Local restaurant reviews - post here!

[Sierra Lady]

Z (Bar) Ranch is celebrating their grand opening this weekend 11-12-11/14/10. They officially opened last week to a soft opening to work the kinks out. They are located in the old Gomez's A-frame location at 4 Alpine Circle across the way from Good Year. (760-934-4492) They've repainted the entire inside, including the booths, tables and chairs.

Here's their website. I forgot my camera for the food pix, but brought a paper menu home and took pix of that, which are posted below.

Ducks and I met there for lunch yesterday and really enjoyed it. The service was great (Mammoth Kate works there!) and the food was delicious and reasonably priced. We each had a glass of "***** Bubbly" (a sparkling wine spritzer) to toast a friend of ours b-day who passed away recently. We ate the Fried Green Tomatoes with their Z Ranch sauce on the side, which were very tasty. I'd never eaten those before and was quite surprised at how good they were! I had the pulled pork plate with a huge mound of shredded pork with a tangy sweet marinade, 3 thin slices of bread with a big bowl of the best restaurant coleslaw I've ever eaten (I ended up taking half of the meal home). Ducks had the Catfish Sandwich and a side of coleslaw and said it was very good - that coming from an ex-Southern gal. I'd never tried catfish either, but she gave me a bite and it was mild and yummy. Lots of other items on the menu I'd like to go back and try, such as the Mac 'n Cheese with BACON and Grilled Salmon!! Ducks and I each give Z Ranch two thumbs up!

They have a wine and beer license, but not a full bar. Haven't heard if they intend to get a liquor license to have one in the future. We wish them lots of luck!

[Brdrski]

Wow - sounds yummy. Especially that mac n cheese!!!

[swshrd]

YUM!! Really different menu for Mammoth and prices are reasonable! We're there!

[Malolo]

What you talking about with Mini Corndogs on the menu.
Just like corn dogs but smaller..12 of them....oh ya
Don't let Biker know

Fried Beets...I have to try this.

Deep fried game hen..only on Saturdays but ill take two.

Grilled salmon ..my staple.

Pork and Apple Sandi.....I'm in

Thanks SL, even though you didn't ski this weekend, and didn't take pictures of your food,
you know how to get a man's attention. Tasty food

[highanxiety]

Thanks for the info SL, I look forward to trying it out..

[bch2mtns]

Thanks for posting The Z brand rest menu! Definitely on my list now. If you know the owners, do you think they can add other vegi specials? Not for me but Jean likes vegi although she will eat fish if not fried.. but she will eat fried tomatoes
The menu makes me want to run over there! Chicken sounds awesome, havent had deep fried chicken but have had deep fried turkey. might have to bring some friends so we can try everything! Havent had good fried tomatoes since i visited south carolina so looking for a few orders of that too..!


Lar

[skibum4ever]

Good idea posting that menu and your review; there are several items we would enjoy. We'll surely try it this winter.

[swshrd]

Went to lunch today at Z Ranch!! I had the pulled pork plate (based on SL's recommendation) and my friend had the catfish sandwich. Both we're excellent!!! Highly recommend!

[PE395]

What you talking about with Mini Corndogs on the menu.

Maybe they broke off a full size corn dog and multiplied. Like that second generation Terminator made of liquid metal.

[sbsarah84]

Delicious food! The blackened catfish is excellent. We also tried the deep fried game hen, mac-n-cheese and beans, and ate it family style. It was more than enough for the 3 of us. Good idea about expanding the veggie options. I know the manager, so Ill suggest it to him. Tell all your friends to check out Z (bar) Ranch!

[Sierra Lady]

11/23 Tues. eve 6:00 p.m. Skipunk, calisnow and I met for sushi at the Whitebark inside the Westin. They have a full sushi bar open 7 nights a week. It was their last half off sushi Tues. in Nov. Regular prices were a bit high, but it was fairly reasonable at half off. Full price rolls ranged from $7-$16, 2 piece Nigiri ranged from $5-$7 and 5 or more pcs from $14-$28 up to $18-$32. Our server was a nice gal and fairly attentive, then we'd lose her for a while. The service seemed a bit frazzled last night, probably working out the pre-holiday kinks.

This was the winter wonderland view from our table.



The boyz shared Shishito peppers and Edamame and said the peppers were pretty hot...I passed. They had a couple of large Japanese beers and Skipunk and I shared a large sake.

Monache Torched: snow crab, avo, cuc, topped with dynamite scallops and truffled micro wasabi. This was very tasty and my favorite out of three rolls.




Crab Thai: kaffir dusted soft shell crab, basil, mint, maguro, cuc, spicy peanut sauce. I wasn't wild about the basil and mint in this roll.




Crisp duo of tuna: maguro, tombo, asparagus, cuc, yamagobo, tobiko, mango curry emulsion. Skipunk didn't care for the curry in this roll, but I didn't find it overbearing and I usually don't like curry.



The sky was finally clearing and the moon came out with a big ring around it. I tried to zoom in and shoot this through the pine trees. Still very windy and cold at 15 degrees.



We also ordered some maguro, yellowtail and albacore Nigiri which was all very tender and good.

Calisnow and I...skipunk asked that his photo not be posted. The boyz ended up treating me for my soon-to-be birthday...how nice! Thanks guys..I had a great evening!

[Grizzly Barfly]

Looks yummy but a bit foo-foo for my palette.

[Photoho]

Looks great !!! Is Skipunk going Cheapski on us and not wanting his photo on the Forum ? And did Cali get them to warm his seat ?

[brahm]

mint and basil sounds awesome, and I'm typically not the type to go for strange rolls. They do have the standard stuff to. I had some cali rolls there the other week they were good.

[SkierBob]

Tom's Place opens at 7 a.m. for breakfast.

And it's several dollars cheaper then eating the same thing in town.