Gran Rodeo — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

Until now, I've never understood people's absolute adoration for Mexican food. It turns out I had only ever eaten at chain restaurants with overly Americanized versions of Mexican food and cheaper ingredients.

This was a meal I paused between every bite and went, "MMMMMM, WOW." No hyperbole, it was just amazing.

A healthy eater like myself? You've got options be they vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, etc.

I had the salad with honey mustard grilled shrimp on it. As far as I could tell it wasn't dressed. And IT DID NOT NEED TO BE. It was absolutely divine.

My aqua tacos arrived long before I finished ravaging that salad, as I wasn't about to miss a bite until I got down to the leftover bits of romaine at the bottom.

No problem, as aqua tacos are wrapped in lettuce (instead of a corn or flour shell that can go soggy). In fact, I was so full from the salad that I only ate one of the tacos and brought the rest home.

My friend thought they would go to waste. Tacos are rather notorious for not being able to travel, after all. So I took this picture of what I did with them the next day and showed her that they did stay good and they were STILL FREAKING AMAZING.

All I had done was remove some of the pico de gallo sauce and throw the rest (chopped up, lettuce and all) on top of a bed of brown rice. It would have looked even more beautiful had I left the pico de gallo on it however with an ulcer it's hard to eat too much tomatoes.

Even as 24 hour leftovers, I was still eating it while moaning happily. That's a testament to really good food and quality ingredients.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the ONLY Mexican restaurant and I'll happily come back on any day that isn't my neighbor's 85th birthday!

(They sang her happy birthday and put a sombrero on her head and gave her a shot of tequila which she VERY much enjoyed, as did all the rest of the nearby customers! 😂)

The margaritas she had all had orchids in them. Gorgeous. I don't drink alcohol so they made me a virgin one which was really tasty and still had the orchid. ♥️ A nice touch!

The wait staff and owner came over to say hello/hola, just really an amazing find. We chatted with nearby tables that come every week. I cannot wait to come back!

Oh, they do of course give your table a big basket of chips and dip (and white sauce, apparently a popular Southern US thing with mayo) right away. Our waiter was fantastic and seemingly psychic with knowing what we needed and providing it before we even had to ask.

Go there. Skip the chain places. They are successful enough to have branches throughout the area, and while I haven't eaten at the other ones, I can definitely attest to this one's...

• READ BOTTOM FOR UPDATE* Takeout (1 week prior) I'm pregnant and had a sudden craving for Mexican at 8pm, so I sent my husband out to bring some home for me. I was a little picky with my order (blame the baby) but they were EXTREMELY accommodating. They didn't just hand him a bag, they walked him through everything before bagging it. They gave me extra queso to go with my extra queso (yes, you read that right) and homemade hot sauce that was divine! The quesadilla was delicious, the rice portion was huge and seasoned surprisingly well, the white sauce didn't taste like soap but actually tasted good, and the salad had a dressing unlike any other in the area. My husband raved about the tacos as well. Craving satisfied and then some!!!! Will definitely be going in person soon.

Dine in (1 week later): Did NOT have the same experience in person. Our server was nice, but she was largely absent. We were seated before another table right next to us. She took our drinks then theirs, dropped ours off then theirs, then she took their order instead of ours and disappeared for like 10 minutes. She finally came and took our order, and not even 2 minutes later the other table got their food. I asked for a queso and ended up finishing the entire basket of chips and sat there for a few more minutes before she finally came up and asked if we wanted more at which point I had to order it again. We did not see her again until after we got our check which was brought from someone else because we sat there looking around for her for so long that it caught the attention of 2 other servers. YES it was busy, however we watched all the other tables get taken care of, and it doesn't explain why we were skipped. Food was...

The place has kind of gone downhill, was once a really great experience and even a fun place for a casual dine with friends. I've personally been going to this restaurant for such reasons for quite some time (years by now). However, recently service has taken a tumble.

Atmosphere is still good, well decorated, music at a nice volume with taste in choice, and clean surroundings

Food tastes decent, acceptable among other Mexican restaurants, but portioning is small relative to other places by a quite noticable amount and it's not priced any lower.

Service is spotty. Some days it's good, but most of the times I've been recently it's been pretty sub-par and even outright terrible at times. One of the few times I've tipped below 10%, and I tend to do more even if I had a suboptimal experience. The waiter with yellow sunglasses has in particular been a notably bad experience, leaving us alone for sometimes up to 20 minutes (we hadn't even ordered yet), and seeming in a rush just to turn the corner and clearly be on his phone right after. Lastly, I do like to take my time leaving even after finishing my meal, but 15-20 minutes just to receive the bill is far too much, especially if there's an issue with the billing or order (which there has been on occasion).

Not much more to it than that. Give it a chance if you want, but if you're looking for a consistently good experience, this restaurant has...