Rancho Grande Mexican Restaurant

Food is average and not any better than any taqueria on every corner, but it’s a lot more expensive. I called in and ordered a 2 cheese enchilada plate with rice and beans and an order of chips and salsa and it came out to $ 13. Go to any taqueria nearby for better tasting food and better prices.

What might make me slightly different from the other reviews is that, for me… What makes or breaks a Mexican restaurant is their hot sauce. This place does not disappoint. At first taste it woke up my mouth, only for a while. But nevertheless, it did wake me up.
I came in a little before 9am Saturday morning. Maybe it’s just me, but when I come in this early I like to throw them off a little and order something from the lunch menu. This way I can see how fresh or old a food item is.
I ordered the Carne Guisada plate. I’m used to seeing the plate with brown meat and gravy. Not a reddish color. There wasn’t really that much of a difference in flavor. For some reason or another the cheese placed on the beans never melted? The rice on the other hand was from the day before. It most definitely wasn’t made today.
But like I had mentioned before, if it wasn’t for the hot sauce, I would easily say that I won’t be coming back. But it was good… So I will be back. On another note, the waitress never stopped by to see if we needed anything or to ask how the food was.

The chorizo egg and bean tacos are so good I had to order a 3^rd one. Also the staff is so professional and polite.

It is the closest restaurant to me, but would rather drive a bit further for better food and service. Staff is not friendly, I’m bilingual, so it’s not a language barrier. I’ve ordered tacos to go, a very long wait. The fact that that don’t make their own corn tortillas says a lot about a Mexican restaurant. I do not recommend this place, food is not authentic mexican and not the cleanest place either.

Since it’s the closest restaurant to my home, I’ve been eating here since they opened. My dad was a big fan of enchiladas and he definitely approved of theirs. The beans are average and the rice a little above.
It’s undergone extensive restoration, both interior and exterior, plus some expansion which I’ve seen no need for. The walls inside are covered with delightful paintings of Mexican town scenes, with the occasional burro and farmer. They’ve recently replaced their aging booths and everything is in tip-​top shape.
I am a big fan of their puffy tacos — the beef, not the chicken. Since they’re now handing out cloth napkins, be sure to get some paper ones to drain your tacos into. This is not a complaint, just a normal feature of the deep-​fried tacos. They come with a goodly amount of lettuce with tomato chunks and lots of shredded cheddar on top.
Note the photo which shows the 3 hot sauces they offer. This is very unusual, as most places just offer a hot verde and a milder red. The addition is a wonderful thick jalapeño-​based sauce that looks like it’s made with guacamole — but it’s not. They make this fresh each day and often don’t have it available for morning breakfast tacos, to my disappointment. The normal breakfast tacos are priced at a special price for 3 in the morning hours — they’ll also make the more specialized ones then. A typical taco like bacon and egg is $ 1.59 and a carne guisada runs $ 1.99. Their chorizo and egg is quite good and doesn’t drip grease like those made with cheaper sausage. A nice touch is that they offer bacon and egg tacos with the bacon scrambled in the egg or laid across the top in the traditional manner. The tortillas seem homemade and the serving size is adequate.
I saw mention of poor service which I can’t understand. The waitress staff shows stability and attention to customer service. Occasionally I’ll run into one with limited English but we seem to manage. I like butter with my chips and this is hard to translate and I never remember the Spanish word for it. I’ve never had to wait for service and hard no problems at the new drive-​thru.
The prices are a bit high, no doubt. At most Southside Tex-​Mex joints you can get an enchilada plate for $ 5 — here it’s $ 8 until it drops to $ 6 at 4pm. Other items are more reasonable, like the a-​la-​carte price of $ 2.25 for puffy tacos. This is a great deal when you’d pay $ 7.99 for the plate. My appetite these days is limited so I often get a small meal without extras and that hasn’t created any service problems.

Spacious inside. Food tasted decent. I got the fajita tacos. I just wish my tortillas were more toasted. Everything, like condiments, are charged separately. I do like how the meat tastes though.

Food was pretty good but customer service was so bad it brings it down to 1 star. Don’t really care too much for customer service but I couldn’t let this one go. Been here 4 times and service was always terrible. Do not come here.

It’s okay. I thought it was just average. The chips and salsa were very good, nice and spicy. I had the Gordita plate, was ok but very greasy. The refried beans are home made. I would eat there again if I’m in the area, but would not go out of my way to eat there.

Nothing too fancy but it’s roomy and spacious inside and you can not go wrong with the food here. Me and a colleague from work stopped here during our lunch break. I ordered a country sausage taco, barbacoa and a carne guisada taco. I didn’t care for the country sausage taco much but I loved the carne guisada and the barbacoa. The carne guisada wasn’t too spicy and didn’t have too much chile seasoning like the kind served at El Mariachi several blocks away. The barbacoa wasn’t too greasy and fatty. It had plenty of meat and flavor. I also loved their red and green avocado salsas, both had more heat than the salsa you get at your favorite Mexican restaurant but not as much as the kind served at Guajillo’s. The avocado salsa reminded me a lot of the kind served at El Pollo Loco. I also recommend the horchata. It’s very good.

Expensive. Increasing prices every time we visit which happens every few months.

This place was great, the service is excellent and I highly recommend this establishment. The prices were reasonable and cheap.

Leaves a lot to be desired. Service is good but food is not. Never hot and meat is always chewy and tough.

Asada was very good as was the Salsa. Very authentic.

Total dive, not much in the way of service but the food is great and the salsa (both red and verde) are SUPER slamming!!! My Unilocal readers know I measure Mexican food by how good (or not) the salsa is. I think the salsa sets the tone and expectations of the meal to come! To date this works every time for me. I could eat Rancho Grande’s salsa every day! Be warned however, neither salsas are mild. Mild is for babies! Hahahaha!
For the first time, I had «puffy tacos». Don’t know what they do w/​the shells to make them puffy and fluffy, but OMG! I want more! Now! Seems as if I could taste the taco filling better. Its my new fave thing!
Everyone else had dishes that disappeared pretty quickly too. Lots of happy plates! So I guess it was allllllll gooooood!
Enjoy!