Red Hot Ranch [no longer] at the Bunny Hutch

Red Hot Ranch at the Bunny Hutch has officially opened its doors and, I'm happy to report that it's pretty damn good. Although the giant bunny statue remains, Harry V. will have to reconsider his opinion.

The dogs and fried shrimp are pretty much the same as they are at the Western Ave. location (and the 35th St. location, for that mater). They are also serving what they refer to as West Coast Burgers, which are supposed to approximate In N Out burgers. I don't think I'd say they are duplicates of what is served at In N Out, but they are in the same pre-formed griddled-thin-fast-food-patty style. They have retained the soft-serve ice cream machine as well, and the cones are a big hit with the kiddies, but I'd recommend going for the great one two punch of a meal at RHR followed by ice cream at the Oberweis across the street. The fresh-cut double-fried fries, of course, are worlds better than anything you can get at In N Out. I'm sure I'll try a burger or two, but a dog and shrimp will be my order the vast majority of the time.

The hours are 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM daily, but they may close a little earlier on weekdays if it's slow and stay open a little later on weekends if it's not. Obviously, the neighborhood can't support a 3AM closing time, but for me, this is a fantastic addition to a destination sparse food landscape.

I plan on going back soon with my camera, so pics will be forthcoming.

Red Hot Ranch at the Bunny Hutch
6438 N Lincoln Ave
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
(847) 679-9464

I stopped in today with a couple of coworkers for a shrimp feast and they were excellent along with the fries. My only complaint would be the cheddar for the cheese fries did not seem to be to be the Merkt's that I was expecting based on the relationship to the Wiener Circle. I haven't had them at Red Hot Ranch so I don't know if they are different. The cheese just didn't have that tang of Merkt's. After my worst Merkt's cheese fries experience ever last week at Ivy's (the other way down Devon from my office), I was hoping for better. Prices are great though and I will be back to try everything else. I did confirm that they are planning to be open year round while the Bunny Hutch was only seasonal I think.

Cash only as my coworkers learned to my expense.

I think the "cheese" is a holdover from the old days. Cheese is not offered at Red Hot Ranch. I'd recommend avoiding it.

The cheese is the same brand as that at the wiener circle. It's not Merkts, but IMO its better. It's kind of "you like it or you don't". I'd recommend giving it a fair shot. I think most people would like it.

stevez wrote:I think the "cheese" is a holdover from the old days. Cheese is not offered at Red Hot Ranch.

Redhot Ranch on Western added "cheese" to their
menu a while back. Not sure if 35th Street Red Hots offers it.

--
edc

stevez wrote:...the giant bunny statue remains...

Hooray!

stevez wrote:...followed by ice cream at the Oberweis across the street...

Or Dairy Star just down Devon!

I have been looking forward to this for some time. I have been trying to get a group of friends together for mini golf and now we have another excuse.

So they took away the make-your-own-sundae bar, huh? Fudge.

Just returned from my maiden voyage to this spot. After a brief hiccup in trying to figure out who was taking orders, I ordered a west coast cheeseburger with fries.

The burger was OK - no wow factor. I've never had an I/O burger so I have nothing to compare it with. Fries were quite good - a little heavy handed with the salt shaker.

In the future, if I had a hankering for a cheeseburger in the area, Poochies would be my go-to choice. I will work my way through the RHR at the BH menu on future visits.

I made my way to the Red Hot Ranch @ the Bunny Hutch tonight. Had the West Coast burger and was very impressed.
I have been at In N Out burger several times and think this burger is very similar. The sauce is a bit thinner but it's
a homemade recipe not something out of a foil package loaded with chemicals and preservatives. Actually, the sauce
was quite good. Fries as usual were outstanding. They only have vanilla cones, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla shakes.
I had a chocolate shake and was pleasantly suprised. The ice cream they use is very good for soft serve, on par with the
likes of Dairy Queen. The Bunny Hutch still is a bit dated but the addition of some tables and a freshly painted interior
and exterior really make the place look good compared to how looked before.
In summary, The Red Hot Ranch @ the Bunny Huctch offers a very good product(no matter what you order) at very reasonable prices. Lincolnwood now has a great Hot Dog Stand !!!!!!!!

jay2021 wrote:I made my way to the Red Hot Ranch @ the Bunny Hutch tonight. Had the West Coast burger and was very impressed.
I have been at In N Out burger several times and think this burger is very similar. The sauce is a bit thinner but it's
a homemade recipe not something out of a foil package loaded with chemicals and preservatives. Actually, the sauce
was quite good. Fries as usual were outstanding. They only have vanilla cones, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla shakes.
I had a chocolate shake and was pleasantly suprised. The ice cream they use is very good for soft serve, on par with the
likes of Dairy Queen. The Bunny Hutch still is a bit dated but the addition of some tables and a freshly painted interior
and exterior really make the place look good compared to how looked before.
In summary, The Red Hot Ranch @ the Bunny Huctch offers a very good product(no matter what you order) at very reasonable prices. Lincolnwood now has a great Hot Dog Stand !!!!!!!!

I agree 100%. The West Coast double cheese, $4.31 including the fries, just hit the spot on a perfect day. I found the burger to be oddly similar to Bill's at Howard and Western. Though better quality meat and you can get fresh veg and that big mac--type sauce. But a similar type of taste----really, somewhere mid-point between Bill's and an Edzo's single. The fries I would also say are nearly in the Edzo's/WASC tier. The most amazing thing is that with a drink and tax, my total check was $6.25. This was to me a MUCH BETTER burger than 5 Guys, and certainly MUCH BETTER fries, for about HALF the price. In fact, a single burger with fries is about the price of a large order of fries alone at 5 Guys. It was a good enough burger that it sort of calls out places like Epic Burger in the fast casual category on price. Never mind the bullshit burgers at Mcd: anyone notice that the "deluxe" 1/4 pounders with some lettuce on them are $3.99 plus tax? That is the exact same price which they sold the the larger 1/3 pounders with the supposed Angus meat, same exact toppings. Was there ever such an egregious burger decontenting? Red Hot Ranch at the Bunny Hutch will give you an infinitely better cheeseburger with the fries tossed in for that price point. And you can do like me, sit outside on a perfect July day and watch the batting cages activity while you chew.

Dog and fries at Red Hot Ranch at the Bunny Hutch were the same, in other words terrific, as Red Hot Ranch on Western. Goes directly into my regular-stop routine.



Red Hot Ranch at the Bunny Hutch, Count me a Fan!

G Wiv wrote:Dog and fries at Red Hot Ranch at the Bunny Hutch were the same, in other words terrific, as Red Hot Ranch on Western. Goes directly into my regular-stop routine.



Red Hot Ranch at the Bunny Hutch, Count me a Fan!

Totally agree. Dog is excellent and the fries are too, and I'm not a huge fries fan. Like their fried shrimp a lot too. Oberweis makes a fine one-two punch afterwards.

Great photo!

Can we call it the Bunny Ranch now?

Can we call it the Bunny Ranch now?

I'm thinking Red Hot Bunny Ranch !

Wren & Whistler, 1st Prize Winners-2013 Midwest Fiddle Championship will be playing at the RHR at the Hutch tonight 8/10 at 7 p.m.

I was over at the Ranch today for the first time. I admit I am not a fan of the Depression style dog presentation (fries on top of the hot dog is just wrong to me, along with no poppy seeds), and because these are the small natural casing Viennas, I got a double dog. It was decent, definitely a good value with fries. My girlfriend got a double cheeseburger, but she thought it was underseasoned (though it looked amazing to me and I will be getting one next time). Fries were tasty, would like them more crisp myself.

With all of the chatter on the other RHR thread, I had a taste for a couple of their dogs. Headed down to the Bunny Hutch location-- too bad for me, it re-opens April 1.

I'm somewhat surprised that they didn't stay open for the winter...

Me too (and disappointed because they had planned to do so).

I'm not surprised they didn't stay open for the winter, I rarely saw anyone in there at lunch during the week after school started.

It's a sad day--the first time I've been led astray by LTH. What the heck happened?! We went to the Bunny Hutch tonight because I was craving an In N Out burger. We walked in and I didn't see the West Coast burger on the menu, so I asked the young girl working if they had In N Out-style burgers. She had no idea what I was talking about, and looked at me as if I was nuts. She asked the grill cook, and he was similarly baffled. My husband and I each ordered a double cheeseburger with everything, thinking perhaps they just weren't using the same name for what we wanted. We also split a basket of fries. Honestly, we are debating whether this was the worst meal we've ever had. My husband was pretty emphatically in favor of awarding it the title, but I reminded him that back in 2003, he once ate a $2.99 steak at a roadside bar. It was every bit as terrible as you'd expect, so I think it edged out the Bunny Hutch. The burgers were of the frozen, pre-formed variety, but cooked just till they were pink in the middle. They were served on stale grocery store buns that did a terrible job of containing the copious amounts of grease. These burgers sat in a pool of their own grease, which meant that the bottom bun had basically dissolved by the time we picked it up. The condiments were standard ketchup, mustard, cardboard tomato, lifeless onion, and neon relish. No "secret sauce," unless that's what the grease was supposed to be. The fries were frozen crinkle-cuts. Fine, but not the fresh-cut double-fried beauties I had been looking forward to. For two double burgers, one order of fries, and two drinks, we paid $21. We would have been better off going to McDonalds.

Woops. I guess this discussion happened on the wrong thread. Sorry you had to take one for the team.

Aw, man. Well, hopefully others can learn from the error of my ways.

GardenofEatin wrote:Aw, man. Well, hopefully others can learn from the error of my ways.

We edited the subject line of this thread to reflect the fundamental change that Redhot Ranch is no longer operating at Bunny Hutch. Really sorry we didn't do so earlier.

=R=
for the Moderators

FWIW The Red Hot at Bunny Hutch burgers were never special anyway. They never came close to what they have at the Ashland location.

I'm glad the Evanston Lunch Group had their lunch at the Bunny Hutch in the Redhot Ranch days. But I guess Mr. Bunny is still there.