El Rancho Nuevo - Fairfield — Restaurant in Fairfield Township

First time visitor here. This is a beautiful restaurant. The decor is wonderful. Unfortunately, had less than desirable experience here. Our waitress was beautiful and young, but not very attentive. Twice when asking assistance we had to flag down someone else.

I am somewhat boring, I guess. I have only a couple dishes I order. Today, I ordered steak fajitas. The wait for food was long. Finally here came my entree, but my friend's did not arrive at the same time. He ordered a taco salad.

The griddle was really piled high with sautéed onions and green pepper. And 4 pieces of very overcooked steak. I tried a piece and had to chew pretty hard to get it down. Eventually, I flagged down another server and told him that my steak wasn't good. He said, "chicken?" So I said, OK. I also told him my friend's food had not come. He nodded once and disappeared. Another 10 minutes, and my friends taco salad arrived. It looked great, and he dug right in.

No replacement fajitas. My friend was nearly finished with his food when finally here came a new skillet with chicken and fajitas. As soon as they sat it down, I knew I was gonna have trouble. The chicken was overcooked just like the steak had been. Who browns chicken breast, cooking out all the flavor and juiciness? Apparently the cook in this restaurant does today.

I waited again for a long time until the pretty waitress came back to check. By now, I was just ready to call my tortilla chips lunch, and move on. My friend was finished eating, so I was definitely not going to try anything else and risk another 1/2 hour of time wasted. I told the waitress that the chicken was also overcooked, and I have never had issues with fajitas in the past. I said I was sorry, but I needed this to be taken off my bill. She said of course, and disappeared again. A gentleman came to the table, I assume he was the manager. He asked what happened, and I told him. He said he would try to find out why there was this problem in the kitchen. I advised I did not need to know. I assume the cook was working several grills, and just left the meat on too long. Twice.

The waitress came back with the checks. I think that was the longest Mexican restaurant visit EVER, and I really didn't get to have a meal. When I went to pay for the cheese dip we had, I noted I was charged for the sour cream I requested, but obviously did not eat since both meals were sent back. I requested the cashier take it off the check and he did so.

I was disappointed in just how slow everything was. At lunch time people are typically in a hurry. But these employees were not. I saw other wait staff way more than I saw our server. Drink refills were not offered.

I will give this restaurant another try mainly because I think several things just lined up wrong to cause this poor visit. I will try it again, but if it happens the next time, El Rancho Nuevo will no longer get...

Took my whole family to this restaurant to celebrate a birthday. We had my wife and I, and our 4 children's families, so a total of 5 families (16 people all together). All 5 families had a Reach Magazine coupon to use. We moved all of our tables together so we could all sit together. I mentioned to our waitress that we had 5 families and 5 coupons. She told me that we could not use 5 coupons, that we could only use 2 per table. I pointed out that we had 5 tables pushed together, but she insisted that because they were together, it is now viewed as 1 table and we could only use 2 coupons. After eating, she gave us our bill and I gave her a credit card and 2 coupons. She walked away to run the card. A little while later, the manager walked up and told me that we could only use 1 coupon, not 2, that the waitress told me wrong. I asked that if we had all sat at a separate table, not pushed together, then could we have used all 5 coupons? He said, "Maybe". We spent $335, and were allowed to use a single $10 coupon because we pushed our tables together, rather than splitting us all up in separate locations. In my mind, this is a very dishonest way to run a business, and I will not return to any El Rancho Nuevo again, even though for many years it has been our favorite Mexican restaurant along with El Trompo, which is owned by the same people. Pushing many tables together should not negate each family from using their coupon. This is false advertisement and a very unprofessional and dishonest way to...

Full Disclosure: I have not been back to this place in over 8 months.

The staff is less than friendly, bordering on rude. The boy working the cash registered acted "out of it", as some people say, and was barely audible. He then charged me almost $20 for 3 tortillas with beans and cheese. 3 pieces of bread with a little beans and cheese cost enough to feed my entire family at any other restaurant.

This wasn't my first bad experience here, but it was my last. I haven't been back since and didn't even bother calling a manager when I saw my receipt in the car. For the record, any other Mexican-themed restaurant I've visited in several states only charges around $3 for a bean burrito with cheese and even that's on the high side.

On a less intense note, the menus were too involved anyway. If you wanted to order just a burrito, the person taking your order over the phone makes it sound like a big deal that they have to figure out how to put that into the register. While that may not be the employee's fault, it's worth noting that unless you want to order exactly what's on their menu, it's going to be a little awkward. But thanks to all the employees in the past who took my phone orders for bean burritos, I appreciate...