Los Rancheros

I had a great time in this restaurant. Their food is pretty legit. I lived in Mexico for 12 years and this is the most authentic Mexican place I have been to in this area. Their margaritas aren’t the best but they are cheap.

My husband says average, but I thought it was good! Portions are small, service was quick and so nice :)
Salsa wasn’t spicy at all, whatever the other lady says… Our 1 ½ year old dipped his chip even…
Don’t write this place off just yet… It’s in expensive so go see it for yourself!

This was the worst visit I have had to date. The chips were so stale. The tea was sour as well. We asked for fresh chips and we received stale chips again. The chicken on the salad was overlooked, it was crunchy. The rice and beans had to have been days old. To top all of this our server had no personality. We couldn’t hear her, she was so meek and quiet. All around the worse service we have had, and we will not be back!

My wife and I visited as a spur of the moment and did not read any of the reviews prior to our visit.
*****I would like to make sure I point out that the reviews that have been posted with 1-​Star are obviously from people that have NEVER been to an AUTHENTIC MEXICAN restaurant.*****
We did have to wait a few minutes to be sat down, the hostess was on the phone in the kitchen and did not see us walk in, but that was a very minor issue.
The food was decent compared to any of the other «Mexican» Restaurants in the area. Your are not going to get «mom’s cooking» here, but a decent substitute.
We talked with the waiter, who was very attentive and answered all of my wife’s (BTW an actual Mexican) questions. We found that our waiter was from Mexico as well and was very knowledgeable about the food preparation.
I would give this place a 4-​Star rating if it were not for the wait time to be seated.
We will return to this Mexican restaurant, in fact so far, this is the only Mexican restaurant in Fort Walton Beach, that we will see again.

My husband and I went there for dinner. I enjoyed my Carne Asada and my husband got a huge combo platter that included an enchilada, taco, chili relleno, chalupa, and a tostada. His combo had so much food (it came on 2 plates) I was surprised he ate it all. It was all yummy and the price wasn’t bad. Beer was cheap and the service was good. No complaints. We were surprised to find horrible reviews on here. Wonder if they’ve changed dramatically since all of those 2010 – 2012 reviews?!

Don’t come here!
We came here because it was close to base.
Brought us water and chips.
We order our food and I ordered a corona light, literally waited 20 minutes. Nothing, no refill, no beer, no food. I didn’t even see our waitress again.
Seriously.
DONT COME HERE.

Took daughter out to eat. This is a local restaurant. It has changed management many times. Food is sloppy and not seasoned well. We attended during a down time in hopes of better experience and food. Management is sloppy. Arrived at 12:17 and only had appetizer of chips and salsa, which is complementary, and guacamole. At 1:14 still no entrée. Simple order of chicken quesadillas and rice and beans. Guacamole was watery and presentation looked like it was plopped in the dish. No refill of chips or salsa during our wait. Will not waste our time again. Below average rating because Taco Bell at least gets it right. I would have rated negatively if there were stars for that.

The food is very mediocre. The fajitas that we had were bland with zero seasonings, and the margaritas tasted like there was no tequila in it at all. In addition to this, the manager offers discounts to tourists and not to locals. We had a party of 8 people, two of us being locals. Everyone else received a discount on their meals, but the server informed us locals that we would have to pay full price. It’s been my experience that a business should take care of their locals first before the tourists. This place will not be receiving any of my local money in the future.

Seriously the worst Mexican restaurant I’ve been to. My husband and I went there because there because it was close to home and decided to give it a try. Upon walking in. No one greeted us. There’s a sign that says «wait to be seated» we stood there forever. Finally we hair said forget the date idea lets just go sit at the bar. We get to the bar and then asked a waitress we seen walk past if she seat is at a table.
So we get to a table.
The booths were dirty. I mean dirty. I couldn’t even sit back and walking up there was big clumps of food on the floor. OMG lol my husband was clearly not as bothered as I was !
So anyways we order.
He got enchiladas or something. It was good.
I ordered their vegetarian quesadilla which just has the veggies and instead of meat they put spinach.
Now I am vegan and I know my veggies and how they look cooked, wilted, waited, whatever.
My plate comes out and I noticed my spinach we look extremely dark even though I know it’s cook and wilted so I eat it. Hmm.
I open up my quesadilla pull out the «spinach «they gave me collard greens !!
Freaking collard greens.
So disappointed.
On top of that my waitress hadn’t checked on us, never brought me my water I asked for. And I had to flag down another waitress to get ours. I expired toer my problem calmly and nice. She assured me they only put spinach in it. But took my plate back. And gave us our check.
Had to wait another 10 mins for her to come back to our table. she never came. I flagged down another waitress’s to ask her to bring us new check without my plate on it. Finally 10 mins later got our new check paid and left and Botha greed we would never go back to that establishment.

The told us, they do not like serving Black people. But before that it took me an hour and 30 minutes to get steak nachos. 3 out of 6 orders came out wrong and cold. The worst service ever. They also sat no one around us as we ate.

Used to be my Go-​To restaurant. After dining a few days ago and leaving a good cash tip on the table ($ 8 is sufficient for a $ 28 meal) as I always do I come home to balance my checkbook and see that who ever rang my card, Rang it for an extra $ 5 over as an added tip I guess. This is unacceptable! Going to confront the management tomorrow and never dine at this establishment again. Wonder how many others the staff have done this too as well!

The food is flavorless and seems like it was sitting in the window for a while, even though the restaurant is empty. The lettuce has obviously been frozen, and the server messed up our drink order which was water and iced tea. I had enchiladas verde. There was very little cheese in them and hardly any verde sauce. My fiancé got enchilada supreme but there was nothing supreme about it. Hardly and meat in them and the meat that was in there had little to no flavor. The chips that come out for every table tasted burnt and the salsa tastes like tomato paste. We will not be back. This is Mexican’t food.

They should either close and start over… or REALLY step up their game. We’ve gone to this neighborhood restaurant for years and they are in decline. (Maybe Peppers in Shalimar is cutting into the profit that they took for granted.) DIRTY dining areas: dust on pictures falling onto dirty table, floor… total yuck. Go into the bathroom and there is NO HOT WATER SOAP or towels. Should have left after seeing that. Service was ok, but the chips were stale, the margarita was barely ok… and the Nachos Loco was downsized. Won’t be going back unless they make a concerted effort to improve and then advertise their improvements.

Very disappointed in this place. The food was bland, ok no big deal. We didn’t even eat but a few bites. The chips were stale and some burned that they give you with salsa. My nachos were stale too but my daughter was still hungry and wanted dessert so she ordered an ice cream dish that had syrup around it and what was in the syrup? A roach. Well when I called the staff over all they said was ok. Took the plate and left. I signaled for another person who said what do you want, another one. I asked to speak to the manager who was very rude, said «What?! It happens, what?! you don’t have to pay for it ok.» I asked him why he was being so rude. Needles to say we were perplexed on their attitude. It’s not like we made a scene or squealed?. Won’t be back nor my friends and family.

Horrific and uneatable!!! 3 of us ordered Mexican dishes, and my daughter ordered a corn dog meal the dog inside was very!!! Sent back and replaced with another mediocre meal. I’ll never return and I love Mexican food so this place was a complete failure. Had to pray I don’t get sick!

Not good. Not disgusting, but not worth the money or the calories. We had pretty high hopes that this would be the elusive good Mexican restaurant we’ve been looking for. No such luck. Husband had fajitas — just «meh» at best. My fish tacos were equally underwhelming. I liked that they were grilled, but they were served with lettuce instead of cabbage and the sauce was just gross — tasted like ketchup mixed with mayo. Our kids had stuff off the kids’ menu — all of which was fine. No grand expectations for the kids’ menu. All in all, for $ 50 we expect better.

This place is awful! First of all the parking situation is horrible… very tight spaces and crowded. Service was bad. Food was disgusting. If you’re going to get mexican, go somewhere decent like Cantina Laredo or Pepitos.
I ordered 2 chicken tacos as part of the combination special. The waitress did not even ask me if I wanted crunchy or soft so I forgot to specify. Everywhere else I’ve been, they ask. So, when my food came out they were crunchy. I said something to the waitress, and she acted like it would be inconvenient to have to change it out to soft, so I didn’t bother. By the time I got the second taco it was all mushy and not even keeping the crunchiness of the taco. Everything had a weird taste to it.
The only reason they are even getting one star is because the salsa was ok.
Don’t waste your time or money on this place — yuck!

Be careful of what they tell you…
Waitress told us specials on the menu… ordered it, then refused to honor it saying she never said that, though everybody at our table heard her quite clearly. Also refused to honor military discount. Argued with waitress and manager several times. Would never go back.
Their «fish tacos» were supposed to be grilled grouper, double checked to ask if they were grouper, waitress said yes. Clearly was not grouper, nor was it in even grilled. Fish were breaded and pan fried or deep fried, some kind of tilapia or swai. I just had grouper the day before so I had a very fresh taste in my mouth of what it should be, plus I catch them all the time myself. Sauce on them was some kind of russian dressing or ketchup/​mayo mixture. Mango’s were not fresh.
Had carne asada tacos. They were actually kind of decent, but nothing special. Did not come with the typical onion/​cilantro… instead a side of pico.
Chips were not fresh or hot, not stale though. 2 for 1 drinks weren’t bad.
One of worst experiences ever. Biggest problem is staff here, the food was just «meh.»

When you go to a Mexican restaurant you expect lots of flavor and spice. None of that happened here. The food lacked flavor, bland at best. It was also too greasy.
The service was fast and the wait staff kind but at the end of the day if the food isn’t good it’s not worth it and this place is not worth it.

This review is based on a group of 7 having lunch on the 2^nd week of Dec 2010.
First, the ratings are posted below — one of the guys had 2 meals — but please continue to read all the way down.
Chimichangas 3
Fajitas: 4 3 3 3
Enchilada 4 literally changed the guys life
Speedy Gonzales 4
#17 shrimp: 3
Service: 4
Timeliness: 4 we had a party of 7 during lunch and they did bring all of the dishes at one time. It did take @20 mins.
This place does stay busy as all of the tables stayed occupied.
But the following day:
the 4 guys who ate fajitas (2 had chicken 2 had beef) stayed up the entire night yelling «B-​U-​I-​C-​K» if you know what I mean.
They came in the next morning looking like they had zero sleep, were still sick to their stomachs, and vow to not eat there again. Those of us who ate the other dishes didn’t have any of the difficulty the guys had.
Also, they asked me to change the ratings, which was a group concensus.
Could be a one-​time incident… so you decide.