From the PR folks….(as I board the plane for muggy Nashville…send me any food suggestions…)“Today we have the pleasure of announcing the newest project from North Bay restaurateur and chef Munther Massarweh: Branches Wood Fired Chop House, a spectacular, 10,500-square-foot restaurant, bakery, butcher shop and pub set to open in Ukiah this summer.
Built from the ground up in the heart of Mendocino County and Northern California’s wine country, Branches is the latest from Chef Massarweh, who opened the successful Wildfox restaurant in Novato 10 years ago. Chef Massarweh, former Executive Chef of the Pump Room in Chicago, is well-known in the North Bay for Wildfox and his catering company, Scrumptious Occasions, and in San Francisco for Tin Pan Asian Bistro which he operated in the late ’90s.”
Terrible, bush league, unprepared, mediocre food, OMG one of the worst restaurants I have been to.
Took my family of 12, hearing the this “steak house” was really good. Well here goes the story: out of water glasses, so no H2O, took 30 minutes to order food, after another 30 come to find out they are out of Fillet, half-chicken and prime rib…..this is a friggen STEAK HOUSE. Not worth the time, this place can’t make it unless maybe Ukiah folks just don’t know what bad is and keep going.
After Hopland Passport weekend was finished, our winery’s owner took the tasting room staff that worked both days to dinner at Branches. Drinks in the bar, pre-dinner, were well made. Dinner was delicious. The Southern Buttermilk Fried Chicken was delicious, and the portion large. My side of Lemon Garlic Spinach tasted terrific as well. We enjoyed an amazing Sancerre from the Loire Valley side by side with our Sauvignon Blanc, and the Sancerre was more stunning for the comparison against a solidly delicious local wine. Dessert was great as well, mine a hot fudge special sundae, others enjoying a caramel sundae. Service was good, ambience was good, food was good, company was good. I enjoyed my dinner at Branches very much, and have a pretty good boss who impressed his staff with his thoughtful show of team building appreciation.
I really wanted to like this place and ate there several times with the same result each time. The service leaves a lot to be desired. Last week I made a reservation for my parents joint birthday celebration. The hostess was rude at best. Our table was prompt and our waitress was pleasant, but that’s where the good news ends. Drinks were impossible, water nonexistant, and one of our party never received their meal (apparently it went to the wrong table). What was supposed to be a celebration ended up being an uncomfortable experience. When all was said and done and the bill came, without an offer of desert or coffee, gratuity was already figured. A little presumptuous after not serving the person footing said tab. Mistakes happen and a round of drinks, or an offer of an appetizer, anything really would have gone a long way. Left with nothing but a bad taste in our mouths. Don’t think we’ll be back any time soon.
The best food I have eaten seriously in a very long time. I’ve traveled the world, and have eaten in many high class restuarants and I will say I LOVED the food and the service as well as the decor. The prices were reasonable. The seasoning of the food was such that it was perfect. I enjoyed every second of it and will be back many many times more.
Thankyou for a wonderful experience.
Perhaps you should eat seriously more often?
the the food is no bad but no great…..just another place to stop and eat some food…thanks any way
Geeeeeze…..this place would be incredible ANYWHERE, and to have it in Ukiah-WOW-disagree completely with ALL the negative comments about food (and just trust me, I know food, and praise at the alter of freshly ground organic espresso beans every AM), and as for service-these comments were posted in the FIRST 2 weeks after an opening such a huge and crazy-busy (because it is SO GOOD) place with a young staff that had to hit the ground running-come on, people-understand how that would be irritating, but how about giving them just a FEW weeks to get that part of it together!!!?????
Just had a wonderful lunch with family. Beautiful place, great attentive service. Had the risotto … yummy! Bakery is fabulous, decor very nice. Price is great. Wish you well, Branches, what a treat to have this nice meal here! Thank you very much. See you soon.
Would really like to see this make it…have tried three times to see this happen. dinner ,lunch and the bakery for a latte.The atmosphere is nice and love the decore but……Just some suggestions: (1 ) HIRE SOME EXPERIENCED WAITRESSES. the young ones (cute as buttons) seem to be confused as to what to do and need to be familiar with the menu selections.(2) Is it possible to seat two customers at a table set for four and then take the 10 min. to find the official place setting remover to remove the extra two settings???
Not very comfortable to stand against the wall in the way of other servers and customers going in and out of the Bar area while you wait.This happened both times . I realize the kinks need to be worked out to a certain degree but you really can’t always expect the customer to wait while this happens.Example:” we are going thru a shift change” it’s 2:00 pm and the shift changes at 2:30 so the customer is suppose to wait until everyone figures out what they are doing for the dinner customers?????someone needs to train these servers or whoever is supervising to get it together soon.I’m hearing this from alot of Ukiah customers.the menu is spendy and you need good service for this to work……………………Hope to see some improvements, will try it again…..
Blub bulb bulb down the drain
All the hype in Ukiah brought myself and a friend in this morning to get coffee and something tasty from the bakery. I was impressed by the decor, but the staff were sullen,very unfriendly and the latte I bought tasted burnt and the milk tasted old. Cookie was good, but I will not be going back in for coffee. Cost the same as Starbucks, but lacked the yumminess. Did not even taste like coffee! I noticed that the staff who served us was one that used to work across the street. She used to burn the espresso there as well. But the milk, it was just foul. I may go back in to eat dinner sometime, but will wait for friends to recommend it.
We were first time visitors this evening on the occasion of my wife’s birthday- reservations at eight, for eight, sounds simple enough, right?
Wrong. Reservations at eight means you don’t get seated until nine, and you don’t get served until nine thirty or ten o’clock.. It was so late by the time we got served I got my meal to go, which means basically my dog eats a cold steak tomorrow morning. They parked us at a table and ignored us for an hour, and that was- crap.
Sorry Branches, but I doubt I’ll be back. Your food might be good- I wouldn’t know, since your service sucked so bad my dinner is in a Styrofoam container in the refrigerator- but I do wish you the best.
We were in Ukiah today and a friend of mine told us about Branches so we thought we would go by for dinner. We walked up to the counter and I said hi, the lady with short dark hair said oh did you make reservations and we said no and then with a snobbish tone she said we are all booked up for our main dinning room. We turned to leave and she said , would you like to hear our options, we said no and kept walking. We felt she was completly rude and a total snob. We will never go back. Maybe she will think twice for being such a smart A$%.
Denise, you’re right, they should have told other diners to leave, made space for you and given you a free meal for the 5 minutes you’d have to wait while they kick the other people out who had reservations. As a fellow jackass, I feel your pain and frustration.
Been in ukiah most of my life,hooked up alot of restaurants (worked for city electric dept.) 50/50 lasted. Thank god another place to chose from(broiler going down hill,applebees i got sick last time(owner said they expect to bring in 60k a day on opening day,in ukiah?!,get real).Good food(basic), good service(always),clean(a must),don’t try to make it all at once(fair price/portion,this Isn’t Santa rosa or southward) might have a slight chance of making it ,we need another option.
It will be interesting to see how long this thing stays open and then I wonder what they will do with that massive building. A small upscale restaurant may work in Ukiah but a huge one won’t be able to do enough business to make it viable in the long run. I will be sure to have dinner there a couple of times when they first open so I can enjoy it while it lasts. You have to face the facts. Most people who live in this area think The Broiler is a good steak place. Branches doesn’t have a chance.
We are all tired of the Broiler…not atmosphere or landscaping.
Ukiah needs a new upscale restaurant.
I wish them well!
Wow. Thank god not everyone has your pessimistic attitude. Yeah, Yeah, I know, you’re just being realistic. I live in N.Cal and New Orleans, and all I can say is “Thank God you’re not down here in NOLA!
Opening date is hoped to be August 2nd.
Any idea on an opening date? Their facebook page says June 2010, their website says Summer 2010.
10/18/10
I’ve seen the building going up, right between the Hampton Inn and the Comfort Inn down at Airport Park. It will be interesting to see price points and how it does off season.