El Rancherito Mexican Restaurant

This place is a huge NOPE for me. You’d be better off going to Taco Bell up the road. The service was slow and awkward. The food was not good and my drink never made it to the table. But I guess I’m glad my drink never arrived as my friend did not finish his margarita because it tasted funky (and it did!).
We ordered guacamole, which was served with one huge piece of avocado that was not ripe. I could not even cut through it with a knife. Our dinners took almost 20 minutes to come out. It was NOT busy when we were there so I have no idea why the food would take so long.
I am very disappointed with our experience and I don’t like to give bad reviews, but I wish this place had more realistic reviews on Unilocal and maybe we would not have wasted our time and money. I mean it’s just tacos, how do you mess it up? Like they don’t have to be great, but edible would be nice.

We eat here pretty often. The food is always great and no matter how packed the place is we always get great service.

Was great food, even when we asked for modifications because we are vegan. They followed all the special instructions perfectly! The chips and salsa plus drinks were served immediately with seating. The chips were fresh and the salsa wasn’t too hot. The service was polite, and the food came quickly. The serving sizes were plentiful. We spent slightly less than a Chipolte restaurant, and got authentic Mexican food!
Forgot to say the decorations were colorful and really cool, with carved painted chairs!

Good to very good food, portions are great and served quickly… one of the better places in this small town to eat. The service is always (been there 4 or 5 times) good to excellent…
It wont knock your socks off, but then again it’s consistent and pretty good… So for around here, it’s a clear keeper and good safe bet :-)

Been going here for over 15 years. Food is always great. Though they can be very busy at times and service can be a little slow. But that’s expected of any eating establishment.

Really cute place, decent food, but horrible service. I talked my husband to go to lunch there yesterday considering I had had carry out before. When we got there everything was good, til we got the female server. She was a horrible waitress (my husband & I have 6+ years in restaurant service experience) she never asked us how we were or went to check on our table. Our food came out wrong & we were over charged. Never going back.

Great food, good service, nice atmosphere especially with the addition of the patio.
Nice to go on Wednesdays when they have the 99 cent margaritas.
Best Mexican place in town.

I’m pretty confident this is the best restaurant in Mount Vernon. Pollo encremado and carnitas are my personal favorites. The fajitas are good, too. Nothing is very spicy so ask for jalapeños if you want more spice. The service is usually very quick but it can be a little slower if you’re with a big group or depending on the server. But most of the time, service is excellent and everyone is always pleasant.

Iv’e been going here for years and it is consistently GOOD. Have gone to many different Mexican restaurants all around. (Fancy and not) I’ve have found none better. I’m always to get home to my El Rancherito Mexican Restaurant.

Wonderful meal excellent service and very nice atmosphere very reasonable price and the proportion of food is actually more than enough
. If travel back this way I will enjoy this great meal again.

With this kind of service I wouldn’t even rate them one star except the food was okay. We had a middle aged woman with glasses for a server. She was extremely slow to the point we had to ask other people for our food, drinks and even our check. If that wasn’t bad enough she was also rude as hell mumbling under her breath and such. This place used to be good but I won’t eat here again.

Cheap and affordable. Staff is courteous and friendly. Lunch menu available 11 – 4. Food is delicious and service is prompt. We were just passing thru and enjoyed our meal here.

Higher priced for a Mexican Restaurant. The chips were good quality. The portions were big, but the melted cheese was still solid. The nachos had plenty of chicken, but hardly any cheese on top of them. The pollo fundido special was large, but had a kick to it.

Good for an inexpensive meal. The décor is authentic Mexican. It is very popular with the locals. I have eaten there several times. The food is Okay. I always order something different and nothing was bad. Servings are large, but when you get a meal with peppers and onions, over one half is peppers and onions. The corn chips that come before the meal are good and the salsa is okay. I have never left hungry.
The staff is friendly and the service is good.

Friends in Charleston and I were going to meet up for dinner. The challenge: find a place along a I-​57 exit that was good for dinner and, preferably, not a chain.
We settled on El Rancherito, but as a gal who has been spoiled by the Mexican restaurants of southern California for the last seven years, I had some trepidation. It turned out that my reservations for it were, in part, off-​base.
When we got there I was surprised at how huge the place was! We were given a huge round booth, even though there were only three in our party, and jumped right into talking. Even though it was not crowded at all, the waitress seemed a little bothered at how slow we were to select our drinks, food, etc. If it seemed like we were keeping her from making more money I’d have felt badly about it, but since it was practically crickets the whole time we were there, I just found it slightly bothersome.
My go-​to when trying new Mexican places in California is to order fish tacos, which can be the most amazing culinary experience one can have, or can be a pretty big flop. If a place makes a life-​changing fish taco, they might just hold the key to my heart. So even though I was no longer a stone’s throw from the ocean, I still used my tried and true test and ordered fish. The second it came out of my mouth I regretted it, remembering some of the worst fish tacos I’d ever had and feeling certain that my 60 mile drive back to the hotel would be complicated by this very decision. But I went with it anyways.
I wish I could tell you that it was the best fish taco I’d ever had. But that would be a lie. But I *can* tell you that it was miles above the worst fish taco I’d ever had (right on the coast in Monterey, CA). It was pretty much middle-​of-​the-​road decent by my California-​based Mexican food standards, which for southern IL makes it pretty impressive.
This particular evening was spent visiting with a friend I hadn’t seen for the better part of ten years and meeting his fiancée (now wife). And with that as the highlight, even the best SoCal fish tacos can’t compare!

Had a nice meal. It is the same Mexican place that you have already been to many times. Rather boring but Americans will settle for anything. It was clean.

Our party of three were pleasantly surprised by our lunch-​I mean who expects to get quality Mexican food in small town America? Our food included the three fish tacos, crunchy shells, hold the tartar sauce. Excellent, although the rest of the plate was bare, it would have been nice to have a pile of shredded lettuce as filler. The chicken burritos with salsa verde were chock full of tender, moist chicken and topped with a homemade tomatillo sauce and cheese and were almost too much to eat! Finally, the chicken taco salad-​no more but no less special than anyone else makes. Not diet food to be sure, moist and flavorful. If I ever expected to be in the area again at meal time I would certainly eat here again.

The food, service and salsa were all great, and the restaurant was clean. We will come back when traveling on I-​57.

Great service, solid food and super convenient to I-​57 if you are on the road. Good food served fast, but not fast food!

We chose this restaurant for dinner based on Unilocal reviews when staying a night in Mt Vernon on our return home from Christmas vacation. We live in Midwest and have had FAR better Mexican food in this region of US. Not impressed!
The good: Margaritas were good, but that is my only real compliment.
The not so good:
Kids ordered virgin piña coladas and the bar had no cherries to garnish.
Chips were very heavy/​greasy.
Waiter did not keep up with refilling waters, chips, salsa.
Salsa was very bland and watery.
We were a party of 4 yet NOTHING came out timed together — not the food, not the drinks made at bar, not even our initial water order?!
Fish tacos tasted like minced fish sticks with barely any other fillings (maybe a teaspoon of cabbage at most?!) and the accompanying «special tartar sauce» was just very mayo rich tartar sauce. No lime sauce or even lime slices for fish tacos? Weird.
Other red sauce entrée orders were bland… sauces looked like from a can.
They were out of every dessert we tried to order :-(.
Overall…OK…but definitely not a must do! I am not a fan of chains but almost wished we went with a chain :-/.