Panchos & Lefty's — Restaurant in Ocean City

Is it Fun or Fake?

Authentic Mexican?!….Bull. Tasty? .......Maybe, IF this is your 1st foray into mexican influenced food.

For the *SUMMARY, skip to the bottom.

There is a metal sculptured Horned Bull, (actually, a grill) that sits out front of the “Mexican Grill” Ironically, this is the perfect symbol for this food establishment. Don’t get me wrong….will you enjoy your meal? If you’re looking for authentic, NO. ….If you’re looking to just east SOMETHING, …Maybe? ….. probably not. Will you enjoy the service, Most likely. Our (myself and my party of 8) began like this: We called ahead ….ulp,…No reservations take….but if you give a time they will try to accommodate you. We ended up waiting an hour for a table….well, it IS a touristy Vacation spot to eat, after all. They don’t open till 5pm…..pretty sure they close at 10pm. (keep that in mind). This place was packed….wall to wall, outdoor seating and all. On the plus side: The staff was definitely proficient at getting people seated, drink ordered, apps ordered, main courses ordered and then moved on out….Never have I seen so many people moved through a place in such a short time, nothing short of amazing. Our server Christy, was great, personable and definitely attentive. APPETIZERS: P&L touts the availability of guacamole being made for your table side….so, of course we ordered this, along with Nachos ( just cheese) and Street Corn appetizers. Guacamole showed up on a rolling, compartment cart with a large bowl in the middle, with a seemingly very authoritative lady working behind it to mix our guacamole with choices of mild to spicy being available. Oddly enough, we really couldn’t see what she was doing until the guacamole was done. How was it? Fresh!…..underseasoned, but fresh and mostly acceptable to the whole party. To be fair, guacamole is very subjective. Nachos? They were….well, Nachos….very much like something you could make at home…likely from a canned/ jarred cheese sauce. With a little seasoning, and some diced onions and peppers atop, kinda hard to mess up Nachos. That appetizer wasn’t finished by our party. Street Corn? Not really sure WHAT was on these small cobs, but… the whole party agreed….they HATED them. 1 or 2 bites out of each and they were left behind. Salsa brought with chips was mild and almost taste watered down, as one of my guests put it.

DRINKS: No apple or orange juice for kids….they have a bar! But no juices? No fruit punch. No Orange drink. Maybe they were just out? Of these items? They DID have lemonade. And they were able to make my son, an acceptable Virgin strawberry dacquiri. Yay! Frozen Margarita? Fairly bland. Margarita on the rocks….same. Actually, as expected, it was the same for everyone’s drinks.

MAIN ENTREES: Generally speaking….NO ONE, except myself finished their entrees, citing that they were just NOT very good to tasting very odd, and not being able to identify certain flavors. One of my guests commented, HOW do you mess up rice and refried beans? I, on the other hand ordered the Volcan. A season stew served in a lavarock Molcajete or some know it as a Pestel. (ie, Mortar and Pestel). It was in all actuality, and very simplified version of a Mexican Mariscos (Seafood) classic called “Siete mares” or Seven Seas soup. The base was very tasty and simple and as long as they didn’t overcook the shellfish it was hard to go wrong. After eating the entrée, I attempted to eat the accompanying rice and had to agree, it was absolutely inedible. I had too much class to spit it out, honestly.

LOCATION: Easy access, decent parking, right off main Hwy, easy to located, great signage.

DÉCOR: This place was obviously intended to cater to the later evening club crowd. With bright colors, lots of bright signage and an Upbeat club-ish latin soundtrack playing throughout the evening. Definitely pleasing to the eye, but definitely far from Authentic.

*SUMMARY: Nice place, Club Vibe. Not Family oriented, Good Service, Typical drinks, FAR from Authentic Mexican anything. But YOU...

This is the second and possibly last time we will be visiting the restaurant. We came last year for the first time and it was pretty good. Not the best I've been too but it's convenient and less busy as it's outside the ocean. This year we tried it again today. Very disappointing. It is Friday so we expected a wait as it's not a very large dining area. We were excited they offered call ahead seating and was hoping for less of a wait..... we arrived and we still had to wait an hour though there were multiple empty tables at any giving time. After asking the hostess for 3rd time how much longer I pointed out the available tables and we were then sat. I informed them during the call ahead and once we got to the restaurant about needing a high chair. So they sat us at a booth where the highchair sits about a foot away where my son couldn't reach anything on the table. So instead of waiting even longer on another table we just sat him between us in the booth and made it work. Very slow service the entire night, had to ask for refills on drinks/chips everytime. Once the food came out my fajita order was wrong. I asked for no peppers and no tomatoes. So I expected steak, shrimp and onions. Instead of a sizzling plate of that, I recieved a side dish plate with just the steak and shrimp. It looked like something you would give a child it was so small. There are no rice or beans served with the fajitas and had to order them separate as well. I have been to dozens of Mexican and tex/mex restaurants over the years and have never been served fajitas without rice or beans. I surly have never spent $24 on them and recieved smaller portion of everything and no rice and beans as well. The food did taste good and the drinks were great. This is why I still gave 2 stars. But the service and the value was terrible. Just not worth the almost $200 dinner. Pick up on the quantity of food in your fajitas, include rice n beans, either do away with the call ahead seating or operate it properly and this would have...

What a massive disappointment this place was. I am a big Mexican food lover and had really been excited to try it out. It was so unbelievably noisy that it was difficult to talk to the person sitting across the table from me. Speaking of the table, we were seated at one that still had the drink rings and crumbs from the previous guests and we had to ask to have it wiped off. I ordered the cheese and spinach enchiladas which came with their signature rice and beans. They need to change the name. What I got were 3 corn tortillas filled with sauteed spinach, sitting in a watery "enchilada sauce" and with a light sprinkling of queso fresco on top. They need to be honest - this was a spinach enchilada and nothing else. It was not good. The signature rice and beans were a mix of rice and beans served lukewarm. We were told this is how it's supposed to be. My companions had fish tacos and beef tacos. They ate them unenthusiastically, but they weren't as disappointed as I was. Neither of them ate the signature rice and beans. They were a tasteless, lukewarm mess. The chips and salsa were good, at least. Our waitress deserves a lot of credit. She was fast, friendly and got us a refund on the awful enchiladas which I couldn't even eat. Had it not been for her and the tortillas the evening would have been a total loss. I will never go back. There are much better choices for Mexican food...