El Rancho — Restaurant in Santee

Let me start out with the positive. The staff was very friendly and the restaurant and bathrooms were very well taken care of. I am 72 and lived in California all of my life. I have been to many Mexican restaurants in this long life. My wife's family is also Southern California based and of the Mexican culture. The prices on the menu run with the norm in a sit down restaurant. Now for the facts, how can a Mexican restaurant in Southern California serve such bad and flavorless food. How can you screw up a taco !!! It is your leading item man. The fried taco shell was tough, the shredded roast beef was very dry and completely flavorless. It was like you overcooked a roast in the oven with absolutely no seasonings then shread it. My wife had rolled tacos, or should I say rolled corn tortillas; that was the real mistake!!! A small tuff fried tortilla with literally 2 strands of the shredded unflavored roast beef the size of a toothpick with some thin green sauce called guacamole. Both my tacos and my wife's rolled tacos were in small taco shells. I had the combo meal with beans and rice. The beans must have been the canned rosarito refried beans, that were again flavorless and overcooked with a bit of cheese on top. The rice was fluffy; thank God!!. Jack in the box tacos would have been the better and " much cheaper" choice. I can not imagine why people give the food such a high rating at this restaurant. They must be very drunk from the " very expensive " alcoholic beverages that they serve there;...

Food was okay, definitely not worth the wait. We were seated and waited 40 minutes to receive our food. Had to ask for constant refills on our drinks and chip bowls were the size of my palm so needed to be refilled frequently. We were given our food after the tables seated after us, and were not waited on like other tables. The manager (I think - she was in a white shirt and dress pants 8:00 pm 3/3/23) was eating at the register. As someone who has worked in food for 10 years, if the Food Inspector was here, would be an immediate flag, especially since she would run plates after eating and not washing her hands. Huge red flag. Our server was rude and wore an airpod while working which I thought was unacceptable, you’re not 16 years old bussing a table, you’re representing the company and brand. We just moved down the street and I am so beyond disappointed in our experience here. I will NEVER come back. My fiancées food had a pick in the middle of the burrito, not in it to keep it together, but like as a filling and he almost broke a tooth biting into it. Horrible service, horrible people, ok food. Don’t...

The older lady with blonde hair is very strange. I've been coming here almost every week to support local businesses but I've noticed that she won't say hello to me even when in nice bit will say hello to others and go out there way to go e them their order. Also I would get 3 and 3 salsas for my food with no problem before but everytime she takes my order she now changed it to i can only have 2 per order which has neve been a problem. Honestly it's fine there's other business who need more support. Pretty weird as I'm very respectful to workers but I noticed this is a trend every week. Wanted to give it a try but I guess they just have attitude with people that they don't seem to be good customers lol I'm. It tipping 5 dollars just because someone charged me my food and handed it to me lol. Why would I tip a cashier I'm not sitting to get served hahah its just weird when they act nice to one customer then act weird with the other. I guess customers have to tip cashier's because they...