El Rancho Grande - Kenwood — Restaurant in Sycamore Township

Walking into El Rancho Grande, I was wowed at first. The restaurant was clean and had a beautiful aesthetic. We were promptly greeted by the hostess and a few waiters that were standing by the front door. We were then promptly showed to a table and given chips and salsa (which were excellent) and had our drinks ordered and our food not long after. Our waiter refreshed our chips and salsa upon request. So far so good.

When I recieved my food. (I ordered the "Burrito Special" with chicken inside.) I was wowed by the presentation. The dish was gorgeous. (I wish I would have taken a picture but, alas, I was too excited to dig in.)

That excitement was short lived however. The food was disappointing compared to other mexican restaurants in the area. Overall it was lukewarm and bland. The rice was stone cold and the lettuce, sour cream, and tomatoes were a very unappetizing room temperature. The burrito itself was wrapped nicely but the chicken inside had no taste and the seasonings used did nothing to flavor the dish. I had to add copious amounts of hot sauce and salsa (from the complimentary chips and salsa) to make it resemble anything palatable.

After the food was eaten, I used the restroom. At first glance everything seemed clean, but upon further inspection there were telltale signs of shoddy cleaning and maintenance practices. The mirror was smudged, the sink had a layer of grime in it, the trash needed changing, and to cap it all both soap dispensers were completely out of soap. (Which also raises the question as to whether employees are washing their hands after using the restroom.) This was an alarming situation that definitely affected my overall impression of the cleanliness of the establishment.

The last problem I had was waiting to get our checks. We had waited nearly 45 minutes after we had finished eating for our waiter to come around again, at which point we asked for our check. Other than this instance, the service was excellent the rest of the night.

Final thoughts:

El Rancho Grande was an overall disappointing e,experience for me. I will say that I am willing to give it a chance to redeem itself upon a future visit if an oppurtunity arises simply because of how friendly and mostly attentive the servers and staff were. Tonight however, the food and cleanliness of the store tarnished what started out as a...

I really wanted to like this restaurant. They had a high rating so I decided to try it on a whim because we were in the area. The food wasn't bad but it really lacked seasoning and flavor. Everything was very plain. My guacamole tasted like it was just mashed avocado with out any of the seasonings that make it "guacamole". I got shrimp fajitas with added cheese sauce. The shrimp were again, completely unseasoned, even with the cheese sauce it was still bland. Beans, unseasoned, everything, unseasoned. I was also comparing it to a Mexican restaurant I really liked so I guess I was really disappointed from the difference. Especially because the prices here are also much higher than most of the Mexican places I've been to. Over all this place was just "okay" not bad but I also wouldn't say it was all that good either. "Meh" would be a good description of this restaurant. Also to add, it was extremely loud. There were people shouting at the bar and though were weren't seated by the bar it was if they were heckling right beside us. The sound seemed to reverberate through the entire restaurant. The acoustics would be good if there were a band playing but not so much for...

About a couple weeks ago, my wife and I came here, and were seated in a booth near the bar, then it seemed like they forgot about us. We waited awhile. We started to leave, and the nice manager stopped us and assured us he would take care of us and gave us a discount. We visited again and again after that and had very nice meals and service. But, the last couple of times, which includes today, they seated us in the section behind the register, where no one can see you, and I had to actually come out and ask for refills. I did not see the manager I saw before. We had horrible service today. My wife is disabled, and I had to go ask for service. Recently, when we were here, a lady was walking out and she fell on the floor twice, and my wife tried to flag the staff down to get help for her. They just stood around talking! We did not see the manager that day, either. Fortunately, an ambulance was called, and she got help. The servers always seem to want us to walk a long way to the back, or seat us behind the register. The food is always good, but service could be a lot better. We should not have to ask for service. I am not the complaining type, but someone needs...