Wood Ranch at Hazard Center in San Diego is all about the short rib craze with a new Giant Short Rib on their menu! With BBQ as their specialty, they also offer a lengthy menu of smoked meats, seafood, salads, southern-style sides, desserts, beer and cocktails. Their menu is loaded with mouthwatering options and their famous BBQ sauce is a winning spicy-sweet blend. This past week, a guest and I recently dined at Wood Ranch in San Diego and I only have positive things to say. This dimly lit spacious restaurant feels warm, sophisticated, and calming. It’s not a loud or rowdy BBQ restaurant — it is a bit more… mature, but also down-to-earth.
The Wood Ranch servers were nothing but delightful, attentive and hospitable. Our server made excellent recommendations and knew details about every menu item we inquired about, including cocktails and wine. I highly recommend their Grand Mariner Margarita and if wine is your drink-of-choice, Wood Ranch has half-price wine specials every Tuesday!
With the tender Giant Short Rib, it was love at first taste.
A few days after dining, I was daydreaming about a Giant Short Rib melting in my mouth again, alongside creamy flavorful mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. The Giant Short Rib at Wood Ranch is slow roasted for 9 hours and smoked over pecan wood. The result? The best damn short ribs I’ve ever had and you only need a butter knife to cut through it!
Before embarking on the short rib plate that serves 2, we started our meal off with warm, buttery Garlic Rolls and a savory Spinach-Artichoke Dip served with chips. They were unforgettable appetizers — not too filling and loaded with mouthwatering flavor.
Boy oh boy, the Giant Short Rib does not disappoint!
Next, we delved into Grilled Balsamic Shrimp and a tall, messy, mouthwatering “burger” known as The Ultimate. The shrimp plate consisted of wild caught gulf shrimp served over brown rice and soaked in a delicious balsamic base. The Ultimate was loaded with Carolina pulled pork, Carolina slaw, brisket, grilled kielbasa, crispy shredded onions and swiss cheese. We finished the shrimp easily, but we ate half of The Ultimate and started getting nervous that we bit off more than we could chew before the main course, the Giant Short Rib.
It is remarkable how wonderful we felt leaving the restaurant. We didn’t feel like we needed to be rolled out in a wheelbarrow. In fact, we even nibbled on an Oreo Cookie Crunch dessert. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and it was profoundly light and scrumptious.
