Ranchos Southampron

I went into this Steak and Burger restaurant with some friends, fresh from seeing ‘The Artist’ and we were 100% hungry – Time to really give into the temptation of the 100% all you can eat ribs.

This was the first visit for me to Ranchos and stepping in both J & I were really impressed with the feel. Nicely lit, decent furniture and while the bar is small, it’s decently stocked. Although some really good cocktails and some boutique beers wouldn’t have gone admiss. I’m pretty sure all the rib wall building Fred Flintstone types could cope.

The key thing to note is that it was busy – boy was it busy. And the staff had their hands full. I’m going to guess that someone was ill or they aren’t normally so full up but the staffing was an issue. We arrived early and were asked to wait by the bar. A same size group arrived 15 minutes after us for the same timeslot and were seated before us. We were asked if we were ready to order before we’d got menus. We asked repeatedly for the rest of the cutlery (someone decided only half the table needed forks laid out) and then we were asked again if we were ready to order 10 minutes after we’d already ordered.

Now I’d rather be asked twice to order then not at all – but it added to the general sloppy impression.

The menu covers a lot of ground, apart from Ribs there are a couple of south American influences with Empanadas and fajitas, you’ve got Burgers and a couple of different steak types to pick from. Oh and any place that has Bread and Butter as a side gets an extra point for me. I find very few foods can’t be improved by making an impromptu sandwich. Weirdly, you have to ask for the all you can eat Ribs as we couldn’t see any information about it anywhere.

Now I’m not a huge Rib fan, but when done properly I dive in to the sauce pools along with everyone else. Ribs for me should cover you, your table and anyone unfortunate enough to be sat near you with layers of sauce. I want to dip my chips into it and suck the juices from my finger. What ended up on my plate were ribs…but not as I know them.

            These were huge meaty ribs…with a little itty bitty brushing of sauce on maybe 3 ribs. They just had no taste. They didn’t appear to have been marinated, slow cooked or seasoned. Now I know that a kitchen churning out hundreds of one product might not bother with marinading hundreds of Ribs but com’n guys at least cover the shortcomings with BBQ sauce! Instead it was left to us to order extra sauce and drizzle it on to our food. The salad actually had the least taste of any food I’ve eaten (that’s including rice cakes) and we stopped after the first plate of Ribs. Not cause we were full…but just because we didn’t want to eat any more…Which for a group of self professed gluttons is a little sad.

Of course you’d think that on a Rib night we’d all order the obvious but J was seriously craving a burger. I stole a bite and it was alright, but I couldn’t help agree with her that as burgers go, it could do with some work. The meat was tough and tasteless and just like the ribs, it needed more sauce.

The chips? Now the chips were good. But I don’t think I’ll be going back to get a second portion.

1.5/5 Not completely awful, and good enough if all you want is to eat your own body weight in protein.