We’ve eaten at many places on I-5 between the Bay Area and LA, and I have to say that “The Ranch Kitchen” has been the best of the bunch. Now, considering that most of the restaurants on this stretch are quite bad, this is not necessarily high praise, but the food we had there was actually pretty good. Alas, while it’s not as expensive as the actual Harris Ranch restaurant (where entrees hover in the thirties) it is pretty expensive, with sandwiches in the low teens and entrees in the high teens to high twenties)
The menu is beef driven, of course and both Mike and I decided on the Gorgonzola burger, at $11 one of the cheapest items on the menu. The burger consisted of a 1/3 lb patty topped with gorgonzola cheese, caramelized onions, grilled pancetta a roasted red pepper and mayo. Mike thought that it was quite good, but I felt it was somewhat unbalanced. The toppings seem to compete in flavor, rather than compliment each other, and the taste of the beef disappeared underneath so many other flavors. Still, it was an enjoyable eat. We both liked the fried potatoes, these seasoned thick slices of potato, slightly crunchy outside and very soft inside. Mike had onion rings instead, and he felt there were too few of them for the extra $1.50. They were good, but would have been better with a dipping sauce (none was offered).
Mika had the chicken strips ($6) which had a light breading and were actually made of chicken breast. Alas, they were a bit dried. They came with the same fries I got, Mika didn’t really like them and I’d prefer there would have been a healthier alternative.
Both Kathy and Mika had vanilla milkshakes, they were a bit too thin.
Service was good and in all we had a good meal, despite the expense we will probably stop here on our way to LA in the future.
On a final note, we went for dinner at the Harris Ranch restaurant once a few years ago, and while we found it both expensive and overpriced, the food was surprisingly good.
The Ranch Kitchen
Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant
24505 West Dorris Avenue
Coalinga, CA
1.800.942.2333
http://www.harrisranch.com/
Marga, I’ve got a question on an older post of yours at http://www.marga.org/food/blog/archives/001367.html
I’m making this recipe tomorrow so if you can let me know hoe much stock to use, I’d be so grateful!
Once again we stopped at Harris Ranch and had lunch at the Ranch Kitchen. This time it was Mike and I, my sister Kathy, my father and my two girls. Both my dad and Kathy ordered the gorgonzola burger ($12) and they were quite disappointed on it. They both thought it was dry and overcooked, and that it had too little gorgonzola to inflict much of a flavor. They didn’t think it was bad, but not particularly memorable. On the plus side, it was pretty big.
I had the California burger ($11) which comes with cheese, bacon and guacamole, and I was significantly happier. I imagine a lot of it was due to the fact that I spicified that I wanted my burger medium-rare, which meant that I had something juicy rather than carbonized. The burger was also well balanced, and I could taste all the flavors both individually and collectively. It was very meaty and the meat was clearly of good quality.
The cross-cut friend potatoes were OK, they tasted more potatoish than most, but again they were not memorable.
The chicken strips were dried, and the kids did not eat them (probably not because they are gourmets, though).
Service, on the other hand, was very good. Our drinks were replenished quickly, dishes appeared and disappeared with efficiency and our waitress was very solicitous.
In all, Harris is not a bad dining experience, if not a particularly great one – at least not today.