Reviews for Jackalope Ranch

02/11/2016 - Jo Smallwood
I have eaten at Jackalope many times and have always come away satisfied with the meal and the value. My husband had only eaten there once and remembered a very interesting menu with reasonable pricing. We both happened to be in Indio early this week and wanted to revisit our wonderful experiences at Jackalope. What a horrendous disappointment!!!! The food was "just OK", my husband ordered the "Prime Rib Dip sandwich with fries" while I ordered the "Shrimp and Crab Louie". His sandwich was very thinly sliced "Roast Beef" au jus which was piled on a thick and very dry roll which required a steak knife to cut through it and a good soak in the au jus to soften it. This dry heap was plated with french fries that looked like a lower class version of McDonald's fries, lots of skin with irregularly cut pieces of potato, some over-fried and some not quite done. The au jus was extremely salty with some interesting shavings in the bottom of the dish. My Louie consisted of about 1-1/2 cups of torn mixed lettuce with 2 large shrimp and a Crabcake piled in the center of the plate. The egg was chopped and scattered over the lettuce which had been tossed in some 1000 Island Dressing. The prices for both dishes was $19.99 each for lunch! In other restaurants, given the size of the servings would have been priced at somewhere between $11.00 to $13.00! Can we say "over-priced" here? We added a cup of soup, a soft drink in a bottle for which there was no free refill, a glass of iced tea - rather pedestrian to boot, and one dessert. With tip our bill came to $73.00 and change FOR LUNCH!!! One would expect to pay that perhaps for a dinner, but LUNCH? We went away feeling that we had been robbed. If the quality of the food had been better we might have felt like we got value for our dollar, but that was not the case. I visit Indio frequently and have always loved enjoying a meal at Jackalope, mainly for the exceptional cuisine and the awesome, tranquil ambiance. But I doubt I will wend my way that direction again and will seek out alternative meal choices.