El Ranchero Restaurant — Restaurant in Wickenburg

Extremely disappointed.

Needed to stop for food after a long day of driving. Checked the reviews and photos and seemed very promising. Literally right off the road but you can park in the back. Nothing fancy, just a small no frills restaurant.

Service was fast even though only one server, who apologized for being solo.

Chips were on par and the salsas were very good. The bean dip was different, but good. More of a bean cream sauce, but tasty

Wife ordered nachos. She said they were on the bland side. Definitely could have used more cheese.

The biggest fail was my dish. I ordered chicken fajitas. It was a iron skillet filled with peppers and onions, with all the normal fixings. You know, what you expect in an order of fajitas. This was part of the problem. The vegetables were plentiful but the amount of chicken was extremely disheartening.

But the biggest disappointment was the presentation. One of the best parts about ordering fajitas is when can hear the sizzle of the cast iron plate on top of a wooden board as they bring it out to you from the kitchen. They place it in front of you and your stir the meats and vegetables to get them all nice, cooked and caramelized.

In this case they did bring them out on a cast iron skillet in top of a wooden base. There was no sizzle. There was no heat. I shouldn't be able to touch the cast iron skillet with my bare hand, much less be able to completely grasp the handle and move it to the other side. But I was. It was warm, barely. The vegetables definately could have been cooked a lot longer. A hot fajita skillet would have fixed that. Caramelization was never going to happen with these fajitas.

Sometimes fajitas aren't served on a hot skillet. But if your going to serve them on a hot skillet, do exactly that... serve them on a HOT skillet. If your not, don't bother bringing me my fajitas on the skillet.

The fajitas also needed more seasoning.

We were excited to try this place and we're disappointed.

We...

Not really sure how they have a high rating. I travel a lot with in Arizona and I love good Mexican food. I ordered my food out to go in the restaurant. The restaurant was clean in the staff was friendly. It didn't take too long for my food to be prepared and out the door. Let's start with the side. I ordered a side of chips, guacamole, and salsa. The chips were good and you could tell they were fresh. The guacamole dip not so good. It was almost like eating air. You can tell that they use the mixer for the guac and added a whole lot of sour cream. To me the best way to tell if a Mexican restaurant is any good is by, number one they're bean dip and number two their salsa. I had their salsa both mild and hot. The hot was okay with a nice kick, but no taste. For the mild, I've had better salsa in a jar from the grocery store. The mile tasted like tomato soup. I ordered 1 shredded beef, 1 Beef, 1 shrimp, 1 fish taco. The two best tacos was to shredded beef and fish taco. The shredded beef they gave you a lot but the shredded beef really didn't have a taste to it. Could have been seasoned a little better. The fish taco no complaint it was good had a great taste. The shrimp taco was okay. It's pretty much popcorn shrimp. They drown the shrimp taco with the white sauce and I can understand why. Because the shrimp has no flavor at all to it. The tomatoes on all my tacos had a sour taste to them, so I had to remove them off the taco. If you like a good Mexican food restaurant this is not the place for you. Again I travel a lot with in Arizona and I am reimbursed for my meals. I'm not upset at the place or nor do I care. I just don't understand how the rating is so high for this restaurant. When in reality it should be between a two and three...

I can’t believe el Ranchero doesn’t have a high rating so I’m going out of my way while filling out a job application to say how much I love el Ranchero. It’s not just the food it’s the whole shabang. I worked there for 6 months and honestly the best 6 months ever. Hector is a great guy though he needs more organization he’s very family and business oriented and it made working there that much better. It felt like home to me and when I had my last meal there before moving I actually cried. Especially saying goodbye to sweet sweet chuey that was incredibly hard. I loved the environment it wasn’t like any other place in wickenburg. I loved the customers especially our regulars that I wish I could have said goodbye to. El Ranchero has the best food in town hands down. The have the best restaurant environment in wickenburg hands down. They have incredible prices for the quality and quantity of food you get in town hands down. I highly highly recommend el Ranchero. My dad loves the nachos, my mom always ordered the tricolor enchiladas, and I loved the bean dip the most it’s addicting okay but their flan is amazing I hated flan before until hector convinced me to try it and OH BOY ITS SO GOOD I honestly loved everything there. Michigan Mexican food is trash compared to el Ranchero and I miss them every day so don’t take them for granted please you’ll regret it. Hector you’ll probably see this tell the family I love them and miss them daily and I wish you all the best maybe...