El Ranchito Taco Shop — Restaurant in Palm Desert

By far the worst experience I've ever had eating at a restaurant. Don't get me wrong though, the customer service, cleanliness of the premises, food, and pricing were all adequate. My problem is that to this day I still believe my brother and I were deliberately served tainted food, which resulted in us having diarrhea and vomiting nonstop for around three days straight afterwards. We went with a party of ten to celebrate my dad's 40th birthday. My brother and I were the youngest there; our relatives range in age from their 40's-60's. We're by no means disrespectful customers, my family is very sweet and patient and we always leave sufficient tips for our waiters. We all ordered different entrees. My Uncle was mistakenly served my meal, but had only just bitten into the food when the waitress rushed over to correct him. I ordered the shrimp burrito and my brother ordered chicken. We didn't share any of our food with each other, yet were still the only two members of our party that came down with terrible food poisoning. You might underestimate the extent of our sickness, but I'd encourage you to believe me when I say that for three days, I scarcely had enough energy to even stand, and spent most of the days sleeping on a pile of dirty clothes on my bedroom floor, dreading the next bout of vomiting or diarrhea. We've come to suspect two male staff in the restaurant as being responsible for our food poisoning. We only interacted with around four staff total: our waitress, a male bartender, and the two male staff members around our age that were busy cleaning. They didn't respond when greeted, despite speaking fluent english to one another, indicating that it was their first language. They seemed rather unfriendly as well. The one with partially dyed hair, of an average build, kept encroaching on our personal space while we were waiting to be seated. The other, of a tall and slim build with combed hair and glasses, almost seemed as if we were bothering him when we politely asked for directions to the restroom. But what makes us certain of their ill intent was the way they kept abandoning their cleaning duties to duck into the kitchen, and how they kept standing close to one another talking in hushed voices without smiling while staring at us. They dropped all pretense of merely engaging in small talk with one another after we left the restaurant and were saying goodbye to our relatives, simply standing there and watching us through the window until we left. You might be wondering what it is about us that would make them target us in this way, and to that I have to say that I have no clue. My brother and I are good kids who stick to ourselves. We were never a part of any rivalries or drama in school, sports-related or otherwise, and my brother didn't even go to the same school as me (LQHS), so it's not as if they'd have recognized him. To conclude, I would encourage anyone looking for authentic Mexican food in La Quinta to visit La Casita instead. The service is more friendly (one of my best friend's moms works there, and she always comes up and greets us whenever we eat there), the interior design and atmosphere is far more authentic, and the food's just way better, to boot. I noticed another review commented on the almost artificial, processed quality of El Ranchito's cheese, a statement with which I must contend. So if you want your food to taste like it was made by Abuela and not a-microwave-a, give La...

Fresh, tasty Mexican food at a good value with well flavored salsas & decent service is always a win for me.

ITEM'S ORDERED:

El Ranchito Special (beef enchilada, chicken taco & bean tostada)

Combo 5 (cheese enchilada, beef taquito & chicken taco)

TASTE:

All the food came out quite quickly & was very hot. Everything was decent while my favorites were the bean tostado & chicken taco. This is not some pretentious or higher end restaurant, just straight forward, simple, good food.

I found the beef to be a little bland compared to the better seasoned chicken and I'd opt for only chicken next time. I was pleasantly surprised on how much they filled everything up with meat & cheese. Honestly, compared to similar places I've been to I got maybe 2x the meat here.

The tortillas were a little more thick than I'm used to having which I enjoyed, especially in the tostada I had. Also, I like that the fried items did not seem overly greasy which is quite common.

The sides of rice & beans in Combo 5 was perfectly decent. Not the best I've had, but still good. Maybe could used a little more seasoning, but that's where the salsas comes in. For me, it's many times the salsas which take Mexican food to that next level. Although I would have liked more heat overall, all the salsas had a good flavor & made the food just that much better. Some of the cream sauce they had with the salsas atop my tostada was my favorite bite.

As I mentioned, portions are good here. Literally, if you are not that hungry, you could probably spit a combo among 2 people & just add an extra taco or something.

SERVICE:

This is more of a fast casual restaurant. Similar to Rubio's but with a more homely vibe. The cashier was friendly when I ordered & I was actually surprised on how quickly my order was called up considering how busy it was on a Saturday night on Labor day weekend. There's maybe 12 booths in this place & they were pretty much all taken the whole time I was dining there.

LOCATION & PARKING:

They are located in Desert Gateway, off Monterey Ave, somewhat ironically in between a Del Taco & El Pollo Loco. Parking is abundant & not an issue here.

Being that we're in SoCal these type of Mexican spots are a dime a dozen but the value, & freshness make this one of the better ones I've been to. I want another tostado with extra...

We were a pack of hungry travelers on the road between LA and Phoenix. With 2 teenagers, trying to find something that satisfied everyone can be difficult. This time, the choice was unanimous: Mexican food!

My 19 year old son was perusing Google Maps and found El Ranchito. The reviews looked good and, as I said, it was Mexican food. Living in Phoenix, there are ample and outstanding options for this, but Palm Desert? Well, we’d soon see.

If you are from either Phoenix or So Cal, when you walk through the door, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was another “Berto’s” style taco joint. We have a million of them with similar names (Filibertos, Robertos, Rolibertos, Polibertos, Humbertos… you get the picture). All have similar fare and are good, but not outstanding. They all tend to have similar menus as well. El Ranchito was no different here. The difference, however, was served to us only a few short minutes later.

I ordered the 4 beef rolled taco combo, my son ordered the shredded beef burrito (and helped me eat the rice and beans), my wife and daughter got an enchilada, carne asada taco and shredded beef taco to share. WOAH! This was no “Bertos!” The shredded beef was juicy and tender. The refried beans had that slight smoky flavor and weren’t all dried out. The guacamole (which can tend to be bland) was very tasty. The service was lightning-fast and the order was prepared as we ordered.

I gave it 5 stars because it FAR EXCEEDED expectations, not that it was necessarily a 5-star restaurant.

It’s a bummer that this place is so far from home, but it’ll MOST DEFINITELY be a lunch / dinner stop the next time we hit the road to...