventually bring out a fresh tray of cheesy bread and it was excellent). Ironically I do not go to PR for the pizza. I'm just not impressed with it in general even at other locations which are much better than this one. Their chicken on the other hand used to be incredible. This time there were three dried out pieces in the pan and another customer looked as disappointed as I was. I took a few waffle fries and homemade chips ( which are usually pretty good) and sat down to wait for fresh chicken. A cook came out 3 times to check the pan. Each time he glanced into it and went back into the kitchen leaving me with the hope that fresh hot chicken was on the way. After working my way through some dried out and over done waffle fries and chips both of which tasted of well used frying oil, I decided I couldn't wait any more. I grabbed breast and a thigh out of the pan and sat down to hope for the best. Hope was all I had as it was, as I expected, bad, dried out and tough. The guy came out, looked into the pan, went back in and in about 7-8 minutes out came fresh hot chicken.

When this location first opened it was great. I went there 3-4 times a month. After a couple of years it started to go downhill and I stopped going. Then I just happened to stop at the Wisconsin Dells location and rediscovered the excellent chicken and fresh hot food that had disappeared from the Elkhorn location. I made that a frequent stop on my way up north. This time I was really hungry and had gotten gas right next door so I decided to give the Elkhorn location another chance. Never again. I'll wait a few hours to get to the Dells where I have never been disappointed.

Elkhorn PR I know what this franchise can do. You did it once and other locations still do it. Sadly I'll probably never know if you get your act together because I doubt I will be stopping in again.

Like I said perhaps the time and day had something to do with it. Thats why I didn't give it the 2 stars it probably deserved. If so it was very unfortunate. If you want to give this location I would suggest you go at a busy time on a busy day. You might have to wait a bit but it just might...