The Ranch House – Vegas review

 

Vegas has  a lot of bloggers.  I learned this at my first blogger meet-up ever, at The Ranch House, and hosted by the deliciously delightful Abby Tegnelia.

Of course, meeting all the other bloggers and learning about the group and stuff was cool, the coolest part was FREE FOOD! Especially for this broke-ass blogger, who had a total of $20 dollars in her pocket, and had already relinquished herself to the fact that she was not going to have more than the sole slice of pizza she ate for lunch, earlier that day.

So, instead of writing about the meet-up, and what we learned, and who we met, and blah blah blah – I’m going to get all food-porny on you guys and tell you about The Ranch House Kitchen at Town Square on southern Las Vegas Boulevard.

Colombian Prostitute at The Ranch House

The Ranch House is hidden in the back, and upstairs of this ginormous shopping complex. Its decor  is similar to your typical American ranch house restaurant – think Longhorn Steakhouse or Bugaboo Creek (minus the creepy talking animal heads), but on a more upscale level and without the totally ridiculous outfits.

The restaurants PR people set up a whole family style tasting sample of their menu for us (and then kindly emailed what we ate to the group.  Cause after a couple Colombian Prostitutes, and all the whirlwind of meeting everyone, god knows I wasn’t going to remember the correct names and ingredients in all the food I photographed.)

sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top

Sweet Potato Melt-

Sweet Potato Tots tossed in a buttery cinnamon spice blend then topped with toasted marshmallows and candied pecans

This was sweet. Really, really sweet. A bite was more than enough for me.  I could never eat a whole dish; and I eat sugar straight out of the bag!  It looks really pretty though, but definitely not something I would order again.

 

tortilla chips with meat cheese sauce

Queso con Carne-

homemade cheese sauce with seasoned beef and fresh fried flour tortillas

Ok, I’m not going to lie.  I didn’t try the cheese sauce, but that is because, in the good ‘ol US-of-A I cannot eat rich cheese or beef.  But this dish seemed quite popular.  I did try the chips, which were extra crispy and thick, and could easily hold up to a good snogging in that greasy-meaty cheese sauce.

 

fresh made buffalo chicken pizza

Buffalo Chicken Pizza-

Crispy chicken mixed with Ranch House Kitchen’s mild and hot buffalo sauces

This shit flew!  This is by far the best buffalo chicken pizza I have ever had.  I don’t know what they did, but every other buffalo chicken pizza I’ve had tastes the same.  This had some secret creamy goodness imbedded in it.  It was just spicy enough without being overpowering.  I had a couple slices of this.  Unbelievable.  The first pizza was gone in about 2 minutes (ok, in about 2 minutes AFTER we had all finished taking our photos).  And most of those 2 minutes were us looking at the pizza, then looking at each other, and trying to figure out if everyone got a slice, and if we are rude if we just devour it.  I opted for the devour. Hey, I could eat it.  I was hungry.  Screw everyone else.

ranch sauce in front of buffalo chicken pizza

 

 

Also it came with some ranch dipping sauce which I tried just a smidge of.  It was ranch dipping sauce. It was good with the pizza, but was probably just straight out of the bottle ranch.

 

 

 

 

 

fresh salad with apples, cranberries, and got cheese

Trail Blazer Salad-

Chopped Kale with granny smith apples, walnuts, dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, pepitas, candied pecans and blue cheese tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette

This was delicious too. I am usually not a fan of dried cranberries, walnuts, OR pecans…but in here they all just blended together and melt in your mouth.  There was no conspicuous hard dried pieces (which happen so often with cranberries or nuts in salad). 

I don’t know if they soak the nuts and berries first to soften them up.  All I know is that I found this salad, texturally, flavorfully, and visually stunning.  Not something you would expect to see at your typical American cuisine joint, which I welcomed enthusiastically.

 

icecream on french toast in black bowl

French Toast Sundae-

Warm Cinnamon French Toast topped with Haagen Daz Vanilla Bean ice cream, candied pecans and chocolate maple syrup

This was another dish I didn’t try.  It came during the meeting part of the meeting, and by the time we got around to eating it, the icecream (another thing I sadly can’t eat here) had started to melt all over the French toast.  But honestly, I probably wouldn’t have anyway.  This really does seem like a cheap cop-out dessert; more like something I would expect to find on Denny’s Late Night Menu, than an upscale American  restaurant.  It just looks like it would be disgustingly heavy and sweet in your stomach, and is not at all appealing.  Sorry, Ranch House, but it seems to me you can come up with something better than this.

 

But wait!  there’s one more!  Yes, I saved the best dish of the evening for last…

fresh, juicy, melt in your mouth ribs

THE RIBS!!!!

Rack of Pork Ribs-

Slow-smoked, fall-off-the-bone pork ribs topped with Ranch House Kitchen’s Root Beer BBQ Sauce

These ribs were AMAZING!  See that bone?  It just fell off.  Was all,
“I don’t want to be here anymore”, and slid right off the meat.  These were some of the most tender, juicy ribs I have had.  And the BBQ sauce?  I knew there was something special about it, and now that I have the description, I see it’s ROOT BEER.  Whoever came up with mixing root beer and BBQ  sauce together should be given a fucking medal.  Cause this was amazing!!!!!

 

So that is a sample of The Ranch House Kitchen’s food.  Some of the food was excellent;  some, I think they need to go back to the drawing board on.   They do have a huge bar, with large TV’s, live music, and an outdoor patio.  And the servers and bartenders are all really upbeat, cheery, and friendly.  I do have to say, I absolutely loved the staff.

CHEERS!