Rancho Viejo

After reading several reviews we decided to try this restaurant.
Be advised it is small and thus you need to arrive early for a table.
We arrived at 4:45 on a Friday night and the restaurant was ½ full. By 5:30 the restaurant was crowded.
I ordered the chile verde burrito. I have not had chile verde this good since dining at El Cholo in Los Angeles (and this may be better). The only downside was finding a bay leaf wrapped in the burrito (and the portion was small).
My wife ordered a shrimp taco which was wonderful.
The complementary chips and salsa was nice. Good chips, way too much onion in the salsa.
We will be coming back!

Tacos al pastor are amazing! Great food amazing service extra friendly and attentive staff. Nice clean little place.

Best Mexican Food around! I am addicted to their Chili Verde! It is my favorite! No other chili verde on the central coast can touch it. Every thing else that they serve is good… but nothing touches that Chili Verde.

This place has really, really great food! I haven’t been disappointed yet. They use fresh everything nothing frozen. We order to go quite a bit and it’s very speedy. The service is amazing as well!

Love the food… Family owned restaurant and is sure worth the money! Salsa is very good.

As a family, we’ve dined here quite a few times.
Every time I order something different, I haven’t been disappointed yet!
Consistently great food every time.
The staff are EXCELLENT!!!
Very friendly and attentive!
I would rather eat here than that other place downtown!!!

Good Food! Even better people. Service was great. They’re friendly and attentive and we definitely appreciate that. I’d recommend the enchiladas.

So I never heard of this place till I saw it in my coupon book. I had a coupon for a buy one get one free mini combo but it was only good through Monday-​Friday. So I decided to go anyways and see if they would let me use it anyways, I went on a Sunday. When I got there the place was pretty small but cozy, I told the lady about my coupon and she was more than happy to let me use it. Also I was able to use it for a full size dinner not just the mini combo that the coupon was for. Super stoked on the service! So I dived into the menu and looked for something that would satisfy my hunger! I got the burrito and taco combo super bomb!!! I left happy with a full belly.

It is a small cute little place tucked behind La Mia market. The service is good, but the food is not great, lacks a bit in flavor.
The table salsa and chips were good, but the enchiladas and menudo were bland.

I’ve been going to Rancho Viejo for years and they have been a consistent and wonderful place for lunch. The service is very good and makes you feel welcomed, complimentary chips and a freshly made salsa are a great touch. My mother, brother and myself all enjoy the enchiladas suizas every time we come in, a rare dish I can’t say I’ve found in many other restaurants. The prices are reasonable and you’ll leave quite happy!

This is the best Mexican restaurant on the Central Coast. Super fresh, consistent, delicious food and the prices are reasonable for the large portions. Love this place! Glad to live 2 minutes from it.

Always great food and awesome service. The menudo is delicious, my family and I enjoy going in for Sunday breakfast, but anytime the food is always great.

My wife and I went here this past Friday. This is a good place, and the food is good. The service was very good, up until a few large family groups came in and they got rushed, but we had already eaten and the only issue was that it took a while for the check to arrive… no big deal.
My wife had the enchiladas and found the sauce to be very spicy-​hot (perfect for me), but otherwise very good. I had the Carne Azada burrito, of which there seem to be 2. One, on the ‘blackboard’, was 75 cents more than the one on the menu, justified by the fact that the pricier one had black beans, as opposed to the regular menu one that had pinto beans. It was quite good, regardless.
This is the first of the local Mexican restaurants in Nipomo that we have tried since relocating here less than a month ago from «The Crush» (L.A./O.C. area), and it was pricier than I like for what is good, but not great Mexican food. I DO like their habanero hot sauce (you have to ask for it).
With the fullness of time. after trying the other local Mexican places here in town, we will probably be back, as this place does warrant further visits.

Had better mexican food else where. But food was okay. When the nice lady served me the plate, the plate was super hot, that tells me they microwave it. I had the enchiladas verdes. Im used to enchiladas Mexican style like made from scratch. The flavor of the green sauce tasted like it was canned. (i know) lol. The reason i gave this place a 3 stars was because of the aguachiles. They are not in the menu so you will have to tell them to prepare it ahead of time before you go in. Now that was the bomb! If i would go back i would go back for the aguachiles

Just LOVE this place! Nice owners and YUMMY food!

This is definitely one of my new favorite places to eat! The have the most authentic rice and beans, two things I’m a huge stickler about! Their carne asada tacos are to die for! Salsa is delicious too, although a bit on the spicier side. Chips are always fresh, crispy, and warm! My only complaint is the price. For authentic Mexican food, it’s a bit pricey compared to alternative restaurant choices.

The restaurant was clean, the service was acceptable and the food was fine too. After reading Unilocal reviews I was hoping the food would be much better. Unfortunately I didn’t eat anything that stood out from the other south county Mexican restaurants I have had but it’s an easy fix.

This is the kind of place you want to exist when it comes to authentic Mexican food.
Here on the Central Coast we have our fair share of options for sure, and unless you live in NIpomo it’s a bit out of the way, but most of the good places are.
Rancho Viejo is one of the good ones.
It’s small, and was oddly empty on a Saturday afternoon, but if the people who were eating there are any indication of how the community feels about it, this is a spot for Mexicans, by Mexicans. And that’s the kind of food I want to eat.
Service was quick and polite. They were happy to make recommendations, which paid off. I had the Steak Ranchero, and was advised to order it spicy. I did and it was amazing. Thin strips of steak, flavorful juices and a great kick but not too overpowering. The rice and beans were good, especially the beans. I could have eaten a tub of them.
I ordered a michelada for the first time, and having only ever seen those cheap 7 – 11 style styrofoam cups with the spice packets was a bit dubious, but what I got was a mug partially filled with the most amazing spicy liquid concoction, a spicy shrimp on the rim and a Negra Modelo (I never would have thought to try this with a dark beer, but would never order it any other way now) and it was fantastic. Maybe the real star of the meal. Spicy, flavorful and with just the right balance of kick and malt. Very good.
The salsa was a bit more watery than I prefer, but it was also spicy and tasty.
The chips were hot and fresh.
We were checked in on regularly and always attended to.
I would come back here again anytime.
If you are in the area, or would consider driving by, stop in and try something. I have no doubt you’d be pleased.

I’m a regular here. I come every single weekend.
How I rate Mexican restaurants is: chips and salsa, and their chile verde. This place has amazing chips and salsa and AWESOME chile verde!!:)
I come in every single weekend and I absolutely love the staff. They are so wonderful and always make you feel welcome. The food is ALWAYS fast and you get a unlimited supply of chips and salsa.:)
I do have to be honest, only once I had bad food when I ordered a chicken taco. The chicken was raw.
The waitress apologized and didn’t charge us, I’m sure it was a new cook.
If you love chile verde, this is the place to have it!

My first clue was the lack of Chicanos in the place. Sure enough, the food was very Americanized. I don’t understand why I’m having such a hard time finding good Mexican food in this area! I’ll have to keep looking.
I had the asada tostada, (see photo) and a chicken taco. Lots of shredded iceberg and shredded cheddar/​jack. Whatever. The asada was chopped fine and lacked flavor.
How do you pull this off in a community that is so heavily Mexican? I mean, I guess I’ve felt weirded-​out in the past by Chinese people opening up creepy burger joints in my hometown of Oakland. We’d be like, «Seriously? You think this is how American food is made?» I suspect this is how the Chicano community must feel about Rancho Viejo.
I guess this place is okay if you’re looking for non-​threatening Taco Bell-​style Mex Am grub. The lady was very nice. You could bring your whitebread grandparents here and they’d think it was great. Don’t bring your jefe unless you want your ass kicked.