Jackalope Ranch — Restaurant in Indio

This is by far the most appalling service I have ever received. Please, stay away from the business and find another place that deserves it.

I have never been so disappointed in a business before. My wife recently threw a bridal shower at this place for her twin sister. I helped her plan this event for about a year, and watched how passionately she chose decorations, made invitations, and made things by hand to prepare for this special day. She insisted on having the bridal shower here at Jackalope Ranch because of its atmosphere and whole theme, even though they were going to be charging us quite a bit for only a party of 30 to have lunch ($50 per person after gratuity with only 3 menu options to choose from). My wife requested to have the tables set up outside so we could enjoy the scenery (which is beautiful) and the fresh air.

Okay, so now here are the complaints:

For $50/person, I would expect more than mediocre food. I've had better pulled pork sandwiches from KFC - and that is not saying much.

They used the wrong table clothes and napkins. My wife requested certain colors that would match the theme that she has been planning on for about a year. When we arrived early to start setting up, we saw that they were wrong and mentioned it to the staff who acted clueless and said that they could not do anything at that point because their boss was not there and they were AFRAID of getting in trouble.

The day of our venue, it was pretty warm outside (86F to be exact). The restaurant employees set up all of the tables outside like they were supposed to, but were inconsiderate to the fact that they were about to have 30 ladies sit in almost 90F weather without any shade for about 2-3 hours. Within the group, there was 1 pregnant women and about 5 elderly ones. After 45 minutes of sitting in the sun, they asked to waiters for one or two umbrellas that they could share. Everyone could see that there were about 5-6 umbrellas not being used in another seating area outside across from where our party was; but, the staff said that they would have to charge these elderly and pregnant women $100 PER UMBRELLA if they wanted to use them for the remaining 2 hours. Upon hearing this, I asked our head server if he wanted to bring over 2 umbrellas for the girls to use, and I'll forget about the linens and napkins being wrong. Once again, this person tells me that he is AFRAID to help us because he might get into trouble from his boss. I'm fed up at this point, and walk away. Then, 2 of the guests go inside Jackelope Ranch to find the manager. They make a deal with him that they can get 2 umbrellas for $50 dollars each that they will pay out of their own pocket. The manager agrees, and the staff then fetches 2 of the umbrellas from the other patio where they are still not being used.

The shower is done, now it is time to pay the bills. My wife should be paying about $1500.00 for everything, and the 2 other ladies should be charged $50 each for their shade rentals. They all give their cards to the staff alongside the appropriate billing info. This should be the easy part, right? WRONG. The staff charges my wife NOTHING, one guest $54 dollars (they taxed the umbrella rental, which is illegal since it is not a resale), and the other guest $1608!!!!! THEY CHARGED ONE OF THE BRIDAL SHOWER GUESTS FOR THE ENTIRE EVENT, PLUS $100 FOR A RENTAL UMBRELLA, PLUS TAX ON IT!!!!

The obvious solution would be to refund/void the charges to the guest and to charge my wife for the event, and to charge both guests the same amount for the umbrella rental. But, it has been 4 days and the guest still does not have her money back in her account, and they WILL NOT refund her any money for her shade rental (the charge for $108 still stands.

This is by far the most appalling service I have ever received. Please, stay away from the business and find another place that...

We had reservations for 4 on Saturday. We had planned on having a nice dinner with friends and a movie after. The evening started out fine. We were seated right away, which was nice. Once our server Tom, came by it went down hill from there. My friend was asking him some questions about their drink selection. Tom, didn't seem to want to be bothered, so she quickly ordered her drink, so as not to keep him. It took him a while to come back to take our meal order, I asked if a particular dish was served wiith BBQ sauce, once I learned that it was, I asked him to take the others order while I selected a different dish. He said, "I will come back" and the others at the table just looking at one another. That first incident, was a lil funny. We thought maybe he misunderstood me. Nope. He was just rude. Once we placed our order we wanted to add something to our order, Tom looks at us annoyed and says "geesh!." as he walks away. Now at this point we should have received our bread basket which we didn't, we had to ask for it. When he finally came over to our table he tells us that hes going to call a manager over. At this point my friends were stunned but I was glad to have a manager at our table, since I had a word or two to share with him about his server, Tom. Now, I know it seems like I'm leaving something out of this review, like maybe that we were rude to Tom, or that we were being difficult but I promise we were not. I still don't know why Tom was so rude to us. Maybe he was having a bad day, I don't know. Needless to say, when the manager came over he didn't see a problem with adding a salad to our order. I shared my thoughts with Tom and the manager. I told them I did not appreciate the type of service we were receiving and how rude Tom was behaving with us. He of course acted as nice as could be in front of his manager. From the look on Tom's face, I don't think very many people confront him on his attitude. The manager handled the situation very well, which is why I gave them 2 stars. I will not be returning to Jackaloupe Ranch...

Driest brisket sandwich I've ever had in my life, soggy sweet potatoes and tasteless coleslaw. Then I got their "famous" creme brulee cheesecake to take home. The fork test on the brulee was a joke, itwas like rubber and the actual cheesecake tasted like they spilled a bottle of vanilla into it. What a complete waste of money. 7/8ths if it is in my trash and if I hadn't been so hungry I'd have sent the meal back as well. The only thing that dripped out of the sandwich was the over mayo'd coleslaw. Yuuk, did they run out of vinegar? Forget the celery seed or salt?

Our server was very quiet but attentive, a little slow but consistently remembered everything and took great notes. We had a large party but obviously this place cannot handle the pressure. We were there for almost 3 hrs, most of it waiting for one thing or another. Several other wait staff helped so I place the blame on the kitchen staff. Do they not have an expediter? I observed them for a little while and they nonchalantly talked among themselves, joking and not cooking. Absurd behavior considering their high value menu items. Wagyu steaks, burgers, in house smoked meats....the experience should've been next level.....NOT!

I will never go back, wasted $130.00. $14.00 was for that disgusting fake cheesecake. They get no opportunity for a second chance at that price. What a beautiful place it is on the outside but on the inside, where it counts, the food and service combined were uninspiring at best. Mostly the food. Our waitperson was kind, friendly and thoughtful. I blame the kitchen staff.

Just to be clear, I've spent hundreds on a night out for good quality food. I'm a chef and It pains me to even write this review but not as much as it bothered me to pay for crap in such a beautiful place. It's just not a complete package. So if you're planning a gathering and want a beautiful place to host it go to jackalooe ranch, just...