El Ranchito — Restaurant in Topeka

We like this location because they have stronger drinks than the 37/Kansas location. It’s also closer to where I live.

We came during dinner rush on a Friday night, party of 2. Parking lot was full so I was skeptical but went inside and after standing for a minute with no greeting a server came by and said “just 2?” And we said yes, he let us pick our table so we sat down at one of the few empty ones. A lady came up and handed us chips and salsa, I said Hi— no hi back. And she walked off, but okay. We proceeded to look at the menu for a few and then wait 20 minutes without a single server asking us for our drink order. Multiple servers walked past our table and didn’t look at us twice. Matter of fact, a table next to us, party of 8, sat ten minutes after us and not only did they have a server approach them but they received their drinks before we even had a chance to order ours.

It was very loud and very busy, we had to basically yell across the table to hear each other, but the restaurant is not huge, it’s not like we were hidden where nobody could see us— just nobody came to ask us if we wanted at least waters or anything.

Finally, a waitress asks us if we’ve been helped after 20 minutes and we say no, we order two margaritas. 15 minutes later we get our drinks and mine is wrong but at this point I’m so thirsty from eating chips I don’t even care what she hands me. So I insist it’s fine. She walks off without taking our order even though our menus are closed and not in front of us anymore. 10 minutes later, the party of 8 next to us has their food in front of them and we finally are asked for our order. We order a burrito and quesadilla, nothing extra special.

The bartender walks up to me and hands me my correct drink order, and apologizes. Which is the only reason I am giving 2 stars instead of 1.

We get our food 20 minutes after we ordered it, which was what we expected. We are sitting, eating, talking, done with the food— which the server grabbed both our plates. We are mid conversation so I’m not necessarily watching the time but she doesn’t come back to give us our ticket until…. We had been there for 90 minutes at this point. She comes to give me the tab, I have my card out in hand, and walks away before I can even give it to her. By this point, half the restaurant is empty and the waiters are just cleaning or talking amongst themselves. We wait another 10ish minutes before deciding to get up and go stand by the bar to pay. Nobody looks at us in the eyes, I’m standing within 5 feet of the server who helped us, my ticket and card is up in the air and nobody offers to help us close our tab.

I could have walked out and I doubt they would have noticed. At this point we are so frustrated that the tip I considered giving the bartender was no longer a viable option. Although he was the person who came to take my payment. I left zero tip and wrote on the receipt why I didn’t leave a tip.

I am very disappointed with the service and although I love the location on 37th and Kansas, I will not be returning to the fairlawn location. I see posts online about not tipping waiters, and how it’s their income, but I shouldn’t have to wait on them when they are supposed to be waiting on me. I tip...

This used to be a good place for Mexican food, now it may be better off shut down. Upon pulling into the parking lot we saw gease pouring out of the back of the building and an overfilled dumpster with canned beans, rice and etc scattered across the Eastside of the parking lot. As for dining and atmosphere, greasy floors, empty candy and drink mix machines is what you'll see when you enter. My latest dining experience was handled by a waiter that completely placed our order incorrectly and when delivered incorrectly rolled his eyes when asked to correct it. He then had the cook modify existing items and brought the same plates back. He spent most of the hour we were there, snacking on items and drinking from a table in the main dining area while messing around with his phone. But later was forced to clean a table behind us and proceeded to spray cleaning all over the table, chairs, most of my body, plates, salsa, chips and queso. I'm not sure if the spraying was intentional or not, but this made me immediately ask for the check and he begrudgingly provided, then he went back to a booth to eat a very large fiesta nacho plate and play on his phone once again. I had to flag down a waitress in the back to take our payment. So service and public safety were a complete fail. Additionally, the salsa, chips, queso, rice and beef are a shadow of what they once were as quality does not seem to be a priority here anymore. If you do try this place, maybe for the cheap liquor, look out for the potholes in the lot on...

My son and I had went walking and decided to stop for a bite to eat. We walked in a man stood at the counter and a woman was sitting at a booth. No one acknowledged us so we found a seat and waited for the waitress that had been sitting down eating when we came in at 4:15 pm. She finally came over and "greeted" us, definitely the rudest waitress I have ever encountered (she did NOT deserve her tip at ALL but I am trying to raise a decent human being). My son ordered an appetizer, I should of taken a picture, I'm not sure what meat was inside but the ends were black and the inside meat looked like pork maybe but at least it wasn't black. No we did not complain to our server as I'm sure it would only resulted in more frustration to me. It was the first meal my son has paid for with his own money, what a huge disappointment and lesson for him. Sadly I've seen this restaurant here for years and never tried it, guess my instincts were right, and we definitely won't be back. (the remodel looks nice) My son's favorite Mexican restaurant is across the street on the other corner of 29th and Fairlawn El Taquito Express if you want to support local...