El Rancherito Inc — Restaurant in Effingham

First let me start by saying the young man at the front was very helpful and courteous. This took place about 5pm today Feb 7th... 2024. I placed my order for takeout. I got a burrito, hard taco 2 tamales and a small (not small) side of rice and chips and salsa. Let me tell you it came fast. Probably too fast. I can Taste the Shortcuts! The tamales feel like bigger versions of those you get a can of Hormel. Shame. The chips with no salt what so ever are from a restaurant store. The thick kind. The salsa was VERY bland. I've never really had bad salsa before until now. I've eaten at many Mexican restaurants. The rice was bland as well. My dog don't even want it. SMH. The taco was ok. Not much to it and kinda thin. The burrito was great! Here's the thing though. I asked for hot sauce when I was given my order. I wasn't asked if I wanted any. The girl who gave me my order and got the sauce definitely looked the part of not caring and really didn't want to be there. The owner or manager sitting in his bar stool was just watching and didn't say anything. Almost like he didn't care. Except for the young man at the counter I'd say no one cares there including the microwave chef. You can definitely tell in the food. The girls attitude was obvious. I had been driving all week and this is the place I chose to treat myself on my way home. I chose wrong. Do what you want here but until they start caring about their food, I'll never go here again. If I wanted cheap so called Mexican food I could have went to Chipotle next door. At least I already know...

This is a true Mexican restaurant. It even has a true Mexican "feel" to it (well as much of a Mexican "feel" you can get in Illinois anyway. The wall hangings, furniture and the like inside put you in mind of a Mexican cantina. The roof of the building is made of arched tile. There is a small fountain in the lobby and a cool picture of a man using a spear of some kind to harvest cactus on the host/hostess station. The food is very good. My wife loves the steak and shrimp fajitas. When we make the order to go (As we did this evening) we always ask for a couple extra fajita rolls as there is too much steak/shrimp/veggies to make just 2 (which is how many they come with). They weren't super busy when I was there but it still took about 20 minutes to get my to go order up. That's probably about right though as it would've taken that long if I was seated inside the restaurant too...just seems longer when you're not sipping on a soda or a cocktail while waiting. You can call ahead if you don't want to have to wait for them to cook the food fresh. In fact a lady picked up a called in to go order while I was waiting on our order. She was in and out in 5 minutes. Prices are reasonable (not a bargain but fair). They also have daily specials. They are written on a whiteboard just inside...

While traveling home we decided we should celebrate Taco Tuesday so we looked up Mexican food places and went based on other reviews. I honestly have no clue why or how this place has such good reviews. It’s mind blowing really. My margarita was nasty. My son wouldn’t eat his taco salad and he loves taco salad more than anything. All the food was poor quality. The only thing that went down smoothly was the bottled juice my kids drank. To top it off they sat us in the smallest, darkest corner with a table we could hardly sit at because there wasn’t enough room for our family of four. And the real icing on the cake was that the bathrooms smelled like an outhouse. The whole place seems dirty and I don’t think anyone working much cares. I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy. And I have serious concerns for all the folks who left good reviews... have they never tried GOOD, authentic...