El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant - Williamsville — Restaurant in Town of Amherst

I’m not one to leave negative reviews, but I am honestly taken aback by the steak I received today from El Ranchito. I’ve cooked hundreds of steaks myself, I’ve eaten steak at every level of restaurant imaginable, in multiple countries, and never have I been so offended to have paid for food.

I’ll fully admit I was taking a risk ordering steak for takeout from a Mexican restaurant. But I’ve gotten great steak skewers from Arriba in East Aurora, it’s my birthday, I was busy shuttling around the kids, and I decided to roll the dice. Hopefully my loss can heed as a warning to others.

I ordered “Fiesta Carne Asada” for $28.99. Fiesta is Spanish for “an event marked by festivities or celebration”. I would fathom a guess that whoever cooked this steak has never participated in a fiesta with the exception of secondhand or through the eyes of others. This steak was prepared by someone who not only has an overwhelming contempt for others, but likely for their self. If you asked me a day ago if you could psychoanalyze someone by the way they prepared a steak, I would have laughed at you, but here I am debating whether or not I should order another and submit it to Quantico so they can study it and add it to their toolkit in identifying serial killers.

I honestly do not know how you get a ribeye cut to taste so displeasing and offensive. Did they forget to season it? Did they boil it? It appeared as if they boiled it and then seared both sides for 45 seconds resulting in a well done appearance with the texture of an old shoe. That might sound like hyperbole, but I kid you not, I now understand the phrase “shoe leather” when referring to steak.

The cherry on top of all of this, the pinnacle of this tragic experience, is that I thought, well, at least my cat and my dog might get something out of this. I proceeded to feed a few pieces of the steak to my dog and one or two to my cat. Before I could throw the rest away, my ears were greeted with the unmistakable “glug, glug” noise that my dog makes as she’s about to puke. I managed to get her outside just in time for her to throw up copious amounts all over my porch. Then, thinking she was done, I brought her back inside. She was not. She proceeded to puke all over her bed and the floor. I’ve learned two things from this experience: these steaks are not fit for consumption by man or beast and that my cat has the constitution of a sailor three months at sea.

Look, I’m not one to harbor resentment. Live and let learn. But my one request, my one hope, is that whoever prepared this steak seeks the therapy they desperately need. That cow was a living creature too and deserved so...

I am a business owner in the plaza where El Ranchito is located and we order from there on a regular basis and have been pleased. With this being said, I thought it would be a good idea to have our office Christmas party at this location. I made reservations and informed them that one of the guests in my party was having a birthday and would like them to do something for her at the dinner. They said ok we can do something. We arrived at 7:15 and was seated right away. We were brought chips and salsa. Our waiter disappeared. One of the guests in my party had the flag him over the get drinks. It took him 10 minutes before he returned with him ur drinks. The restaurant was NOT busy. He then disappeared yet again and did NOT come back until we flagged him over again. He finally came over and took our order. Again we waited and waited for our food. The service was awful!!! I then asked the waiter if f I could please have a cup of coffee. He later ghee in my face and my guests were terribly embarrassed when he said IT IS 9:20 and we close at 9:30 no there is no coffee!!! We were furious at how we were treated. To add insult to injury when I wen to the counter to pay the bill our waiter turned to a waitress and says she wanted coffee and starts laughing! I have always talked up this restaurant but that will never happen against n. There are other good Mexican restaurants in our area where we will be treated respectfully. You called the next day to talk to the owner and was left on hold for 30 minutes. As I have a business to run 🏃‍♀️ could no longer sit on hold and I hung up. I called back later in the day and spoke with who I was told was either the manager or owner and explained the situation. I was told do what you have to. Would never patronize this restaurant again. Not to mention the fact we will never order from this restaurant again. They made it clear they could care less about keeping ys...

I will never eat here again. My wife, daughter and I went for dinner. The food was good, not great, but good. The service was hands down the WORST I have ever been subjected to. The waitress was rudest I have ever met. My wife ordered a vegetarian rice bowl. After a little bit of eating she discovered a shrimp in the bottom of the bowl. My wife cannot have shrimp. After bringing it to the attention of the waitress she was very dismissive and said "oh, that happens. It was a mistake." My wife told her that she couldn't finish eating the meal so the waitress took it away and didn't say another word. My wife still had well over half her dinner left when she discovered the shrimp. The waitress never offered to make her something new/different, just walked away. When we received the bill we were charged full price for the dish and she even charged $5 for a side of guac? We did try to talk to the waitress about it and she couldn't be bothered and accused my wife of screaming at her (no voices, outside of the waitress' were raised. She just didn't want to deal with the situation). This is honestly the first time I have ever left a zero for the tip. I will never go back there and suggest you find a better alternative. There are way too many other options to deal with this type...