El Ranchito Restaurant — Restaurant in Arlington

My family and I went to this location for the first time last weekend for my birthday celebration. The chips and salsa are good. We ordered the fajita molcajete, that comes with mix of chicken and beef, tablitas, sausage..the molcajete was okay. I've had way better than that, Pappasitos fajitas are way better! And yes, I'm Mexican so I know what authentic Mexican food is! Anyways, the service our waitress we had was not good. After she had taken our drink orders. She took forever to get our food ordered. She never asked me if I wanted or needed a refill of water. I'm pregnant, so I didn't realize that she had never offered a refill or just refilled my glass of water until I was just about done with my water. After she had already asked refilled my husband's, and daughter's drinks. I had to ask her if I could please have more water. Out of the whole time that we had been sat down. She only came by once to check on us. Mind you, it was not even their busiest time. I ordered dessert, the sopapillas that come with ice cream. I'm expecting my ice cream since it comes with the dessert. I didn't get it, so I told her that I didn't get my ice cream. She said, ooh we don't have ice cream. We haven't had ice cream for a while. So I asked I'm still going to get charged for whatever the price was when you guys don't have the ice cream. She said yes. She leaves. Mind you, I'm planning on paying for the dessert..but just take off the price of the ice cream. I told my husband that I wanted to speak with the manager. Which I didn't end up doing. Cause she comes back and tell me that without the ice cream is like a dollar and change cheaper. On the dessert menu, it doesn't say to add icecream is so and so much more. It strictly says sopapillas with ice cream for whatever the 1 price is. Before I even had ordered the dessert, I had asked her how many sopapillas came with and if they were small or big. I'm okay that's what I want. Not once did she mention to me that they didn't have any icecream if that was okay. Now that's part of her job to let a customer know so that they can be aware of it. To see if they are going to still want it. I don't even remember what is the waitress name. Other than the waitress service and the molcajete, everything else was good. Their rice is very good, and their charro...

The Initial Visit & Experience: Arriving we saw that it was a full house but there was enough parking for the amount of people. There was no wait as the restaurant is huge! Unfortunately, that's where the service stopped being good. After getting seated our waitress took very long to get to us and others just kept passing by us without even asking if we had been assisted.

The lady cleaning the tables accidently dropped the next tables drink on the customer and they took at least 10 minutes to have someone come clean their table and with that delaying our waitress. She finally arrived and got our order and which took at least 30 minutes to come. One of our orders was missing and that person just sat there waiting as we ate which was very unfortunate because we all went to eat together. When our waitress came back she mentioned a large party walking out without paying and that's why our food didnt come out all together. She never came back to check if we needed anything else or even refills.

The Food: Unfortunately, because of the time they took to bring our food (about 45 & 70 minutes after our server took our order) I did not bother to take pictures of our food. I WAS STARVING! LOL!

I got the pollo al horno and I must say that it was very very good! It was cooked and seasoned perfectly. The chicken fell off the bone and was very tasty. The rice was also cooked great and the beans were just alright.

My party ordered the filete de pezcado empanizado and although I do not eat seafood they both said that it was very delicious and enjoyed the whole thing.

Prices: The plates are a bit over priced but if they just worked on their service and atmosphere it would be perfect because it would include a great experience.

Verdict: I wouldn't plan any birthdays there as the service is very unprofessional and wouldn't guarantee a good experience there. As far as the food, I would 100% take it to go to not deal with the annoyance and chaos in the restaurant.

The food is DeeDeeLiciouz approved, the service,...

If you follow my reviews, you know that I am fair and keep it to the facts of the visit. That said, some may get their feelings hurt here, but I'm not judging. This is our experience.

My son, DIL, and I had dinner together before they returned home. I offered a couple of choices of places to go and they selected Mexican cuisine at El Ranchito in Arlington. We started the meal off with ordering the Choriqueso, as I had seen this on a previous visit and wanted to video it. The queso appetizer had a great smoky flavor and was a worthwhile presentation.

We each ordered different meals which none of us ate the one we ordered. My DIL ordered the Guiso De Cabrito En Salsa, my son ordered the Tex-Mex Enchilada Dinner, and I ordered the Mar Y Tierra. I give credit to DIL for being adventurous and ordering essentially a baby goat which she found to be too spicy and didn't care for the flavor. I offered to trade but she declined. My son offered to trade her which she did accept but he didn't want the baby goat either and instead traded with me for my steak medallion and shrimp skewers. I ended up with the baby goat, baa. We all had a laugh and dug in.

This is where the negative part of the review comes in. Once we started eating, our server completely forgot about us. Never checked on us and after finishing our meals, chatted while waiting for our check. After about 20-25 minutes, I go find a manager and ask for our check so I can pay and we leave. It was then that our server showed back up and asked "How was everything?" So I asked him why he never brought our check and he could only shrug and developed a language barrier at that point. I didn't let it sour our experience, but I let it be known.

We had an overall good meal and a odd story to share. I believe it was an isolated incident and would absolutely return for some great authentic...