Mi Patrón — Restaurant in Lynchburg

This is our 2nd time eating at the Boonsboro Mi Patron, once at old location and tonight at the new one. We had decided after the first try we said we wouldn’t return But we decided to give the new location to try thinking maybe they had made some changes. Apparently they have not.

PROS: our order was ready in 30 minutes as promised, was hot. The woman was pleasant at the front desk. The new place looked nice, and clean . CONS: I had to attached photos to accurately explain the issues. The meal was ok, but lacking flavor. The salsa is tomato sauce. Literally. Now, I adore salsa. Mild or Spicy, flavorful, salsa. I do NOT like plain tomato sauce to dip my chips in. (See photo). This was the same “recipe” as the first time we ate there and we thought they had obviously run out of their salsa and opened a can of tomato sauce and thought no one would notice. Nope, that really IS their “salsa”.😳 So let’s talk Chips. Like salsa, we adore chips, all chips. Well, not all because these were fried, and served. ZERO salt or any seasoning AT ALL. We tossed the bag of chips, and the tomato sauce in the trash. 😩 Now let’s move to the sopapillas. So the sopapillas we have had at Mexican restaurants are a cross between may be a donut and a beignet, puffed and soft, sometimes covered in a sweet honey glaze, or chocolate drizzle. Heavenly, right? Well, this was a hard, crispy, fried flour tortilla, with a glaze, cinnamon and sugar and chocolate drizzle. (See photo) Completely unlike any sopapilla we’ve ever had in the states, or Mexico. Please google sopapilla. They are fabulous. But if that’s what you’re wanting, you need you pass on these. Take away: Sadly they put a lot of money and energy into the new place, but it is the same food. We wanted to love it, we try to only support local restaurants, but we won’t be back...

*Pros - Seated quickly, despite being crowded. Rice and refried beans were very good; I ordered a second helping to go. Staff bussing tables were very efficient.

Atmosphere was a little nicer than Olive Garden.

Bathroom was clean & well-stocked. Staff, when we could get someone’s attention, were helpful & friendly. Neither my friend nor I experienced food poisoning.

*Cons - Extremely long wait to get noticed by anyone. We finally received menus, along with salsa & chips, but no drinks. We had to flag down random staff anytime we wanted anything - such as drinks, information or food, etc. We only saw our waitress twice!

We spoke with a different waitress, a busboy, a manager, and a hostess - just trying to have dinner in a restaurant.

Apparently there was a meeting (chit chat) of 4 staff at a table, since they nestled in, laughing, for quite some time.

The salsa was a bit spicy, so we flagged down someone for drinks. I requested milder salsa. To save money, they just gave me spaghetti sauce - not even quality spaghetti sauce. I do not recommend spaghetti sauce on nacho chips.

The to-go portion of rice and beans was quite small for $3.99.

*Meh - The enchiladas Tampico and chicken enchiladas were good, but not great.

If you are about to faint from hunger and crave Mexican food,...

We went to this restaurant today 1/2/24, after seeing it yesterday when we arrived in town. This will be a two paragraph review.

First, the food we ordered is very similar to el toreo back in Ocala. I ordered the choripollo, which is chicken cooked with mexican sausage, and it was grilled excellently but not perfectly, and the sausage was a nice smokey blend and not salty like store bought. My wife ordered the standard chimichanga and an a la carte quesadilla. Her chimichanga was perfectly fried until the cheese inside was melty, and the steak inside was well seasoned. The shell was crispy outside and soft inside.

Our server was knowledgeable about the menu and actually pointed out the chimichanga because my wife couldn't find it on the menu. He also was very quick on the drink refills, but I never did catch his name. The restaurant itself however was...