“Never
eat more than you can lift.”
---Miss
Piggy
RANCH
HOUSE BBQ AND GRILL
6157
Van Nuys Blvd
Van
Nuys, CA 91401
818-287-0966
11:00
AM to 8:45 PM Monday through Saturday
11:00
AM to 7:45 PM Sunday
You could consider the Ranch House to be in our local
neighborhood, but to be honest, we had no idea that it was here. It came to our attention as the result of a
random Google search. They don’t have a
web site, per se, but are listed on several on-line ordering and review
sites. The reviews were both good and
bad, the negative mostly being about on-line ordering. We place little stock in other’s reviews,
preferring to taste for ourselves, so we decided to try it anyway.
It’s in the Van Nuys civic center area across the street
from the State office building. The
majority of their business is probably lunch trade from the government workers
and police, and firemen. Considering the
neighborhood, it’s not surprising that they don’t stay open late. Sharon remembers when this location was a
Mexican restaurant, and they still serve Mexican food, along with salads,
burgers, pasta, pizza, and yes, barbeque.
All this menu diversity did not bode well for the que, but we decided to
give it a try anyway even though, when we showed up, on a ninety degree day,
the air conditioning was out.
We arrived at 6:00 PM on a Saturday night and were the
only people in the place. This is one of
those places where you normally order at the counter and they deliver it to the
table. Since the server was looking for
something to do he took our order at the table. While we waited for our order,
a friend we had called to share the experience showed up and placed her
order. Looking around we found that this
is one of those places that makes no pretense at décor, it just is. It’s clean enough to have an “A” rating from
the Health Department, but aside from having booths with tables I wouldn’t call
it restaurant designer anything.
Sharon ordered at Brisket and Chicken Breast combo with
Mac and Cheese side and I ordered a Tri-tip and Baby Back Rib combo with Peanut
Coleslaw as a side. I also ordered a
couple of a la carte Beef Ribs and a Hot Link to get a good sampling. Our friend ordered a Tri-tip dinner with Mac
and Cheese and a Salad as sides. The que
is not at all expensive, but the sides are all a la carte. We shared an order of Garlic Butter
Rolls. After the meat we ordered
Chocolate Cake and Cheese Cake for dessert.
Since there were no other patrons at the time it’s not surprising that
the food arrived promptly.
Garlic Butter Rolls
This is simply a good commercial roll slathered with melted
butter and sprinkled with herbs. We’ve
seen them elsewhere and here it’s done well.
If you have any left over they are worth taking home and warming up the
next day.
Mac and Cheese
The pasta was al dente but the cheese sauce was just a
little this side of Kraft macaroni and cheese.
That’s not all that bad, and it’s better than just OK, but not a
fabulous mac and cheese. When you order
a small side order it is so I did not get to try it as a leftover.
Salad
For a plain dinner salad this was more than OK. Everything was very crisp and fresh. The dressing was tasty. On the whole it was more satisfying than the
usual dinner salad.
Peanut Coleslaw
The dressing on this was oiler than I like and also a bit
on the timid side with the spices but I have had much worse recently. It was described as a small side order and
they weren’t kidding. After sampling it
there was not enough left to take home for a test pulled pork sandwich. .
Tri-tip
Thank goodness, they did not slice it too thin. It was served in nice thick chunks that you
slice yourself. The mesquite smoke
flavor is a bit subtle if you are used to tri-tip done over California red oak,
and there was no visible smoke ring, but the flavor was really there. This is a good piece of meat done properly. Not the best tri-tip I have ever had, but much
better than you get at more expensive barbecue places…very tasty.
Brisket
You expect brisket to be sliced, but this they did slice
too thin. It looked as though they ran
it through a deli slicer to make roast beef sandwiches. Other than that, there was not much to find
wrong with it. It had a good smoky
flavor and was quite tender. This is a
brisket worth ordering even if you would like a little more to chew on.
Baby Back Ribs
You’ve seen me write that baby back ribs should not
disappoint and these do not. They are
tender, have a good smoky flavor and are relatively meaty.
Chicken Breast
Someone pounded this almost to scaloppini before it was
put on the grill. It has the mesquite
smoke flavor and was done through, juicy and tender. A slightly different presentation of chicken
breast but very good.
Beef Ribs
Big, meaty, and with that flavor that shouts “Beef!” when
you bite into them these are excellent beef ribs. One of them was shared between the three of
us and the other came home as a leftover.
Hot Link
A hot link it ain’t.
It’s a sausage, just a bit more spicy than the average hot dog, but with
an oddly cinnamon flavor to it. It’s
served with a small serving of old fashioned French’s yellow mustard. I don’t think that it’s worth it as a hot
link, but it is mild enough that Sharon could eat it.
Pulled Pork
Very simply, this is about as good as pulled pork
gets. They don’t have a pulled pork
plate on the menu, only a sandwich and take home by the pound. With a proper slaw the pulled pork makes a great
sandwich. The leftovers will make at least four pulled pork sandwiches this
week. Bet they sell a lot of sandwiches.
Chocolate Cake
This is a more or less standard commercial bakery ‘Death
by Chocolate’ cake. It has four layers
of chocolate cake separated by chocolate icing with shaved chocolate on the
outside. It’s not bad, but they keep it
in the cooler and it would be tastier if it were lightly nuked and served with
a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Cheese Cake
The lightness of the cheesecake was a quite pleasant
surprise. It is a simple, creamy
cheesecake but quite tasty.
One of the reviews referred to the Ranch House BBQ and
Grill as a hole. Well it appears to be a
hole, but a clean one. What they didn’t
find fault with was the food and we couldn’t either. We didn’t try anything from the extensive
menu except the que, so I can’t comment on the other selections; however the
que is quite good. I wouldn’t call it destination barbecue unless you live in
the Valley, but it’s good enough to warrant repeat visits if you do. I hate to quote from movies, but “I’ll be
back!” We give it an eight.
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