Pizza Ranch — Restaurant in Springfield

Before I state my opinion I want to make it very clear: I understand they are short staffed, I deal with the same issue. We had a party of 16 that had reserved the party room for in advance. When we got there at 6:00pm on Friday evening (our reserved time), the entire buffet was empty. Only options that were left were the side veggies, one pizza, salad options and a few pieces of dessert pizza. The restaurant was some what busy, but yet again even with shorter staff I think that especially on a Friday that an establishment would better prepare for a crowd. Including the reserved 16 person party they agreed to. There was basically the entire restaurant standing at the buffet when we were told it would be 15-20 mins before any food would be available. If it were a seated and served restaurant that would be understandable and expected. But it’s ridiculous to have literally no food on a buffet and still have people being seated. The cups that were given to us were dirty and had pieces of dried food on them. At that time, I took my receipt up to the register where the GM Sarah was taking a complaint from another person. When I finally talked to her, I gave her my cups and receipt then expressed in an understanding manner that I get it, you’re understaffed. But we had reserved a room with children and they were only able to have one piece of food each at an establishment that we had to pay $13 per kid, ASKING FOR A REFUND ON THE CHILDRENS’ MEALS. She was extremely condescending and very rude, but refunded the entire ticket. I went back to the party room and sat with my children, she came into the room announced that more food is ready then said “said oh you stayed to eat”. I said “well yea we reserved for this party, all I did was given you a complaint of the long weight for the food and the dirty cups but you resolved it”. Her comment in front of the entire party was “a $81 refund for dirty cups?” I told her “my total was only $41, not $81. And I asked you for a discount on the kids prices for them waiting. It was your choice to refund the entire amount. Not mine.” Then she continued to be disrespectful to my mother to try to get corporates number and who to contact for the regional. All the aggression was coming from her side, and was completely unprofessional. So no I do not recommend this establishment and will continue to contact corporate. This...

This is my second time here and it’s just the worst. Each time I’ve been here, the pizza looks like it’s been sitting out for days. It took several minutes for anyone to acknowledge us when we walked in. When they did greet us and take our money ($50), we also put in an order for a special pizza and when it came out 20 minutes later, it was nothing like the pizza we ordered. The girl didn’t listen to any but a couple of requested toppings. Then we had to wait another 15-20 minutes for the correct pizza order. When it was taking a long time, I went to talk to a woman who appeared to be a manager, to try to find out if it was almost done, she saw me, said something I couldn’t quite hear and then ran away. (Like, almost literally running, and no, there wasn’t a fire in the kitchen.) Actually all of the staff did this and I was left standing there basically talking to myself. They absolutely do not care about customers, and I get it, food service is a sucky job, but customers shouldn’t have to expect to be treated like garbage just because you don’t like your job or interacting with people in general. Do better. I’m not usually a Karen about this kind of stuff, I mean c’mon, Cane’s deep fried a hair in my chicken strip and I still gave them 3 stars for crying out loud. But there’s no reason why the women up front should have treated us like absolute garbage.

Trying to find a silver lining because I WANT to like this place, I’ll say that the fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans were very good. Also, it seemed pretty clean at the time of our visit.

Somehow, this location was apparently recognized as the franchisee of 2023. That blows my mind because this place is absolutely horrible—the food, the service, it was just a bad experience all around. It’s a shame because my fiancé loves this place.

For any staff reading this review, we visited on 11/14/24 in the evening. When asked for the name of the GM, the manager on duty claimed she couldn’t give out that information, however when I called the number posted on the wall of the restaurant, it specifically requested that questions or concerns be directed to the GM. Interesting. So, Pizza Ranch, before you tell me to contact the restaurant and speak to a manager, I already did that, and “Hailey” is...

First time ever in a Pizza Ranch. Here are my top 5 reasons, in order, I will never go back.

Lack of Staff. My friend and I went at 2:00 pm on a Monday and there was no one there. We waited about 5 minutes not sure if we should start eating or pay first. Finally someone came out of the back and we paid. Old/No food on the buffet. There were a handful of pizza slices that were old, no marinara sauce (the tub was empty), the biscuits were hockey pucks, and the chicken was soggy as if it had been there for a while and all the grease escaped the breading. The entire time we were there 1 pizza was brought out to the buffet. To their credit though both dessert options were almost full, old, but full. Price. For the handful of pizza slices and long timed out options it cost me $32. Imagine paying someone $32 to eat leftovers and that's what Pizza Ranch is like. Bugs. Yep. Ants, gnats, and others I couldn't Identify on the window sills, on the tables. It was nasty. Enough said. Management. When I spoke to the general manager about my experience at Pizza Ranch she responded with, "Nothing sounds to legendary to me." As if this is normal operations for her store. Not that I want to go back, and she did offer free buffets on my next visit (which I turned down), but just the fact that she was ok with this being how her store operates is enough to make sure I won't return

If you haven't been, There is no part of me that would recommend going. There was absolutely nothing about it that seemed redeemable, and I'm pretty sure, if operations there stay the same, we will have a new dining option in the mall soon enough.

EDIT I reached out to Pizza ranch like their response to my review asked. Their corporate level told me that they shouldn't have posted that. It automatically generated and I would need to speak to the general manager of the location I had the experience at. That would be the same general manager who told me that my experience at her restaurant was not "legendary". I'm sure with this being both corporate and store level reactions to experiences like this in their store, we will all get to enjoy a new...