Ranch 616

01/23/2008 Posted by SarahJ8375

Ranch 616 has a wonderful eclectic staff that took great care of my husband and I. The food was excellent. Our waiter Josh was very attentive and the manager Miguel Vidal made sure our experience was beyond what we expected. And to the writer of the review below this one, if you are too scared to send back food don't expect to get your money back weeks later after the fact. How can you give the restaurant or management a chance to fix a problem if you don't say something at the time. Overall , the Ranch is a fun environment that also happens to have exquisite food and service. We will definitely be back on a regular basis.

01/11/2008 Posted by sdproductions

This is the 4th letter that I sent to the management at Ranch 616. Still, four months later...no response. It's just sad to think that this restaurant and this manager, think so poorly of its customers. Dear Mr. Vidal: Let me begin by saying to you how disappointed I am with the fact that I have had to write four letters to try and get resolve of this issue. I sent two letters attention “manager.” I went to your website and sent an email asking for a refund and now I am writing the fourth and final letter. I will follow up with the bad reviews that Ranch 616 has been getting on City Search. I have enclosed the reviews with one from yourself stating that you “will ensure that you get a wonderful meal and dining experience.” Let me begin by complementing your waiter, whom I believe is named, Luis. He was extremely polite and very accommodating. My Wife and I recently moved to the Austin area from Los Angeles and have been searching out restaurants to try and one of our friends highly recommended Ranch 616. Well, needless to say, we were excited to try your restaurant and unfortunately had a very bad experience. We started out by ordering the fried clams and calamari appetizer, which were both barley fried and very soggy. We mentioned it to our waiter and he was very apologetic and ultimately took it off the bill. For our entrees, I ordered the special, which was Filet Mignon and Quail combo. I never realized that someone could mess Filet Mignon up. It was barley edible. The flavor was non-existent and it was wrapped in bacon that was raw. The Quail was average at best. I couldn’t eat either the filet or the Quail. My Wife ordered the Trout, which she could not eat because it was under cooked and cold. We felt so bad for telling our waiter that our appetizer was bad, that we couldn’t mention that the rest of our meal was not even edible.

Pros: Can't think of any

Cons: Manager is beyond bad...

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

11/02/2007 Posted by trtaggart

Went with some locals who were all disappointed with the decline and fall of 616. It was hypothermic at our table and we asked if they could turn down the AC. It will warm up later when more people pack in, we were told. Thanks for the physics lesson. We asked about a particular special on the menu and the waiter said he’d wait till the rest of our party arrived; “I don’t want to repeat the specials more than 20 times in a night.” Is there a Parisian waiters’ union here? When the acclaimed quail dish arrived, it was raw. Not undercooked, but beet-red raw. Naturally, the manager never bothered to come over. Raunch 616.

10/24/2007 Posted by txterryo

These reviews are hilarious! "Bring a flashlight cause it's too dark!" or "I had to WAIT even though I have a large party and it's dinner time on a Friday night - WAH WAH" - go to Chile's or somewhere generic. More room for me at Ranch! For those of you who want incredible food, awesome service and the best margaritas (or "Ranch waters"!) in town - This is the place to be. Order up some of their fantastic oysters or frog's legs, or try any of their seafood (the salmon!!) for a hard to forget experience. Their meats are amazing - their portions are Texas sized, as are the smiles on the faces of the happy customers leaving at the end of the night. If you can save room for dessert - they have some of the best in town. And reservations - they take reservations! That's almost unheard of in this town. Boo to the naysayers! One try here and you'll be a customer for life!

Pros: reservations! decor! margaritas! oysters!

Cons: like anywhere else downtown, parking can be a little tough to find.

06/13/2007 Posted by lisagalizia

I THINK RANCH 616 DESERVES MORE PRAISE THEN IT'S GETTING FROM THESE REVIEWS! MY HUSBAND TOOK ME TO THE RANCH AND I FELL IN LOVE...... WITH HIM (AGAIN ),THE FOOD, THE STAFF AND THE AMBIENCE . THIS PLACE IS QUINTIESSENTIAL AUSTIN......UNIQUE,FRESH ,STYLISH BUT SO UNPRETENTIOUS......KEEPONKEEPIN'ON I'LL BE COMIN' BACK..... CA.GIRL :) XO:) (YOGA TEACHER AND PASTRY CHEF)

06/06/2007 Posted by the1austin

I went there with a group of three friends. We were told the wait would be about an hour or so, which was fine so we ordered some drinks and waited outside. We slowly started to realize that the hostess was sitting people that arrived well after us first, even though they did not have a reservation. After an hour and a half of waiting, i talked to the hostess and she realized that she crossed our name off the list, or basically gave our table to somebody else. She didn't apologize or anything, just said that we would get the next table for four. We were cool, it happens. Then, and by this time we were one of only three groups waiting, she sat the two other groups BEFORE US AGAIN. I couldn't believe it happened, and prepared to leave, I asked for the manager and we were sat (the last group waiting). We sat down and waited 10 minutes and still no waiter came over to help us. We finally left, without ever getting served and after being there over three hours. This city has too many other great restaurants to put up with the arrogance of bad service. Not recommended.

Pros: Location

Cons: Cramped, Awful service, small waiting area, loud

05/02/2007 Posted by austinrveu

Three of my co-workers and I went to Ranch 616 for lunch. We told the host that there were 4 of us and he assured us the wait would be 5-10 minutes. We waited about 15 minutes, which wasn't too bad, but it was odd that he didn't write a name down. He tried to remember the order of seating by memory...so it was no surprise that he seated another party further down the "list" before us. We waited about 5-7 minutes before our waiter came by. He took our order and the food came out pretty quickly. Half of us ordered the "Framed Burger" and the other half ordered a blue cheese burger. All of the burgers were very charred. I didn't notice it too much initially - but as time went by, it became very obvious we were eating hockey pucks. Furthermore, the fries were undercooked and completely tasteless. The onion rings were good and that was about it. In fact, I was amazed by the fact that the charred aftertaste stuck in my mouth for about 20 minutes after the meal. We mentioned to the waiter our opinion of the food and he didn't apologize or anything of the sort. I must say that the decor was kind of interesting, but the atmosphere was very loud and the place felt crowded. We will not be returning to Ranch 616 and I would highly recommend skipping over this restaurant. Now, I do appreciate Miguel Vidal's comment/apology - seems like a classy guy. But, if you can't get a burger right, then why would I want to try the oysters or fish tacos? I truly hope the burger was an anomoly, but I highly doubt it.

Pros: Onion rings

Cons: Burgers, atmosphere

02/16/2007 Posted by austinslykit

We live in the neighborhood and have been wanting to try Ranch 616 for a while. We got together with friends on a Friday night and got there around 6:45pm. We were turned away because we didn't have a reservation. The place looked really cool, so needless to say we were very disappointed. This was a first for us in Austin... most restaurants won't even take a reservation for a party of four, especially on a weekend night. Bottom line: if you want to check this place out, call ahead and make a reservation.

02/11/2007 Posted by saphira_st_sin

We tried 616 last night for dinner. We will not be going back. We had a reservation but when we arrived we were told there would be a wait. This is not usually a big deal, but there was nowhere to sit as the bar is small and was full. A large group was seated before us. They had a later reservation and it was clear they were friends of the staff. People who had reservations after us were leaving after standing and waiting for considerable periods of time. We were starving by the time we sat down. Drinks were okay. I ended up with a really bad martini, but I chalked it up to the bartender having a bad night (everyone does) and they replaced it without complaint with a good one. The service was very strange. The wait staff seemed more interested in waiting on their regular customers or friends than anyone new, and I got the distinct feeling that the waiter was rather put out that he had to bother with us. Service was fast, but when we needed a new bread plate we were rushed a dirty one. We never received the biscuits promised to us by the waiter. The food was good, although we ordered one beef dish to be medium rare and it showed up medium well. At that point we were so hungry we didn't complain. The mixed grill, filet and beef shoulder were good, well cooked, the sides were tasty and the food was hot. We didn't get dessert. I advise taking a flashlight. It's so dimly lit that reading the menu or really seeing your food will be a challenge. Maybe other tables had better lighting, but ours was a cave. So if you want a clique-y atmosphere where you wait for an hour for a table although you have a reservation, tolerate being tolerated by the waitstaff for okay food and eat in the dark then this is the place for you. In my opinion there are too many really good restaurants in town to put up with it.

Pros: Decent Food

Cons: Ambience, wait time, service

02/07/2007 Posted by miguelvidal

I am the manager at Ranch 616 and I am sorry to hear the problems that a few of you had at the Ranch. I would like to personally apologize for the mistakes and ask you to please return and give me a chance to make up for your experience. When you visit please ask for me, Miguel Vidal, and I will ensure that you get a wonderful meal and dining experience. Again, we apologize for your dissappointment and would love to have another chance. Thank you, Miguel Vidal