Taqueria El Ranchero — Restaurant in Oʻahu

Probably won't be coming here again. I literally had to double take at the restaurant name because the experience was so disappointing and upsetting.

SERVICE: horrendous Food: 3.5 stars

This is a review mainly on service. Scroll down to end for food review.

SERVICE: "Liam" was taking our order. (Young, athletic build, black hair slick and gelled all the way back.)

His face was emotionless and we were kind of staring at each other before he took my order because he didn't even greet us or say, "what can i get you?" So i wasn't sure he was ready to take my order. So strike number 1.

Anyway, we ordered taco grande, seafood taco, quesadilla grande, and 2 piña frescas.

When I ordered the piña fresca, he would correct me and say, "so, pineapple?" as if I was saying it wrong or I had offended him or something. So that was strike number 2.

He confirmed our order but I could barely hear what he was saying so just said, "yes ok." Because we are already uncomfortable with his not friendly face and facial expression. When we got our order i realized we didn't get our seafood taco, but on the receipt he never charged us.

We weren't sure if we get our drinks where we pick up food so we waited a little and I decided to take the receipt up to the register where Liam still was and ask where we get our drinks.

He SEES me standing there. After he takes the customer's order and the customer steps away, he is staring straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with me, and so I had to step in and ask, "excuse me, where do we get our drinks?"

He stares at me blankly, "what did you get?" He mumbled. "Excuse me???" I say because I cannot hear his mumbling. I showed him my receipt then he proceeded to tell the waiting customer "I'll be right with you sir" then made my drink. He handed me the drinks 1 drink with the lid BARELY on. Strike 3.

Seriously, I don't care for or expect super cheerful service, but I expect a certain level of friendliness at the register. Ignoring me and pretending I wasn't standing there was what really pissed me off. The mumbling/super low voice didn't help either.

I had no problem with the cooking staff or the other female cashier. Restaurant seemed like a nice casual dining area. The shape is unique, sort of U shaped in terms of where seating is. The other entrance, is the bar area.

FOOD: the quesadilla grande was pretty decent sized. I ordered it with carne asada. The carne asada was pretty good, and overall the quesadilla reminded me more of a burrito than the American quesadilla you might imagine.

The taco was really small..but if you're going there for drinks maybe good sided.

The star of this whole meal was the piña fresca! It was really delicious! This drink itself gets 5 stars but the greatness of this drink is HEAVILY overshadowed by Liam's...

I DO NOT Recommend this place!! I would rate "0" STARS if I could.

This was a poor reflection of what Mexican food should look like. I am Mexican and have ate authentic Mexican food all of my life and know poorly prepared imitation Mexican food when I taste it.

Here are the top 10 reason that I do NOT recommend this place:

Dirty, from the floors to the bathrooms, just plain dirty and unsanitary. Overpriced Food and Drinks. Smallest portions on the Island, tiny tacos, little baggie of chips and other dishes were very small portioned. Did I say that the tacos were so tiny that a beer bottle is wider than your taco (see picture). One place to order food, one register, one slow cashier, and NO Menus! Self serve everything, I am not sure why they have people walking around if they don't do anything. You order yourself, pick up your own food, get your own garnishments, and you have to clean up everything yourself too. Poorly maintained bathrooms, they were dirty, unsanitary, and haven't been maintained. More like the bathroom in an old biker bar. You don't get any attentive service from the staff whatsoever. Bland Food, meaning that there is no authenticity in the making of the food, it should be flavorful and have some Mexican spice to it. The beans were so plain that they should be more of a canned bean paste bean dip. And the rice is plain, unseasoned, nothing added to the rice just red sauce and rice, seems more like white rice and ketchup. All juices and condiments were all uncovered behind the cashier where there are fruit flies and large flies going all around the food. Since the doors remained open in the front and back, the insects were free to come join you for your meal. Poor management of the restaurant. There is no manager checking on anything, just workers walking around looking for something to do. There are no defined roles for the staff, no quality control of the service and no quantity control from the kitchen.

This was such an upsetting experience, I regret spending any of my money there and so would you!!

Please share this horrible experience so others can help in making this horrible experience not be a part of...

First I want to say that the FOOD is amazing!! They have Thee yes THEE most authentic Mexican/Spanish food on island. With that said the management needs help. Around 4 weeks ago I came in to order my favorite seafood burrito, only shrimp/NO rice/ADD onions and queso fresco. Order was incorrect as there was rice and I cannot eat rice. I called and let them know day of as I had ALREADY arrived to my destination to eat and wasn’t facing traffic for $11 bucks(sorry I didn’t remember team members name who wrote down my info) she said no problem take your name/number get it next visit as I work/live too far to return. 2 weeks later I came in ordered several other menu items and asked for my burrito and mentioned that rep said my burrito would be covered as I paid for but couldn’t eat burrito previously. She(yes I know her name but won’t post it) was told by manager to take my name and number so that the NEXT time I come in I can receive the correct order that had already paid for. So I paid for everything including my burrito AGAIN(yeah it was right this time!! ☺️) TODAY May 13, 2019 called in spoke with Robby the manager went through everything and he took it down let him know hubby would be picking up. Robby brings burrito out to hubby and tells him hey NEXT time if you want COMPed food call in as soon as it happens 🤬🤬. Hubby states no worries I’ll pay for burrito ROBBY LOUDLY.. so that yes every single patron can hear no it’s ok just next time IF YOU WANT IT COMPed call in sooner..... horrible that your manager would A. Be so rude and obviously acting as if we need or want a free $11 delicious BURRITO then B. to add insult to injury his subordinates who happen to have more professionalism than him did a better job. P.S ROBBY I JUST bit into my burrito and you still missed the onions on receipt and in...