De-Ranch Restaurant

I attempted to order delivery from here today but the lady that answered the phone didn’t speak or understand English enough for me to actually place the order. After asking her 8 or 9 times if they could do a combination platter of oxtails and curry goat and her not being able to understand even after repeating the order to me. She told me that she would have her boss call me back. When the boss man called back, I simply asked for the same thing and what happy to tell him no thank you when he told me my total was $ 37 for 1 oxtail meal and 1 curry goat meal.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR YOUR MONEY!!! The food here was NASTY, and thats putting it nicely. It had no seasoning on it, the portions were very small, the plantains were dry, and very bland, and I waited 40 minutes to get my food. The service was just as bad as the food, the staff was rude and dismissive. They are horribly over priced (I ordered ox tails and got 4 tiny ox tails that had almost no meat on the bones, rice and peas that were so badly seasoned I could not eat them, a tiny salad, and coco bread; and that came to $ 29 and change) The best part of the food was the salad and bread, but my dog did get to enjoy the rest of my meal that cost almost $ 30.00. I didn’t want to give them any stars but I had to choose at least one. I will never, EVER eat here again.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at De-​Ranch today. I needed to eat and get in out of the cold so I took a chance and, man, am I happy I did. I was greeted by a lovely lady named Connie, and attended to by a very talented young man who handles himself with the skill and dignity of a true chef.
I am a transplant from San Diego, where we have a lot of Caribbean and African restaurants. I have traveled widely and «eat local» everywhere I go. I have a long-​standing reputation among my friends as the guy who always knows where the really authentic, down-​home ethnic restaurants are. From Abyssinian to Yemeni, I know my cuisines and I’m the man who finds those amazing «hole in the wall» restaurants that offer absolutely the best food and truest experiences.
De-​Ranch is one of those rare pearls. It reminds me of a great place I went to last summer in Nassau. The décor is genuinely Afro-​Caribbean. The colors are bright and the atmosphere is just the right combination of warm, homey welcome and professional establishment, with just a touch of artistic chaos. I don’t like Euro-​haute cusine and if I wanted a Denny’s staffed by uniformed robots, I would go to one.
I ordered the very reasonably priced chicken in red sauce lunch. It came with Joloff rice, fried plantains and a nice little salad. I enjoyed it so much that I ordered a second plate to take home for dinner. The next time I get a chance, I intend to go and try their oxtails. I’ll bet they will be great. De-​Ranch is a find and easy to find.

Unilocal really needs to provide the option of giving businesses a ‘0’ star rating —
Walking into De Ranch you may expect pleasant smiles but that seemed to be about it.
It is incredibly overpriced (think $ 11s for an appetizer of pepper soup)
17.50 for Curry Goat — which tasted pretty much like a box of terribly old curry powder that had been mixed with water — the goat meat was clearly an after thought — there were three small pieces (seriously not an exaggeration — 17.50 isnt crazy for a curry goat at a caribbean place but it usually means they give you a ton of food) that hadn’t been seasoned at all and one was entirely bone. The plantains were old, dry and had no flavor except ‘bad’ just like the rest of the food.
They didn’t serve water — so once the meal arrived my wife asked if we could get some water. The lady said sure do you want soda, juice etc — we replied ‘just water thanks’
She brought out two bottles of water which we were later charged $ 2s for.
Unfortunately, this place feels like a total scam, which is sad because it seems like a bit of stereotype Nigerian businesses seem to have.
BTW– Décor will give you a migraine.
We should have known better I guess considering we were the only people in the restaurant on a Friday evening.

Worst restaurant around DMV area, there’s no value for money as the portions are small and not tasty, they are not straightforward with pricing. …I.e a lot of discrepancies and over charge at the expense of customer. Visit De-​Ranch at your own risk!

This was my first time at De-​Ranch Restaurant. First off, Customer service could use some work.
In my opinion, the food is absolutely over priced at $ 26 for a small plate. And they don’t have plantains or meatpies, absolute necessity in an African restaurant. And when I tried to ask if they have plaintains, the guy behind the counter gave me such a bad attitude.
Let’s just say, I will not be coming back here for seconds.

This is my second time ordering on line via Grubhub from this restaurant only to receive a phone call from Grubhub that they do not have a delivery person AGAIN. To me this is bad business. Why represent yourself as a restaurant that delivers, when it seems as though you NEVER have a delivery person on hand. On top of that, they make you order at least $ 30 worth of food, only to have non-​existent delivery. I’m sure their food is good, but I am so turned off that I no longer have the desire to be a customer. Based on the reviews I was ready to make this one of my favorite restaurants. So sad.

from my experience with the man behind the counter /​the owner parse’, i have always… over the years found him to be very pleasant. he seems to me to be a very concerned «business» man, when it comes to not only taking good care of his consumers, but… even when it comes down to bringing some of the very best, «scrupulous, authentic, african food», that i have ever tasted in my entire life! he and his family businesses are well know and loved in the the entire d.m.v. (district, maryland and virginia) area, for their great since of service!!!
he has always been especially nice you” me“and i am american !
now… let me be absolutely honest with you and let the truth be told. i don’t care where a person is from… as long as they treat me right and the food is good, hot and tasty ! i’m all for it!
over many, many, years he and his nigerian family has cooked for me and my love ones… god bless some of their souls, for some have gone on to glory (and not from eatin’… the sweet plantain fried in palm oil, the spicy jellof rice, nor the finger lickin’ fu fu dish with red sauce and goat meat either) lol
i have always felt right at home there (in an african way!). i loved the music as it played and the food was great!!!,
it is also a great place to meet and great the community! particularity africans !!! they even took «the time out «to explain to me what the heck i was about to eat. lol once a person gets turned on to this «real» «traditional» «west african cuisine» at the «de-​ranch» they will never turn back!!! i’m a living witness !
go and get it! soup is up baby !!! fo’ real
em em em good! better than campbell’s soup! !@_@!

This was sort of a disappointment. Was expecting better. The restaurant has two sections, one that was reserved and was being used by a group when we went and the other was the dine in section, which could stand to be improved. Dining in, the portions are generous, however, the portions decrease for take out. The service was okay. The food is pricey, especially the entrees. It is a good idea to check that what you want to order is available.

I just left this place about an hour ago and was so disgusted with the service I recieved from the owner, I decided to create a Unilocal account and voice my concern. the cashier was helpful until I told them that I had a coupon. This was a $ 25 coupon with spending at least $ 35. The owner first said I had to spend $ 50 even after reading the paper. When I asked to see it again he then confirmed what I said. When my total was 46.00 he told me I needed to pay the gratuity now before my meal not to the server but to him. He then proceeded to charge me more money to make my total aprox $ 60. While waiting on my food we saw a bug crawling around as did the owner and he looked way asif it wasnt there. The servers were courteous and I gave an additional tip to them. This was one of the worst experiences I have ever had in my life and I would never go back there under any circumstances.
I lived in md and now in DC and with the cost of gas, im impulsed that I wasted my gas and time with family. A lesson learned. The lady at the register I want to state was so sweet but couldnt out weigh my experience with the owner.

Hit this place today on the way home from Wegmans. I looked on their menu and saw some interesting soups, but they did not have them, so I ordered a curry chicken and sat down. Order came about 20 minutes later, a sizeable plate of red beans and rice, the chicken, some fried plantain slices and side salad. It was very tasty. Someone (the owner I presume?) introduced himself and asked how the food was. He said that although they serve Caribbean dishes, it was primarily a West African restaurant, and he recommended the jollof. I will try when I return. It seems like a nice, friendly community place (they had African TV and music playing in the dining area) and willing to help those not familiar with the cuisine. But ask before ordering as some menu items are not always available.

The ambience was really divey, even taking all context into consideration. Not necessarily in a fun way either, as it was dark and rather musty.
The service was impressively bad, with the waitress taking our order literally four times and still getting it wrong, though she appeared to be a native English speaker. Nobody asked us about drinks, so I walked over to the guy at the counter, and it took a fair bit of «no, that bottle, no more to the left» gesturing to get him to pass me an orange soda.
The actual food was decent, though it took us over 30 minutes to get some basic jolof rice, curried chicken, and some skewers of seasoned beef. And they were also out of half the items on the menu.
So the actual food was maybe a solid three, maybe even 3.5 for the curry chicken. However the place was a dive (and I like _​good_​dives) and the service excruciating.