Rancho de Tia Rosa — Restaurant in Gilbert

5/10/25: Short version - I only just now looked at the less-than-stellar reviews for Rancho and am utterly shocked at what I was reading. We had a great experience and would highly recommend Rancho. From the bright colors to the myriad displays to the food, everything was wonderful.

Long version - a few weeks ago we stopped by Rise Up Bakery, a few doors down from Rancho. It was then we spotted the joint and were captivated by the exterior decor. Since then, we have been wanting to check it out but we don't live close by (30 miles away). Well, we popped in this particular Saturday because there were three places in the area we were visiting. We had high hopes the food would be just as exciting as the outside decor and boy was it!

The place was near empty, which was surprising considering it was Mother's Day weekend, but it had just opened for lunch about 30 minutes earlier. I was floored by how huge the place is. Since it wasn't crowded, I walked all around taking pictures of all the wonderfully bright & eclectic items that decorated the walls, shelves, floors, and ceiling.

There are three individual rooms for larger gatherings; the booths looked plenty comfortable, but we sat at a table (the cushions could be thicker, I will say); the patio wrapped around the entire east and north side of the restaurant and it looked decently shaded, though I did not notice misters.

One gentleman brought waters to our table seconds after we were seated, and our server (Julia) came over quickly for a drink order. After a few minutes she returned for our food order. The entirety of our stay she was buzzing all over the place, serving other tables (inside and out) but she always popped by frequently to ask how things were. We never felt neglected or forgotten.

The food? Dee-lish. We ordered the sample platter and my favorite was the tamale, followed closely by the bean chimi. I was surprised at the tamale's sweetness and enjoyed the crispiness of the chimi. My sister ordered the steak burrito and I opted for the papas con carne with all three meats. The chipotle creamed potatoes were creamy and the southwest chili corn was not overly spicy, which was pleasing since I am not a huge fan of too-spicy food that burns my mouth and makes me sweat. ;-)

The drinks? Horchata is my go-to and it was wonderful. We had no intention of ordering cocktails but the booth behind us had a customer who was refusing to take the drink she ordered (she wanted a pina cola smoothie, not a boozy one, WTF) so their server returned it. As we are sitting there enjoying the sample platter, I see the cocktail just sitting there at the bar, all alone, wondering what it did wrong (LOL) and I thought, "to hell with it, I'm going to take it." Waste not want not, my mom always said. I wasn't just going to steal it so I waited a couple minutes until someone popped up behind the bar and told them I would take it. I think she thought I meant to take it for free, but I explained I didn't want it thrown out (that's a waste of good alcohol!!) and that I was at a different table and thus it should be put on our bill. After one sip I was smitten, it was very, very good. Probably the only thing that could have made it better was it if was frozen vs on the rocks. Regardless, it had the right amount of booze in it and it was a pretty large drink; perfect to share with my sister.

Was it a bit pricey? I can see how some people would say it was, but we wanted to splurge a little since we both had a hectic week at work -- and we both agree, the higher cost was worth it. Especially taking into account that we both had leftovers. Heck, I had some of the leftover papas con carne for dinner and I still have enough remaining that my next two or three work days I am set for lunch.

We would totally recommend Rancho to anyone looking for good Mexican food. In fact, as we were leaving, my sister texted her boss (who lives in the area) and told her she should...

This restaurant has definitely seen much better days.

I used to love this restaurant but I feel compelled to write this review.

First off, the menu.

How can you not have fajitas or carnitas at a Mexican restaurant?

They sell a carne asada plate, which you can substitute with chicken or pork and they kind of suggested these as fajitas.

I ordered three of these. One of each meat.

First off the pork. That was just shredded pork. It was nowhere near carnitas as it was suggested. Why did they do this? This place has the best carnitas in the East valley.

The carne asada itself was not what I would call carne asada. It was chopped steak cubes with minor seasoning and the meat was terribly dry.

The chicken plate was terrible. It was basically boiled chicken with a sprinkle of seasoning on some parts of the chicken. The chicken was cut into all different sizes and it looks like it was all cooked for the same length of time. So of course you had chicken cooked unevenly; very dangerous.

Then the sides. The rice was totally flavorless. The beans were awful. They already tasted like medicine. Refried beans only taste that way when they either came from a can, or had been sitting in the fridge for days. The corn tortillas were awful. They almost seem like store-bought and they tasted like they had been sitting in the fridge for days.

The plates came with some pico de gallo. It is the worst one that I have ever tasted. Absolutely no seasoning whatsoever, and even though I ate at 10 minutes after it was served, it tasted like medicine; you know that flavor when you eat some Pico the day after a party; and you forgot to put it away in the fridge. Just awful.

Then the vegetables on the side to give it the appearance of fajitas. It was basically chopped chunks of peppers and onions which were not cooked. The edges were burnt but the vegetables were basically raw.

I also ordered some queso fundido with taquitos. The flavor of the cheese was okay but nothing remarkable. Queso fundido it's supposed to be melted cheese. This had the consistency more like melted cheese sauce. The taquitos were a joke. They were the thinnest rolled taquitos I have ever seen. And only the middle of the taquitos had any meat.

The flour tortillas were the only highlight. They appear to have been fresh made.

The service was outstanding and the ambiance is still the best in the valley, but the food was not good at all. And believe me. I am not being too picky. I will not write a negative review about restaurants or fast food places if the food is average or even bad. But I felt compelled to write this one because the food was really bad.

Hopefully this restaurant takes this as constructive feedback.

This was a great restaurant not...

It’s once in a blue moon I may say I will not return to a restaurant…so there must be a blue moon. A friend of mine could not believe I’d never been to Tia Rosa and so, for our monthly standing dinner date, this is where we went. I will add, she hasn’t been to Tia Rosa in a few years. Walking in to the restaurant I thought the atmosphere was festive with high ceilings, Mexican furnishings and decorated in true cantina style. We arrived at 5 pm and were seated at a booth. We received our chips and salsa right away. The chips were okay but the salsas were lacking. They served two different kinds of salsa. Both in smallish plastic containers. I didn’t like the flavor of the red salsa so instead are the green, which had a sweeter taste. My friend has fond memories of Tia Rosa’s bean dip so we ordered that to start. As we were waiting she explained she loved the smoky flavor of their beans. Bean dip arrives…not exactly what I was hoping for. Not very hot and chunky, unmelted cheese on top. I did pick up on the smoky flavor but was not excited about it. My friend also raves about, and loved, Tia Rosa’s Salmon Tacos. This was her dinner order. I ordered Chicken Enchiladas with Green Sauce. We waited so long for our dinner order that we waved the manager over and my friend asked what was going on. He said he’s find out if it was the server’s fault or the kitchen’s. When he returned, it was with our server and they were delivering our food. All I can say is DISAPPOINTED. In a nutshell, neither of us finished our meals. For my plate, the cheese wasn’t melted (again), the rice had hard pieces in it (old and hard or not cooked, we couldn’t determine), the green enchilada sauce on the enchilada tasted mysteriously like the salsa I had eaten with the chips and the cheese on the enchiladas was white and a strange consistency. My friend disliked her salmon tacos so much she stopped eating them, for fearing she may end up sick thinking maybe the fish was bad. Lastly, our server was a nice man but waiting tables is probably not his forté. We had to ask other servers to fill our water glasses several times. I wish I’d taken the time to read the more current reviews of Tia Rosa. I may have changed restaurants and spared us from the waste of money...