Cattle Baron — Restaurant in Ruidoso

2023 review after they reopened: 4/10. It was mediocre and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. When showing up I was surprised that it wasn't packed like it used to be years ago. It was half filled on the inside. I should have known that was a bad sign.

Our waiter Cody was sweating like crazy and I couldn't help but think some of his sweat is going to fall in a drink or food that we order. I honestly wanted to ask for a different server just because of that. He was way too pushy with the appetizers where it felt like he was a salesman trying to sell us something and wouldn't take no for an answer. It was obvious none of us were interested but he kept going. He didn't offer us complimentary bread until we were already waiting like 25 mins for our meal. Later on he was no where to be seen we'd have to wave him down for service. Service was terrible. Refills for some and none for others. Zero condiments provided. Fries had 0 ketchup. Burgers were over seasoned with pepper and so were the ribs. Ribs tasted super spicy in some bites as a result and had lots of fat. The steak had zero seasoning and had to ask for A1 steak sauce. Ordered 2 baked potatoes and one came fully loaded and the other one wasn't. My mother was unhappy since that was her baked potato that showed up different from mine. It was brought to their attention and instead of re-doing it for her they only gave her sour cream and some butter. It was still missing the chives, bacon, cheese, and etc. Mine had 0 butter and sour cream. Ribs weren't tender, were tough, not enough BBQ sauce, and the last one had a clear inch long hair stuck to the bottom of it. Overall, it was disappointing and very overpriced for what it is. Burgers are better and cheaper at Hall of Flame. Ribs are way better at Circle J BBQ. it's evident they raised prices and after this new reopening that they have a lot of amateurs working there. Not recommended at all. I was unhappy as well as the 3 other family members I went with. I don't think we'd ever go back. it's sad that you give them another chance after a re-opening just to get burned again. We told the waiter all of our complaints since he wanted a review for the new chefs. Nothing was offered as compensation. Other places would easily give you a refund, offer you a free meal, or a discount. Very unprofessional.

Old review from 2020: Terrible experience. 0 stars if I could give it to them.

The wait time was over an hour long when we arrived on time when they first opened up. Other people that arrived after us (30 mins or more) were served before us. The restaurant was less than half full so there was no excuse for that. My Dr. Pepper tasted so bad like it had gone rotten or had something else mixed into it. My Caesar salad was over drenched in salad dressing. The waitress was absolutely terrible along with the service she provided. No refills, no complimentary sanitary hand wipes, no to go boxes I asked for, no nothing. It was like she straight up ignored us 99% of the time. I paid $23 for my entree and the chef had the audacity to give me HALF a baked potato when I'm paying for a FULL baked potato. I asked for everything to be included in my baked potato and the majority of it was missing (no butter, no sour cream, etc). They gave me half a rack of ribs when I'm paying for a FULL rack. The food was mediocre and the portion sizes have been shrunk drastically compared to previous visits.

This was absolutely the worst experience I've had at a restaurant and the most unprofessional waitress I've ever seen. The chef also deserves to be held accountable for cutting corners and being skimpy on the food.

I've been a fan of this Cattle Baron for a long time (10+years) and never experienced anything like this before. I would never recommend this place to anyone I know after this experience. No one deserves to have to go through what I and my family went through.

0 stars. This is the LAST TIME my family and I will go to this...

We went in at 9:00pm, the restaurant closes at 9:30pm. There was an employee cleaning the floor who had to welcome us because the hostess was not paying attention. We got seated and an older man walks in. The employee who seats him is very rude to him with her body language and uncooperative when he asks for recommendations. Our server Mark goes and talks to him to help him. Mark was the only highlight of the restaurant and also the reason I am giving it 2 stars. If he is not the manager he should be made the manager. He has exceptional customer service skills. Keep the good work Mark! The other employees we saw were very unprofessional talking about their personal business out loud in front of customers. Now, to the food. My husband asked for a medium-well steak but it was hard like the sole of a shoe with no pink whatsoever. The baked potato was not baked right since it still had very hard parts. I asked for a soup and salad bar. As soon as we gave the order to the waiter they started disassembling the salad bar. They did not take the food right away but it was very upsetting to watch. We just came to Ruidoso last minute to have a short break from our very busy life and I am very upset that we can't even relax here. Another thing I want to say is: this is a very touristic area, why in the world do restaurants around here close at 9:00pm or 9:30pm? Do y'all realize that maybe tourists don't have food in their cabins and need to eat at restaurants? Do you realize tourists are tired from work and traveling and might have to eat meals at a later time? 11:00pm is when all of these restaurants should be closing to accomodate tourists and visitors. Finally, I just want to tell Cattle Baron Steakhouse that I am never eating here again and that you should consider hiring people with good customers skills (like Mark) and good...

If I can give it no stars I would. Worst place ever. Called in to make reservations and I was told 1st come 1st serve, so I went and took my whole family with 2 toddlers and a baby. My brother went in and was told there's a 30 mins wait so we're on the waiting list and we waited in the car. After 30 mins we checked in with them and was told we're next. 40 mins past and no call nor text so we went inside and the lady told us another 40mins wait. By this time we're in the parking lot for more than an hour. My brother decided to check what happened since the kids are already impatient but the lady told him she gave our sits away because we didn't respond, but no calls nor text was recieved from them and nobody even said sorry they just straight up said ohh we gave your sits away because we didn't see a respond when we called, we're in the car since you can't stay in the lobby due to pandemic and my brother gave them number to call. I've traveled all over US and eaten in hundreds of restaurants but this place was worst. I never gave bad reviews since I always find good things to say but this place was a disappointment. I will never recommend this place and will tell others about our bad experiences here and will post on several sites about how they treated us badly. At least apologize for the inconveniences you caused us especially we have kids that are hungry and was waiting for more...