El Ranchito Restaurante Mexicano — Restaurant in Albemarle

2 stars only because the hot sauce and queso was delicious! The service and everything else we ordered was not good at all. We are visiting from Texas, so we eat mexican food about 3 times a week, at least! We love it and really wanted to try a place here since we visit this area at least once a year since my husband is from here. I randomly asked a cashier at a retail store for a reference to a mexican place and she said she thought Ranchito was pretty good although she doesnt eat mexican food. Now I know why. If this was one of my few options, I wouldnt eat it either! I used to run a mexican food place in Amarillo, my home town, so I know a thing or two. I dont know why but they flood the whole plate in enchilada sauce when you order enchiladas. My sons will eat plate after plate of them and I have never seen them GAG over enchiladas. But they did this time. They couldnt even scrape the sauce off because it was everywhere including the beans. One plate disnt even come with their beans so when I finally got my check, I had to have the beans removed because they tried charging me. My server was only seen when taking my order. He could barely understand our simple order and after 3 times, we still didnt get the right food. It took over an hour to get 3 small plates ans our check. On a Sunday evening, it was not that busy either. We waited what seemed like forever to get someone's attention, it took me going up to the hostess stand to ask for someone to just bring our ticket since it had already been so long and I didnt want to ask for alternate plates for the kids anymore. I got the bill slapped on the table, he didnt say one word, so I got his attention as he walked away and had him remove the beans that he never brought out. Then he slapped it down on the table again, without saying anything. I took my ticket to the front to have them remove the $14 in food that my kids couldnt eat from the bad red sauce that was flooding the plate and keeping them from being able to eat it. I was not paying for the food giving the bad experience with the server not coming back at all to check on us and possibly get something edible. I ordered the beef sample plater and couldnt eat the flautas because they burned them by frying them too long. I didnt eat the nachos because they sat in the back so long that my chips were soggy already and the meat tasted funky. I ate one quesadilla piece and gave my sons one and that was all we ate from the whole $40 ticket other than the queso/chips/salsa. The manager was brought to the counter to hear my complaints and remove the items from my check. He did not say a word or apologize. He gave me my new total of $21 and I paid and told him that I expected the manager to apologize for the error and that I would be leaving a negative review for my horrible experience. I can say if you do try this place, the chiroqueso us amazing along...

Wish the service was as good as the food. My family and I were on vacation and drove around a long time to find this place in a strip mall based on a recommendation from a friend. Hostesses seemed vary harried while seating us. No server appeared for a very long time. Other people were being seated and greeted and served. Finally a very sullen man who appeared to have suffered a family death appeared and took drink orders. He seemed very angry we were there. We finally got our drinks and were served and our orders taken. Other folks near us already had their food and were finishing up. We were still waiting...a verrrry long time. Our food finally arrived...delivered by people other than our server. Food was great. Delicious and plentiful. Now to get the check..we waited. And we waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. Maybe our server had suffered a death himself..but he was gone. I finally had to get one of those harried hostesses to help me, as my family had long since gone to the car to wait for me. Mass confusion seemed to erupt that I actually wanted to pay and get out. The original near-death guy came back and presented the check without a word. No apologies...nothing. I'm almost sorry I left any tip, but I know what these guys make. If you want some good Mexican food, I recommend this place. Hopefully, you won't get the guy we had. I'd have to rate this among the low-lights of our vacation. Would I go back? Can you...

The manager of this place ought to be ashamed on how to treat a customer. Ordered the Queso dip ..upon trying it out, it was like water & tasted like milk. Which I thought was very odd for this place, it's usually decent. When I brought it to their attention, asking if they could add more cheese cause.... It was like water & tasted like milk, the server took it back then returned to the table saying they could Not add more cheese cause that's the way they make the whole batch. Ok then...take it off my check. No..that wasn't gonna happen either according to what the server said that the Manager said . So a little frustrated.. I paid the bill. What topped that off was upon walking out the door, passing a group of women...I hear her tell the waiter to take the cheese dip back cause it's like WATER. I was parked next to their table..so I sat, determined to see what her outcome was to be. She sent it back twice, after them adding more cheese & now told the waiter it was cold & she didn't want it. This was the third time & she told him to take it off her bill. Hmm...I was pissed by this point. HEY... EL RANCHITO MANAGER..UR QUESO DIP IS TOO RUNNY & TASTES LIKE MILK & NOT DIP!!! LISTEN TO UR CUSTOMERS & TREAT THEM BETTER! At least they added more cheese to hers. He refused to make mine any better & said I HAD...