Pizza Ranch — Restaurant in Peoria

Excellent food, service and atmosphere. Pizza Ranch is a Christian business, operated and owned by Christans. You can have pizza any way you like it and although it's a traditional type buffet, they bring the pizza you request to your table first to ensure you get some. Once they serve you your pieces of your requested pizza, it's placed on the buffet for other guests to try and enjoy. They offer traditional choices and some specialty options as well all cleverly named to suit the "Ranch" theme. Some examples: cactus bread is a dessert pizza on the dessert buffet that has cinnamon and sugar drizzled with warm, gooey icing (great with their awesome soft serve). The prairie is a vegetarian/vegetable pizza, Tuscan Roma is a pizza that doesn't have the traditional red sauce base, with sliced Roma tomatoes and spinach... My favorite! There are three different crust styles to choose from. There is a chicken buffet. The chicken here is outstanding, in fact I don't know why it's not called the Chicken Ranch... Buffet has vegetable, mashed potatoes, gravy, potato wedges, soft, buttery, flaky biscuits...a fantastic salad bar with several choices of fresh veggies, romaine and iceberg lettuce, macaroni and potato salad, come slaw, puddings, cottage cheese, fruit... To name a few items. They have a kids night where children eat free with an accompanying paying adult. They have a special character or kid friendly guest on the floor that night for pictures and entertainment. There are conference/party rooms of different sizes available to reserve. They participate in local fundraising where groups are able to come and bus tables, etc in exchange for a percentage of sales and tips. Pizza Ranch staff participate in local volunteer opportunities regularly, they give back to the community in countless amazing and generous ways. Pricing may seem high but it reflects the quality of service, food and overall experience. Senior, military, clergy, Caterpillar and first responder service workers discounts. The restaurant is clean and staff is friendly. Refreshing and commendable company mission statement and vision (posted in waiting area). weekends can be busy, there is sometimes a line but they do a good job to keep things moving along efficiently. Nice clean restrooms, ample parking, located in a safe area next to the Christian Center near the mall and several hotels...

You pull up to the door of what looks like an old timey saloon. "Where am I? Is this an old haunt of Wild Bill, himself?" you ask yourself. The atmosphere is electric.

There are people milling about, leading you to think that there's a wait time for tables, but oh no, that's just not true. You and your lil' partner are seated right away, whisked to a table you choose yourself. Let the people decide.

Soon you find yourself OVERWHELMED BY FLAVOR of the six, MAYBE SEVEN different pizza options available. To your left, a screaming child begs for more delicious wares. On your right, an elderly couple look into one another's eyes as if for the first time. They reach their hands together. "My darling, you look beautiful under these warm, yet comfortably bright lights. Let's renew our vows tomorrow. I want to take you to Pizza Ranch each Saturday for the rest of my life!" one says to the other. Look away, they need some privacy now.

Without hesitation you get up, anticipating your next plate. Walking past a baby shower in the party room, you see the precious sight of a child building their first soft serve swirl at the machine. A few seconds in, their face changes from eager excitement to horror as they loose control, and you think of each and every cone that made you feel the same. A quick glance revals that everyone has chosen vanilla. Why? Is it an authentic callback to pioneer times when chocolate candies were hard to come by? Oh, it's because that's the only option.

The waiter looks at you, knowingly.You can tell they aren't the happiest buckaroos, but each day these folks get a front row seat to the theater of life. You...

Terrible, horrible to say the least. Avoid if your looking for a decent meal. Walked in and was greeted and paid and asked for a Buffalo thin crust pizza, was given a number 2 to place on out table for the pizza. We went up to the salad bar and got a salad waiting for the Buffalo pizza to arrive to the table. While waiting we hear a man yelling across the whole restaurant in an outside voice Buffalo Thin Crust. We have no idea what is going on as we have a number 2 sitting on out table waiting the server to arrive and ask us how many slices should we like, as always but no one came. We walked up to the buffet to out surprise our pizza we were waiting for was on the buffet. We ask and the gentleman at the register with the rude attitude tells us they don't walk to the table here with the pizza. We ask why would we get the number 2 and he replies Morton and Peoria are two different places and Morton does not walk to your table, we ask why did we get a number if he was going to yell across the place then. Just horrible 😞. The Chicken was so over cooked to the extentit was burnt, the pizza selection was terrible also and never was restocked the desert was empty. I would just avoid and for the record the young man cleaning the tables was so nice, he had a great attitude and he made the visit to where we just did not walk out. We left still hungry, not full, which is ridiculous being in an all you can eat. If your a manger do your job and fix your restaurant as you're not doing...