Ranch PDX, NW 21st — Restaurant in Portland

Edit from my 2023 review.

$28.50 for a pizza that’s smaller than most other places. $8.50 for a slice today 5/3/25. I laughed and walked out the door.

Uncertain economic times or not this is just squeezing the consumer for a pizza that had gotten consistently worse and more expensive over the years.

I used to check in every 6 months to see how it was. Now I’m just done. This is ridiculous. Go to pizza thief on Vaughn or Scott’s a few blocks up on 21st both are better and more value for your dollar.

No issues with the service or workers. Food is worse than it was 5 years ago.

At a certain point it just becomes disrespectful to your customer to offer a worse product for the money.

I moved to portland last year and lived on 21st for the year. I ordered a Pepperoni Pizza from Ranch on the majority of my Friday nights. Loved it and it quickly became my favorite pizza spot in portland and still is.

Though I’ve noticed in the last 3-4 months or so the crust is a lot thinner than it used to be. Each slice used to be very thick. I also could be misremembering but I think the price used to be $24 for a full pepperoni pizza and now it is $26 on their website. I’m not sure if they are having an issue getting the same type of dough or are having to use less of it or what but it’s definitely different than it used to be, and if I’m remembering correctly it is now slightly more expensive.

You should by all means come and still try it, it is great but I think it used to be slightly better. I ding come here as frequently as I used to but I do pick it up every once in a while.

I am curious if they will start making it again like they used to and if this is a...

While the pizza is the best in the city for my taste (focaccia style crust), this review is specifically about the FANTASTIC wine list at the NW 21st location. I work in the wine industry, and was surprised and thrilled to find that the options here are all excellent choices. Just about every pizza spot in town (not counting Ken's, or other places that are far more expensive and more set up for dining in) offers a handful of cheap, generic wines from the giant distributors, usually a red and a white, and I go with beer and remind myself, "Dude, you're getting pizza by the slice, this doesn't require interesting wine."

The woman putting the wine list together at this location happens to have a great palate, and has organically selected a sort of "who's who" of wines that generally trend towards organically/biodynamically grown and naturally made, while still being clean, bright, and extremely food-friendly. The distributors she's working with are some of the best in town, generally small companies that directly import hard to source wines for great prices. She's going out on a limb and featuring some esoteric grapes and regions that you may not have heard of, but every choice is one that works perfectly with hearty food. Her pricing is excellent - the $20 bottles here go for $30+ at fancier restaurants, where you will not be able to get a delicious, totally filling quarter slice of hearty pizza for $7! If you're on the fence about adding a glass or a bottle to your lunch or dinner...

[EDIT] I accidentally posted this on the wrong Ranch PDX page. The problems we had were at Montavilla, not here. I had a good pizza from here in the past, so am changing it to 5*. I unfairly maligned the NW21st location. I'm leaving the text here in case it helps people not go to Montavilla.

We tried pickup from this location [MONTAVILLA, not NW21st see comment above] because it was less busy than inner-southeast. The pizzas were lousy! 🙁 At least they were square (Detroit style) but there was very little cheese, and no "cheese crust" at the sides to speak of. While some of the toppings (Calabrian peppers, thick lardons) were good, the crust was so hard that it required a firmly-applied pizza cutter to separate even after they'd attempted to cut it. The resultant slices needed fork-and-knife treatment, and "sawing" action on the plate.

I've greatly enjoyed RanchPDX 'za from the location in inner SE, and for that reason will probably try it again, but the experience with pizza from Montavilla almost made me want to give up on the chain.

I don't usually have strong bad reviews, but this deserved it. I hope it was just a bad night in Montavilla, but $68 later we were extremely...