Is good pizza worth an annoying restaurant setup? That’s your dilemma when you go to Pizza Ranch, which opened another location in the Madison area, this time in Verona.
The buffet ($11.37 for adults) includes fountain soda and dessert (soft-serve ice cream and dessert pizza).
Great variety of pizza. The lengthy list includes BBQ pork, the Trailblazer (pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, green peppers), BLT, the Bronco (meat lovers), buffalo chicken, taco and my particular favorite, the steak and onion.
- The flavors for the pizzas were true to their names, and each had plenty of toppings. The crust had a nice chew.
- You also can order a custom pizza while dining in, a seemingly odd choice at a buffet (though I saw plenty of tables do so).
Besides pizza, Pizza Ranch promotes its fried chicken as the Country’s Best Chicken. And actually, I thought it was the star of the buffet. The meat was very moist, and it was coated in a perfectly crispy, semi-salty skin.
Also worth noting: the fried fish was surprisingly acceptable, having a good fish-to-breading ratio. (If you need tartar sauce, you are out of luck.) Meanwhile, the clam chowder was mainly slices of potato, and the cheese stick was oddly flavorless (it’s basically cheese pizza, isn’t it?).
Lots of drawbacks. There’s always a line to get into Pizza Ranch, and it’s not because of its popularity.
- Plates and tables are not cleared quickly. This is a double-negative, since the restaurant is seat-yourself, and it’s hard to discern if people have left a table since their plates aren’t removed in a timely manner. That’s why you see so many would-be diners hover near tables, which is quite annoying for everyone. A host would easily solve this issue.
- No condiments at tables. For example, if you want ketchup, you need to grab individual packets in the buffet line.
- Pizza could be brought out more quickly. I think diners could be in and out more quickly if they didn’t have to wait so long for food to be replenished.
Pizza Ranch is open every day for lunch and dinner.
Tags: buffet, Lake Delton, pizza, Sun Prairie, Verona
