A new restaurant has opened in Palo Alto, but this is no ordinary restaurant.

The Chicken Ranch, a little establishment on University Avenue, prides itself on serving healthy, tasty, and casual food at a reasonable price. You are sure to leave with a much happier stomach and wallet than you could have at other restaurants.

The owner, Bolton Bulut, also owns and runs the Mediterranean food restaurant, Gyros Gyros, down the street. It’s a shame that the Chicken Ranch is rarely filled because it is an excellent restaurant. Bulut wants his customers to get a quick, healthy, delicious, and cheap meal, and that’s just what he has accomplished with the Chicken Ranch. “Everyone loves good quality and healthy chicken,” Bulut said, and his chicken is indeed good and healthy.

As you enter, you see a large menu with a relatively small selection of dishes, but enough to cover everybody’s tastes. The prices are low, which would suggest that the portions are small. However, when the food arrives on colorful plates, you cannot even tell what color your plate is. The large quantity of food combined with the low prices is a pleasant surprise, yet it leaves the customer wondering why he or she is getting such a deal. It is easy to assume that the food is of poor quality, but once a person sees the delectable wood fired rotisserie chicken roasting and rotating in the oven display, the customer begins to salivate over the juicy chicken almost taunting the customer from inside the kitchen.

Not surprisingly, most of the entrées at The Chicken Ranch have chicken in them. The main dish is the Rotisserie chicken. A quarter chicken costs $6.25 and a half costs $8.50, and Jerk chicken is also available. Jerk chicken, which originated in the Caribbean, is roasted with various spices to more flavor and kick to a normally bland meat. Jerk chicken will cost the customer 25 cents more for the quarter chicken and 45 cents more for the half. White meat is also available for an extra 75 cents.

If the chicken is not enough to fill a diner, then the sides sure will. Each chicken entrée comes with two complimentary sides and a bread roll. The sides, which cost $2.75 by themselves, range from cold ones such as fruit salad and coleslaw to hot ones such as roasted herb potatoes and cheese pasta.

Our chicken had too much bone on it but it still tasted terrific and while the chicken cannot keep one’s stomach, the two sides that come with the chicken cover for the lack of chicken. The cheese pasta is decent but nothing special; same for the fruit salad. The roasted herb potatoes were great, but a little dry, and the onion rings tasted store-bought. Overall, however, the whole meal gives a diner plenty of food for fewer than seven dollars.

The Chicken Ranch also has a variety of salads that can come with or without chicken. The basic salad ($3.25) and the spinach salad ($3.50) are two of the non-chicken salads. The other entrees range from a Caesar salad with chicken ($6.95) to a jerk chicken wrap ($5.75) to even a chicken pot pie ($6.25) White meat is available for 50 cents more and the pot pie comes with one side dish.

The salads are enormous and fresh, but there is not very much chicken on the salads. The pot pie was filling and vegetables were fresh, but it was somewhat bland and once it was cold, it turned almost gelatinous. Despite that, the salads were luscious and the chicken was a nice touch to the massive amount of greens and the pot pie was a decent alternative on the menu.

The Chicken Ranch offer more than just chicken, but the choices are limited. They serve a half slab of ribs ($8.95) or a full rib dinner ($15.95). The menu also has three kids meals each for under $3.50.

If you want a lot of chicken, you can order a whole chicken with dipping sauce ($9.95) or add dinner rolls and two large sides ($3.50) for another $8 if you need to feed a whole house, get the picnic pack ($34.95). It contains two whole chickens, four large sides, dinner rolls and dipping sauce.

As for drinks, bottled beer ($3.50) and little bottles of wine ($4.50) as sold at the counter. Iced tea ($1.45) and soft drinks ($1.45) are also available as well as Coffee or tea ($1.50). Complimentary water is on a separate counter with the utensils, napkins, and ketchup.

The service was adequate, but with only had one waiter, so it’s understandable why there were few table visits. When the waiter did come, he was courteous and sociable. He even replaced a fallen knife within seconds.

The Chicken Ranch caters to groups, and you can pick up a menu with the hours and an interesting history of wood-fired rotisserie.

Overall, the restaurant is limited in its menu and service, but the quality of food along with the cheap prices is what makes this restaurant stand out.