Pizza Ranch — Restaurant in Waukesha

My family of 4 arrived at 4:30 Saturday afternoon -The restaurant was packed. We were greeted when we approached the podium with a friendly smile and only had a small wait to pay; we were able to find seating in a room that may have been reserved for parties but an employee opened it up right when we were walking by so we were able to grab a table. Bonus - there was a flat screen showing the Brewer game so we were pleased.

The Good: The restaurant was clean. Employees were smiling and quick to take empty plates from tables. Food overall was hot and fresh. For adults, there were wonderful choices of pizza to eat. Buffalo chix was my favorite and my husband really liked one that had pineapple on it. The salad bar was okay; a little small though and drink station was very clean. Chix noodle soup was delicious.

Thoughts: I felt the plates/utensils were in an awkward spot that makes the buffet lines chaotic, at least that is how Saturday ended up being.

The Bad: The restaurant was packed which is great for the business but not if you can't keep up with consumers, the pizza choices were poor for kids considering the amount of children in the restaurant - I felt there should have been cheese pizza and/or pepperoni and cheese available at all times. In fact, this is what made it chaotic.. People were standing around with kids waiting for pizzas on the buffet line and there wasn't much order to where they were standing and this wasn't just for regular pizzas, the dessert pizzas were not kept up either. Every time I escorted a kid or went up myself, the dessert pizza area of the buffet was empty.

The broccoli cheddar soup was the worst I've ever tasted. I'm not sure if it's a package they heat up or if the cheese is a powder they mix but it was not good.

Unlike other Pizza Ranch locations we've been to where you order a pizza and they bring the pizza to your table so you get first choice of the pieces - At this location, you can order the pizza you want and they give you a buzzer. As soon as my kids saw there were no pizza choices that they would eat, we ordered a cheese pizza and we were handed a buzzer and told to come back for their pizza. When it lit up and they went back to get pieces from their cheese pizza..... there was no pizza for them and the buzzer was taken with really no explanation of why they ordered a pizza, they waited but someone else got their pizza. In the meantime they ate some chicken and mashed potatoes and I ordered another cheese pizza for them. After 15 minutes of waiting for this 2nd pizza; they had filled up on the chicken and since my husband and I were full, we left.

While we are glad that Pizza Ranch is finally coming in our direction, we weren't impressed with our first experience at this location especially when you aren't local and are driving some distance - due to the friendliness of the staff and the overall cleanliness of the restaurant we would be willing to go back but definitely not a weekend and I'd probably wait a few more months until the kinks...

My original post is below. However I took a second trip and it was great! The food was great! Much better choices of food and the chocolate cactus pizza was awesome. Much better the second time around possible that it was bc it was less busy or I just went on a bad day but they have definitely improved from first opening!

My family loves pizza and eats it about twice a week. We were excited to hv this in our area. It just opened and not a good first impression. I'm not able to say whether the pizza was good bc I wasnt able to try any there weren't any typical choices available like pepperoni sausage cheese etc. There were only all these specialty pizzas which my family didn't care for and should always be available. The initial selection was chicken Alfredo pineapple buffalo etc. After that there was no pizza at all for about 20 minutes or more there shouldve been a much better flow of the kitchen which made for tons of people standing around and when some finally came out it was like vultures and people were very pushy. About 45 minutes later there was a very long line of people waiting to get seated which wouldn't been so long had there been more food available and less waiting. When more pizza finally came out it there were no regular choices AGAIN so I didn't even get a chance to have any pizza. As anyone with small children know you have short window before u have restless children. The upside our busser was very nice the management seemed a bit stressed which was understandable bc of the lack of consistency with the kitchen. There were no chicken fries the entire time we were there and finally right before we left they were brought out which was also dissapointing as my children would've enjoyed them. There were only three of the same dessert pizza available on the whole line and was told it would take 5 more minutes for the advertised chocolate cactus pizza which really took abt 15 min it was very good. Mashed potatoes were good and not instant. The chicken was good always available and fresh. The dessert pizza was better then most buffets. Good selection of drink choices. Sodas Gatorade vitamin water mango lime soda. They also have coffee that is served with nice to go coffee cups coffee wasn't good but to be expected at a buffet. They also have vanilla ice cream amd cones which was good and go well with the cherry pie pizza and the cactus pizza. Overall it was pricey for the Experience we had however if it was just an off day or learning to have a better flow of the kitchen would've been a much better experience as the food was...

This was my first time at this location. Walking in my first impression was a bit overwhelming. As my family of 8 standing there to pay to come in, people were also standing there to the right of the register to order their pizza so walking in was a bit crowded due to that line. I feel the line to order your pizza should not be so close to the entry line. So after walking in, getting through the crowd to find our seats, the first thing I like to do is take a look around to see what's what. Right away after walking with a plate in hand, there was no food at first. No pizza, except for old slices, no chicken, and no mash potatoes and the salad bar needed restocking. Maybe there was a rush before walking up who knows 🤷🏾‍♀️. So I went back to my table empty handed and went to go order what pizza my family wanted. While I waited I went to go get a drink. After what I saw I somewhat lost my appetite. The ice dispenser on the sofa machine looked weird so I took a closer look to what looked like mold/mildew. When I saw that, I automatically thought to myself if the ice dispenser looked as such, I wondered if they cleaned the nozzles to each individual soda spout🤔 I know that sometimes being a culinary student who has taken multiple sanitation classes, I can be a bit anal about certain things, but this was not one of those things. So I told my family not to use the ice machine and hope and prayed that drinking the soda we were OK. Another thing that I noticed was the soiled dishes everywhere on other people's tables and how quickly the plates accumulated on my family's table and there was no one collecting soiled dishes. A family that was sitting next to our table that had left, we had to start putting our dishes on that table because no one was coming. Short staffed maybe.... It was after all a busy Monday night. Maybe they didn't anticipate it on being that busy.  Overall 3.5 and knowing that I will not be returning even though the food was ok. I need ice in my...