El Rancho — Restaurant in Greenville

I was in from St Louis visiting family in Greenville. I love Mexican restaurants, so we went to El Rancho one day for breakfast, and the the next night for drinks/dessert.

My mom and I went at about 7:30pm for drinks and dessert. They brought us to a table in an area that had 3 families, with kids that were being loud, already sitting there. Nothing wrong with loud kids, but I didn't want to sit by them right then, so i asked if we could sit in the bar area - since we wanted to have some drinks, and it seemed like it was the area with the best ambiance. I ordered a $5 shot of tequil;a, and then when the waiter brought it, we ordered two banana chimichangas. The waiter came to and took our empty dessert plates and didnt' ask us if we wanted anything else, But I told him we'd like to order some dipping cheese and he brought it to us. Since we were still working on the basket of chips we got when we first came in, we ran out after a minute when we still had a full bowl of dipping cheese. We sat there and sat there, but no one ever came by to refill it or to see if we wanted anything else. I wanted another shot of tequila and my mom wanted to order a drink, too. We sat for probably about 15-20 minutes with no chips to dip in the dipping cheese we bought, and no way to get anything else to drink. I guess I could have flagged someone down by waving at them from across the room and saying "hey!" or something, but I'm not the type of person who feels comfortable doing that.

We finally just got up and went to the front without our bill. I told the person standing at the register that we needed our bill and that we'd been waiting for awhile with no service, and she seemed surprised and apologized.

Thing is, I was inclined to think that the waiter was busy and just mis-managed his tables, which sucks for us, but happens and is understandable. But, 1) If that were the case, someone else really should have helped him out. The place was not busy by any means and there were other employees in the restaurant who were standing around. There were also two employees who were sitting at a table in the front by the register talking the whole time-which, again, would be fine, if someone had been helping us. 2) I have trouble concluding that he was too busy because a couple of times he was one of the employees who was standing in one spot and talking to a couple other employees. He did, however, seem busy when he wan't standing with the other employees. I'll say he wasn't rude when he did provide service at the beginning. He also wasn't rude at all when he came to the register and rung us up. I have no idea what happened, but it sucked. This was my last night in Greenville before going back to st louis. I wont' see my mom for another year, and we had really wanted to have a fun night out at this retaurant.

So, not sure what was going on, but just BE WARNED that you coudl end up sitting around getting ignored when you just wanted to spend money and haev a good time.

FOOD: banana chimichangas were good. Salsa and chips were good, too. Nothing special, but...

Came in on at Saturday afternoon. The server that came up to the host stand didn’t greet us just said 2, right this way. Threw the menus on the table and as she’s literally running away saying the chips and salsa will be out in a minute. Server comes to the table and doesn’t greet us just says what do you want to drink. Rude. Don’t know her name because she never told us. Then she’s like you ready to order. Felt incredibly rushed. Look around and she has like four tables so need to feel so rushed. Food comes out and never comes to check on us to ask if everything is good. Order a fried icecream. This is the sixth time I’ve ordered the fried icecream. This time it comes out with strawberry sauce on it. Tried to scrape it off. Didn’t take one bite. Server comes to the table and says ready for the bill. No you fool, you should be asking why I haven’t taken a bite of this nasty fried icecream that you decided to put strawberry sauce on that never has had it before. Instantly got angry. My husband try’s to blame me saying she didn’t know it had strawberry sauce on it. I got mad and raised my voice saying it’s never had it on it before. I was more angry that she never asked if everything was okay. She only wanted us in and out. Do not rush your customers. Extremely dissatisfied. Severs need to have better customer service especially when receiving a tip. If I were paying I wouldn’t have left a 22%tip but my husband did for terrible...

I have a couple things! The food is always amazing! However, the service was horrible tonight. First, when we got there, we stood up front and waited to be seated for quiet some time, and was never greeted. Then when seated, it took over 10 mins for someone to come by to ask what we wanted to drink. Once they arrived to our table, we ordered our drinks and food the same time. When our drinks came- I ordered a water; that water had literal floaties of food partical in it and I asked for a new water, which i never received, and had to ask another waiter to get for me. When the waitress decided to show back up again, the food was ready. Now i do want to mention that the food came out with decent timing and everything was delicious! When we have gone to this restaurant in the past and the service has been great! I guess tonight was our unlucky night.

When it came time for the bill, we were given our total, and we proceeded to the front desk to pay. We stood there for a long period again until someone showed up to take our payment. It was not busy in there. Like at all. Almost all the tables were empty, except for maybe 5 tables that had people. Overall, great food and normally great service. Must have been having a rough night with...