El Pollo Ranchero — Restaurant in Virginia

I’ve been coming to this place for about 15 + years on & off.

Today was my last day I visit this place. As I walked in, I was greeted by Ovy. He looked at us asked if we’re were dinning in, we said yes, he grabbed menus & stormed off. We stayed at the door confused cause he didn’t tell us to follow or anything. We ended up sitting down where he placed the menus.

Just felt kinda of weird & unwelcome with this.

Our server was Tania. Everything was fine till she brought our drinks with no ice. We ordered Horchatas, they came warm. Tasted like the batch was not even being held in a fridge. We returned the horchata & asked for water. She brought us again Clorox smelling water with no ice. We decided not to complain or anything, simply refrain from drinking anything.

I observed her touching her long curly hair several times, walking to the cashiers, touching her phone/texting behind the counter, then eventually bringing us our food. She never washed her hands between this which is very unsanitary.

To finish off the night, we asked for split check ( it was 4 of us dining in but only 3 ate meals). We were told they couldn’t split because they had just changed system. When they printed our check, we noticed they charged us for a large party gratuity. A large party would be 5+ people.

I’ve never been someone who minds tipping, however, based off of someone’s performance & sanitation.

Even with that being said, the bare minimum would always be 15%. I just found it weird it said large party & it was 20%. I asked them what the reason to this was & ovy said “anytime it’s more than $50 we charge”.

That is complete false as we are regular customers and this has never been the case.

I felt because they knew my face showed I was not content they felt the need to do so. Service is terrible and I do not recommend this to anyone...

We came here because we were looking for a quick dinner and wanted to support a minority-own def business. I had the Tipico 3 (pupusa, steak, rice, beans, and salad) plus as Chile Rellno.

Let me begin with saying that I'm always grateful for complimentary chips and salsa. The chips at El Pollo Ranchero taste store bought and are not special (e.g. thin, warm, dusted with chili lime), but the salsa tasted fine. The Chile Relleno was okay (see photo). I liked how cheesy the dish is, but would have liked more sauce. As for the Tipico entree, the pupusa was my favorite part of the meal. I got the revuelta (pork and cheese) and it was meaty, cheesy, and piping hot. I did have to ask for the curtido and salsa, which was weird. The salsa also didn't taste like any Salvadoran salsa roja I've had before, so that was also a bit of a surprise for me. The steak was a nice petite size and cooked to medium well, which was more over cooked than I would have liked. I'm glad it came with a simple salad and quarter of an avocado. The rice and beans tasted very Salvadoran and the slice of fresh queso was a nice touch.

I will the say, for what this place lacks in some of its flavors, it made up with service. The two servers who took care of us were attentive...

Unacceptable. My family of 4 and a 3 year old toddler came on Easter Day. It wasn't terribly busy. First they got the order partially wrong. That's not a reason to give a bad review though. It's the food and follow through that they failed on. My sister-in-law "saw" them open a can of black beans on the video, heat them up in a pot and then put them in a plate to then serve to my wife. Plain tasting is an understatement. My steak taco was full of stretchy-tendons or cartilage or whatever it was.... NOT GOOD. My mother-in-law order a beef dish that had so much hot sauce on it, it was unedible. We took it home to throw it out. I didn't want to cause a fuss there since I decided I was never coming back. Finally, my son's kid enchilada never came. I had to cancel the order all together.

They were nice, the bathroom was clean... However, I'm not there for those to expected services, it's mostly about the food and they...