Pizza Ranch — Restaurant in Sioux City

Wish i could give ZERO stars. Terrible, terrible, terrible! I am truly disappointed once again in Pizza Ranch (Sgt. Bluff Location) or its current management or should I say lack of management. I hate posting this review but after my last three visits within a couple months time-frame has been terrible I finally had to post this because they are going downhill. On this visit we arrived only to pay for our upcoming meals and then be hit up for a tip before leaving the cash register. Wow! I believe in tipping, however, earn it first I think. Thankfully we didn't tip before having our experience. After getting our own drinks, we found a table, sat down our drinks and went to the salad bar first. There was minimal salad for myself and others then stood there waiting for someone to refill. This took about 10 minutes to happen. I then proceeded to use the ranch dressing bottles and both of them were empty. Not the end of the world but once the manager asked this young girl working to refill them the young girl, in a nasty attitude sounding voice, said if you want this checking of temperatures done then you need to wait because it won't get done later? Whaaaaat? She is literally checking the temperatures of food, which is required I am sure by health codes, however, customers are standing there waiting and waiting to get salads and dressings. I am sure the temperatures could then be checked immediately after taking care of the customers! I then take my salad back to my table, go up to get chicken and wala nothing left but a few thighs that look dried out terribly. A person from the back sees myself and others standing there waiting and says it will be another 10 minutes! Whaaat again. Why wouldn't you have plenty of chicken ready? This place should be called the "Chicken Ranch" not Pizza Ranch because everyone I know agrees they don't make a very good pizza but excel at chicken. So I go back to my table, eat a small salad, and continue to watch for more chicken to come out. After 10 minutes and seeing people forming a huddle waiting for chicken I go stand up there too. Everyone around was complaining how terrible this place is run and how the lack of food was awful. Someone finally comes out and says it's going to be another 15 minutes! Are they serious? Wow wow wow.... it had been about 25 to 30 minutes already waiting for chicken. I finally told my wife and mother that I had it and went to the cash register and asked for a refund. Thankfully they did without hassle because I was in no mood. The problem is that this has happened on our last three visits, the manager at this Sgt Bluff location is unfortunately not qualified to be running a business like this. I say this because nothing has gotten better. If I owned this business at this location I would become very concerned. I am totally serious that at least 75% of the people there were complaining and assume the remaining 25% just didn't want to rock the boat. I recommend for $15 a person you go elsewhere because for that amount of money we...

Alright, riddle me this... how does a place called "Pizza Ranch" run out of ranch dressing?

In their defence, it was near the end of their buffet hours, so maybe they'd been instructed not to refill the dressing bottles, or maybe in their end-of-the-night Saturday rush they'd been too busy to notice. But the ranch dressing, one of three types they had available, was out. The coffee was out, which I found out after I decided I needed a drink (or the best I was going to get here). I was surprised to find they also, as a pizza buffet, did not offer any grated parmesan or red pepper flakes, something I'd always assumed was standard in this sort of establishment.

To describe the atmoshere, as Google requests, there was a table of high school boys in the middle of the seating area, and on the other side of the middle wall (me and the girlfriend decided to sit more or less in the corner, as far from the other patrons as we could) was a child watching or playing something out loud on a tablet. A child ran in front of me several times while I was getting my food, almost making me drop my plate. One of the first things I noticed once inside the restaurant was that the whole seating area smelled like a McDonald's PlayPlace. Someone nearly hit me with their pickup truck while parking.

The pizza was average, about on par for what I expected. The salad bar was one of the saddest I've yet seen.

All of this said, I rated it as "It's okay" because this is all about what I was anticipating when I went to a pizza buffet. I had never been to a Pizza Ranch before and of course I was hoping for something more like a slightly more upscale, slightly more Wild West version of Cicis Pizza, but sometimes in life we are disappointed and that's okay.

I'd also like to make a quick note of the lovely Christian decorations - it was more like if Chik-fil-A started a pizza chain than anything. Will probably go again to a different location someday and see if this location was just a fluke or this is the true meaning of Pizza Ranch.

EDIT: Lori - I do believe the shakers were either missed by the both of us or gone at the moment as I don't remember seeing them, but I can confirm that all 6 ranch dressing containers were empty as I tried all of them. I made a note of the Christian decor in my review only because I wasn't aware the restaurant was Christian before entering and it was a surprise to me; that's why I made the comparison to...

I ate there recently with my fiancee and we got food poisoning that same night after eating the salad and chicken. I would not recommend eating there until the employees have redone their food safety training so that they are not cross contaminating. And please tell your employees to stop picking up food with their bare hands especially when there are customers in the building because that is absolutely disgusting and is more than likely the cause of the cross contamination. It is also the reason for our food poisoning. PLEASE MAKE A CHANGE OR CUSTOMERS WILL STOP COMMING. Updated July 19th 2024: We decided to give it another shot with the whole family and I have got to say nothing changed the chicken thighs I tried to eat were raw in the center and tasted like they needed to change the oil yesterday. And we waited for 30 minutes for 1 pizza because the buffet had no pizza on it from 5pm to basically 6pm when we left and the onions on the buffet tasted absolutly rotten my mother who loves onions vomited after eating her pizza with extra onions on it from the buffet. When will it go back to the old days when yall were struggling to find enough places for the Pizzas it doesn't take more than 15 minutes for a pizza to go through the oven I get that there are orders to take but it takes no more than 1 minute to sauce and top the Pizzas and like 5-10 minutes in the oven if done right there should always be pizza for buffet coming out and orders going out for delivery. I spent $85 hoping for a delicious meal and good service but the pop machines were basically out of order. We need to hold higher expectations for your employees Lori because the food...