La Rancherita Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Raleigh

I used to come here for lunch all the time with my coworkers, but it drastically went downhill at the start of the pandemic, so we stopped being regulars. Decided today to give it another try, which was a mistake.

To start, when our chip baskets arrived, there was a spider in one of them. I asked the waitress to take it back and bring us a replacement, which at first she refused to do. Turns out her English was not very strong (which is probably not ideal for a waitress) and she just wasn't understanding what the issue was. We had to get a manager over to translate so that we could get a replacement basket of chips and have the basket with the spider taken away from the table. The manager explained that the chips were all made in one large batch and she thought I was asking for them to make a full new batch to bring to the table, which they couldn't do. This is also concerning, because it seems to me that its likely the spider was in that large batch and it probably SHOULD be thrown out and remade, even thought that's not what I was requesting.

When we ordered food, I ordered a chicken quesadilla with just chicken and cheese, no peppers, and I asked for it as an a la cart side rather than the full meal. When my food showed up it was the full meal and had sauce over the quesadilla, but peeling the first slice open seemed to just be chicken and cheese like I had requested, so I didnt want to send it back, especially after the misunderstanding with the chips. After I finished the first slice and went to eat the second, I got a mouthful of peppers which I had specifically requested be left out. Opening the other slices they all had peppers, but since I was almost halfway through the meal I didnt want to send it back. Instead I decided to try the fries that came with the meal, but these were undercooked, cold, and had an oddly sweet seasoning that I personally did not prefer. After that I just sat and talked eating chips and drinking my water, but was only able to flag the waitress down right before she brought us our checks to finally get a refill, as she never checked on the table after confirming our orders were sent out correctly.

Obviously if you're reading this to see if you want to eat here, you are only reading my side of the story and I have bias, but I would look elsewhere for your Mexican food. For better food in this area I would recommend going to Torrero's off Millbrook and Atlantic. I personally prefer the food, atmosphere, and service...

Experience started out great. Our waitress was very pleasant and attended to every need the entire evening. This is a restaurant I frequent... at least used to, so I knew service would be good.

The problem came when food arrived at the table. I order the Torta mexican sandwich from the menu - it had been recommended and i love these sandwiches everywhere i get them. On the menu it states that chorizo and sausage would be in the sandwich.

When the sandwich arrived, i saw something familiar sticking out of it. instead of sausage or chorizo they had cut 3 HOT DOGS in half and inserted them into the sandwich. Aside from being tremendously grossed out by the fact that hot dogs had been placed throughout my Torta mexican sandwich, they were raw. Only the inside had been cooked where it was placed on the grill for a few seconds. The outsides were still raw pink, glistening with hot dog juice.

The worst part came when I confronted the manager. I wasn't going to say anything, just never return, until the manager began table checks. When he came to our table, i showed him the pile of hot dogs that i pulled out of the sandwich. I said that it was wrong to have written sausage and chorizo on the menu and then try to put $.33 walmart hot dogs throughout the entire sandwich. I told him, i simply would have ordered something different. this is disgusting.

To my surprise, the manager tried to lie his way out of the whole situation. I was told that in mexico, this is how the sandwich is made and that those were "mexican sausages". I am not sure why he tried to lie - maybe he thought this was my first experience at a mexican restaurant or with a hot dog!?! In either case, he continued to lie about it, until i said i hear what you are saying, but what you are doing is wrong.

Our waitress came back mortified. I showed her the hot dog and explained it had nothing to do with her, but that her manager chose to lie and do nothing to correct the situation. She agreed that they were hot dogs and was not only embarrassed that they were in the sandwich, but embarrassed that her manager so poorly tried to cover it up with a ridiculous lie.

Wait staff if excellent, food is sketchy - unless you like unexpected, raw hot dogs, and manager is a...

I eat here often and I had the worst customer service experience ever today. I ordered food for my pregnant daughter and myself and Anabel took our order over the phone for a carry out order. When I arrived she put the order in wrong and the manager had to adjust the price for me which was nice but when we got home we realized that BOTH of our orders were wrong! I called the restaurant and Anabel answered the phone so I asked her to speak to the manager and she said he was busy and she then said I was right there and he fixed it for you with an attitude. I explained to her that our order was wrong and she said that she would have the manager call me back without asking for my number she hung up the phone so we went back to the restaurant (and the manager wasn’t busy) and when she realized the order was wrong the manager came to address our issue. The manager was very apologetic, friendly and helpful! I stepped outside as the manager had our order remade. When I came back in Anabel had my order and I told her I was going to check it. Once again the order was wrong and Anabel said he’s not going to remake it. About that time the manager saw us talking and came to ask was the order correct? When I told him no he apologized again and personally took it back to the kitchen to make sure the order was correct. I told him that Anabel was very rude and I didn’t appreciate the way she handled the situation or the way she spoke to me and I told him I really hope she doesn’t treat everyone like that because she has poor customer service and communication skills. I refuse to ever go back to this location because of her. If it wasn’t for the manager I would never eat at any of the locations. I appreciate his sincerity and his professionalism and willingness to help but she definitely needs...