El Rancho — Restaurant in Town of Saugerties

I have been to El Rancho many times, and up till tonight has been a good experience. The food remains some of the best Mexican food in the area. The service tonight was terrible. We didn't see a waitress for at least 15 minutes after we were seated. When the waitress did arrive, she took our drink order of two cokes and disappeared for at least another 10 minutes before she came back to take our order. Our food did not arrive for at least a half hour. The waitress dropped our food .. literally dropped our food and disappeared once again. We needed more napkins and since our waitress was nowhere to be found, we flagged down a different waitress to ask for the napkins. We were also hoping for a refill on our sodas, and had to flag down another waitress to get those. We were almost done eating when our waitress finally showed up to see if we wanted anything else. My wife was still eating so I asked for the check thinking if she left we wouldn't see her again for at least another half hour. When she brought the check, I saw that we had been charged for the refills, and when I asked about it she brusquely replied that they charged for refills and it was on the menu. As I said, I have eaten here many times before and was not charged for refills on sodas. We asked to see the menu and there was nothing on it about refills being charged for. We went to speak to the manager who said it was on the drink menu. When we pointed out that we did not have the drink menu, she blew us off saying "what does it matter". I don't know when they changed the policy, but there was no reason for her to be rude, A soda at El Rancho is $3.00 so there was an unexpected $6.00 on my tab. I can't imagine a glass of soda costs the restaurant more than .25 cents. What she should have said is "I am sorry, the policy is that we charge for soda refills, I will take it off your tab this time, but please remember the next time you come in that we charge for refills"

Combined the rude responses, and the extremely poor service it is unlikely we will be going back regardless of how good...

Can I rate 0 stars? That’s how terrible our experience was there last night. We went in at around 7:00 and it was very busy and understaffed which is understandable these days. The hostess sat us in the way back. We sat there for over 15 minutes and no one came up the table, no water, no drinks, nothing. Meanwhile another group of three came in and was seated near us. After about five minutes they got service and drinks. Still nothing for us. Finally my wife got up and spoke to the hostess. She apologized profusely “understaffed, etc”. She moved us to the out door patio and after a few minutes she took our order. It was at least another 10 minutes before we got water. Chips and salsa finally showed up. But no drinks. After another 10 minutes or so, the waitress apologized and said the bartender was very busy and the drinks would be out soon. 15 minutes later the drinks finally arrive. By this time the chips were gone and we are pretty hungry. We finish our drinks and I order another beer. Another 20 minutes pass. We’ve been in this place for an hour and a half and no sign of our meals, and it’s not that busy anymore. My wife who is diabetic is not feeling great gets up to talk to the manager. Instead of being apologetic and maybe. comping us a few drinks, the manager is extremely rude and blames the poor service on the waitress. My wife comes back to the table with the check, we pay cash for the drinks, leaving a decent tip for the poor waitress who is doing her best in this poorly run hell hole. We left hungry disappointed vowing revenge. This honest review will have to suffice. Please...

OMG, this was the absolute WORST Mexican food we've ever had! El Ranchero puts Mexican food to shame. Their food was rubbery, bland, and totally undercooked. It couldn't be eaten, and we tried to send it back. The soft tortillas were raw, partly frozen, and slimy. The chicken tasted bland & rubbery; as though it were cheap, strained, gristle scrap-meat from the slaughterhouse floor. The elderly-battle-axe female manager was snotty, unbending, and rude when we politely told her and tried to show her that our food wasn't cooked. Pink chicken should NOT be served! I should really call the Board of Health on them. They're likely to kill some poor, unobservant senior. The manager kept curtly insisting to us that nothing was wrong with it, and wouldn't take the un-eaten meals back. She and the cooks should be sacked. They're clueless, nasty, and need to learn how to cook and give decent, respectful customer service. Sadly, this wasn't the first time we've had a bad experience there with poor food. We gave them several years, and tried returning, hoping they'd change their act. Once bad, always bad, as it turns out. Huge disappointment & total waste of money. Never recommending them to anyone. Mexican Radio in Hudson, NY is far better...