Willow Ranch — Restaurant in Shafter

I used to love this place a few years ago but this past sunday me and my husband made a special trip back and we are sad to say, we probably wont be returning. The staff seemed more concerned with clocking off and taking home food for themselves, rather than meet the needs and expectations from the customers. I had ordered the kids mac and cheese for my son, which i was expecting something house made but was served kraft boxed mac and cheese. And if that wasnt bad enough, while my son was trying to eat his food, he pulled about a 9-10 inch long black hair from his mouth that had been in his food. The staff was unbothered by this, and offered no kind of compensation for that disgusting mishap. I tried ordering a mixed drink and was served an over sized glass of pure liquor that was not palletable to consume. My salad was made incorrectly and served with the wrong dressing, and even my husband had a problem with his patty melt being made with the incorrect cheese. The resturant itself was clean to my knowledge and from what i could see, it was quiet and calm inside, but that was about the only positive thing from my experience. Overall, this experience really took a toll on my once high opinion of this place. For paying a grand total of over $90 for this kind of experience is not worth it. A standard Denny's has better morals and respect for its customers, and ive never been served food with hair in it by one either, let alone not be compensated for this in some way. The way my original waitress couldnt handle a mixed drink order and decided alone to pass off my table completely to another employee, who clearly didnt know what he was doing with making my drink anyways, was highly unprofessional. The staff, the drinks, the food was all just chaotic and sloppy. I understand we came in during the dinner hours and people get tired, but thats no excuse to allow a customers child to be fed hair from their staff without even an apology. Cant say i recommend here really, but i always try to give good credit where i can, so the rest of our meal outside of the stated problems above, was nice and enjoyable in its own. I personally just cant overlook staff blatently disreguarding a customer being served hair in their food. Its a disgusting thing to have to deal with, and its worse when the people responsible dont feel any shame for...

Keep driving and don't stop with this place. This is going to be a harsh review. So I decided after three years of driving by to try this place and wow, what a disappointment. I ordered their famous "Plow Boy" and a couple of beef ribs to go to sample what they have. I could already feel disappointment when I was handed the bag and it felt like nothing was in the bag for $32 plus tip. I opened the container with the two beef ribs ($16!) and was met with the overpowering smell of burnt plastic (not from the container) and tried a little nibble of the meat and it tasted like chemicals and burnt plastic. Completely inedible. I also noted that there was virtually NO meat on the ribs and what little there was was burned to a crisp. Now the sandwich, I partially dissected half of it to taste the pastrami and brisket but couldn't find any brisket! What was there was completely underwhelming and nothing close to an enjoyable sandwich. The fries were cold and soggy. I called the store and spoke to a gentleman who was pleasant on the phone and listened to what I said about my meal and said they "would make it right" and remake my meal the next time I was there. He said he was making note of the offer. A few days later I stopped by and explained my situation to the one person working and she seemed perplexed at my story. Supposedly no evidence was found of my meal remake and the manager was 30 minutes late coming to work so several calls were made to find out what to do with my meal remake. 20 minutes later she got the approval to remake my meal and what did I get? The same awful sandwich with no brisket, no fries (what happened to my fries?), and two beef ribs devoid of any edible meat albeit not as plasticy tasting but still have an odd chemical flavor. I tried removing the meat from the bone and had about 2 ounces of meat (see pics) which would be $8 an ounce or $128 a pound!)m. The sandwich was no better with salty dry pastrami, salty bacon and no signs of brisket. It was awful. Between the food and the service on the second visit I'm pretty sure I will continue driving...

Saw a write up about this place in an article about socal bbq so was very excited to make a pit stop on a long work road trip. The service was excellent as were the portions unfortunately the BBQ was super mediocre. I got the 3 meat meat plate with brisket, pit beef, and baby backs. The ribs came with 7 bones which is an awesome portion for a combo but were almost shockingly disappointing. Super tough and absent of any rub and just the slightest smoke flavor, mall chains do a better job and Ive had way better at gas stations in the central valley. Ditto on the Brisket. Zero bark, covered in untrimmed fat that had zero smoke or rub flavor and was reheated on a flat top "gasp". Pit beef was pretty good smokey and served with out sauce. Also the plate came with no bread so had to buy a 2 dollar order of white bread to have somthing to eat my 35 dollar bbq plate with. Ironically the best part of the meal was the tiny ramekin of ranch beans which came with the plate, tender, rich and flavorful. Also I would be remise not to note that I loved the bbq sauce. Sweet and peppery with strong notes of onion and garlic... really good. If only the meat was worthy of the sauce. Front of the house was great servers were fast and friendly. Cant speak to the rest of the menu but I'd...