El Rancho Plus

Nice people ok food. Guacamole way too salty and not fresh. Like store bought with filler. Same with salsa. But if you are looking for a Mexican fix it will do.

I’m such a big Mexican food person. Unfortunately everything seemed more like «chain» Mexican than fresh family. Just my opinion. My husband loves the food. Chips were a tad salty for me. Queso was not the typical white but more like velveeta with rotel. Rice was overlooked and just not my cup of tea. I will never deter anyone from trying Mexican… so check it out. Service was fast at lunch time and place was clean.

Good dependable «traditional» mexican restaurant. It’s been here since 1988. I do come here often when I have a hankering for mexican but don’t want to drive very far. Fast service. Good for families.

Love this place. It’s like Mexican food that your non-​Mexican mom used to make but it’s super consistent, the staff remembers you and is responsive and the margaritas are strong.

Good food and consistent service. Tacos are a good inexpensive meal. Nice family fun restaurant. Décor needs a makeover:)

Pretty good food! Good size portions. Staff is friendly and helpful. Nice place to stop by if in the area!

This Mexican is far superior to the new «kid» in town. They are efficient, accommodating and the service is superb. The décor badly needs updating (screaming even…). The queso is delicious and fajitas are EXCELLENT. I think they may be a little pricey given the area but all & all its worth it. We eat there at least once a month. It has never disappointed in food quality, portions OR taste. Don’t let a new fancy exterior fool you ~ patronize this family and longtime waitstaff. One of the ladies was even voted ** «best wait/​server» ** in the area by a local paper a few years go and she’s still there… offering the same reputable service!

So good! Ive eaten at a TON of mexican resturaunts, and this was in the top 5. Service was very polite. I ordered the veracruz combo and a peach daqurie. The drink was very tastey and strong. The combo was a HUGE amount of food. Although the presentation of the dish could have been more appealing, it was so delicious! And definitely enough for 2 or 3 meals. The chips were also very warm and fresh. Highly reccommended!

Great place for some Mexican food in Pville! The dining area is pretty intimate and nice for what it is, and I’ve never been disappointed by the food. The chips and salsa are great (the salsa is the nice not too watery but not too chunky type) and my favorite thing to get here are the chicken taquitos, even though they are a little overpriced. The servers are nice and fast.

Lowsy food for a premium price. Went to this place as I heard about it from a neighbor. I don’t think my neighbor goes out much… The food was not very good. Even there chips and salsa were no good. How do you screw that up? They were stale and seemed like from bag.

Great restaurant. Staff is great, food is amazing and you don’t have to wait long for your food. I can always tell if a restaurant is good if they keep my drink full. My drink never goes empty. Great job guys.

Great service, food is average. Nothing special. Wife & I had tacos. Not the best, certainly had worse. I’ll try it again at another time. Found it better than the White Palace down the street. I’ll try a burrito next time. Queso was pretty good as was the guacamole.

This is a hole in the wall joint in a strip mall in purcelville.
What a great find! We have been here several times and taken several guests.
The food is always hot, fresh and comes out relatively quick.
Margaritas are yummy:)

What to say about El Rancho? This is a small town Tex-​Mex style restaurant, I’ve eaten here dozens of times for lunch and dinner and the food and service have always been above reproach. Everything I’ve order has been good portions and good flavored. The service is always a quick as you’d expect depending on the crowd size.
I like bringing my out of town guests here, the atmosphere allows for chatting and the food is worth sharing. They handle medium sized groups with no problem.
The food has always been consistently good and well made.
Bottom line is I will be going back and if you are visiting this place is well worth a try.

It pained me to give a star after the treatment I received here tonight. I would like to base this review solely on my treatment by the owner although the food certainly is a disappointment, I expected that. Living in purcellville, you don’t have many options for eating out. I stopped by with my 11 year old daughter tonight after yoga because I was craving a beer and some chips and guacamole. I’ve eaten here in the past with my family and knew it wasn’t mind blowing authentic Mexican but was ok with that.
Our guacamole was NOT fresh by any means. Not one chunk of avacodo in it. Smooth and glassy with the funky taste of preservatives that premade guacs have. The chips are not fresh or house made either. My daughter was pretty upset about this but I told her to stop complaining and eat it.
When I received my dish I took a bite and looked down at my plate to see a stink bug nestled in the center of it. Living out here I am aware that stink bugs are everywhere but needless to say I couldn’t bring myself to chow down thinking about it spraying its stink. I sent it back with the waitress who acted very surprised that I would ask for a fresh plate instead of eating it. I waited 15 minutes for a new plate. I took a few bites but wasn’t very hungry by this point.
I received the bill and saw that I was charged full price $ 16, for my dish, which was overpriced without the added bug. I never complain at restaurants because I don’t like to make a scene and I worked as a waitress for years and hate those people. This is the first review I’ve ever written.
I decided to politely let the waitress know at the check out counter that I would pay for the meal but that I was surprised to not even receive a discount on my dish that was returned with a bug. The owner joined the waitress and told me that he knows my type and can tell I’m just trying to get a free meal. He said he could look at my face and see that I do this everywhere that I go. I was in shock and tried to explain that he was wrong and I couldn’t believe the way he was treating me. The waitress said that the bug had probably come off of me. I said that I was going to write a review and the man told me he didn’t care about my review because they serve 1000 people a day. He told me to pay my bill and leave his restaurant because I wasn’t welcome there. All of this in front of my daughter. After being accused of just trying to get a free meal and everything else this jackass said I was so angry I could barely think of what to say! I walked out of that place so pissed, shocked and disgusted. I’ve never in my life felt so mistreated by a business. I can’t believe they have remained in business as long as they have.
I urge everyone to take their business elsewhere to business owners who respect their patrons.

I decided to give this place another try after reading some of the favorable reviews. As a transplant from California who lived across the street from a real Mexican place I consider myself an expert and am usually disappointed with NoVA attempts at Mexican cuisine. If they don’t have Menudo on Friday’s and Tongue every day then it is hardly authentic. With that said, El Rancho sadly disappoints. We stopped by around 7:30pm on a Tuesday evening and there were only three other table occupied. The décor is outdated and a little too dark for my tastes. Service was friendly although slow considering the lack of other patrons. The only highlight of the visit was the Negro Modela they have on tap. The so called tortilla chips could not possibly be any worse. You could go across to the 7 Eleven and get a better bag of them than the horrible chips they serve here. They are terrible with a capital «T». The salsa is okay but it is on the watery side although it seemed fresh. The chili con queso was also not very good; I get better results at home with Velveeta and some spicy Rotel. Definitely not worth the 6 or 7 bucks they charge for it. I had the Puebla which was a Chile Relleno and Cheese Enchilada. It was passable but sort of resembled something you would get in a TV dinner. Chile Relleno was not breaded and the use of ground beef is a copout — use some real meat in my Mexican please! Not worth $ 11 for sure. One of my kids had the wings and cheese sticks meal. Cheese sticks were overcooked and it was run of the mill Sysco products. Older kid had the chicken fajitas which were decent although at $ 16 are overpriced. You can go to Chili’s and get better chicken fajitas for $ 10 with an appetizer under the 2 for $ 20 deal. All in all this place sucks. It is in desperate need of one of those restaurant rescues where they brighten the place up and fix up the food to be fresher and tastier. Until that happens I will not be wasting my time eating at this place again — I would rather go to Taco Bell than eat here.

Not the best and certainly not the worst! The portions are HUGE so I’m not sure what another reviewer was talking about saying they were not. Maybe we’re different sizes? Anyhow it’s definitely a decent meal if you’re craving mexican, I mean really what are your options out this way anyways right? If you’re looking for cheaper head to Taco Bell. We both ate for under for under $ 20 and left stuffed. The service is good and prompt. The people watching on an early Sunday lunch rush was pretty entertaining. Talk about twilight zone!
I’d return if I were in the area!

El Rancho has the best chips and salsa. If you like it hot, ask them for their hot sauce and watch out.
Their 3 cheese enchilada’s are great with their meat sauce.
We’ve been eating here for 5 yrs and the Mexican food is as good as Colorado and New Mexico. Enjoy.

Update to previous review. Better than before. I still can’t believe all the bad reviews of this restaurant. My husband and I just had an early dinner there (7pm). The place was packed. When we arrived there were only two tables available (this is a large restaurant). Obviously, there’s something here.
On my previous review I discussed the tacos and how this place would rank up next to Texan tex-​mex. This time, I’m raving on the steak fajitas. Just raving!!! Exceptionally tender steak, marinated in deliciously earthy spices, and then cooked to perfection. Here’s some of the best I’ve had anywhere, including Mexico! If you’re trying to decipher the mixed reviews, go to El Rancho and order these fajitas. You won’t be disappointed.

All I can say is:
«What was I thinking?»