Ranch House BBQ and Grill6157 Van Nuys Blvd
Van Nuys
(818) 908-8399
This is your typical everyday, suburban BBQ, cooked in an oven. For what it is, oven BBQ, Ranch House does a pretty good job. Ribs cooked in an oven isn't something I go seek and if it was up to me, I would ban the use of the phrase BBQ, if the meat is cooked at temps above 250 degrees.
I got an order of baby back ribs with mashed potatoes, $9.50, but $8.99 on the outdated menu. The baby backs had a sauce just like Chris and Pitts, a bit sweet but tangy, tomato based sauce. The meat was tender, since it was baby backs, and pretty flavorful with the sauce. But there is no smoked flavor. The meat was white throughout. A true sign of smoke is the smoke ring.
Service was good, the owner is nice and friendly. But they do need to update the menu prices. But the biggest thing was the smell in the restaurant. They need to throw away the rugs or get them dry cleaned. Just a terrible musty smell in the restaurant. So bad that I couldn't eat there. I actually drove from Ranch House to Cupid's Hot Dogs, which is still great, to eat the ribs.
I wouldn't go back to Ranch House, because when I want ribs, I don't want oven cooked ribs. If you like oven cooked ribs, these ribs are better than the ribs you get from Chili's or Uncle Andre's.
