el rancho tapatio restaurant

best mex in lex. so good! my review may be tainted by the fact that i was in such good company and laughed through the entire meal with old friends. i got the veggie quesadilla, rice, and beans- i had nothing to take home for lunch the next day. that speaks volumes.

best margaritas!!. had the best margarita ever with an italian orange liqueur!

best mexican food in town. tacos and gorditas are the best in town, most authentic place i've eaten

never had a bad meal here. manager recommended super flautas, they are amazing, server diana is fantastic!! we have sat with her many times and she is a delight. everything she recommends is out of this world! definitely one of lexingtons best mexican restaurants. be sure to ask for the different sauces with the chips and salsa!!


-----14 apr, 2015-----

great food, consistent wonderful service. tuesdays 2 for 1 margaritas so that's always nice! one of lexington best mexican restaurants

amazing food and service. my wife and i have gone there many times and they never disappoint. they are the best mexican restaurant in lexington. make sure you wear comfortable pants. the portions are plenty.

this place was the place to go...once upon a time. the restraunt has expanded so much that the portions have shrunk and wait time for food has tripled. sad because the food was actually really good at one point. it might sound fun to have a band play music but honestly it’s quite loud and instead of enjoying a meal you are hounded by the loud noise.

family friendly but overcrowded on fridays and saturdays. and extremely hard to find a parking spots. the parking lot across the street had towing signs so it’s really hard to find a decent spot to park.

on a positive note when it’s not at its busiest the staff is very friendly and accommodating to all three of my children my wife and myself. just be ready to be there for a while.

update (may, 2017): another positive experience at el rancho - friendly service, comfortable atmosphere and delicious food!

el rancho has been one of our favorite mexican restaurants for over ten years now, and our most recent experience did not disappoint (other than some distracted service). a comfortable and fun atmosphere, reasonable prices, solid service (usually) and quality chips and salsa. my go-to order is the burrito deluxe (shredded chicken, and topped with cheese sauce; lettuce, onion, tomato and sour cream), served with beans and rice.

very good food! service is fast and very friendly. i feel like a lot of mexican places are all the same, this one stands out to me. prices are fair.

awful. we've been before and we're very underwhelmed, but went back for a second try since we received a gift card this time.

first, despite many empty seats, it took about 5 minutes for anyone to even greet us, let alone seat us. even then, all we got was, "just 2?"....a simple apology for making us wait or a hello or welcome would have been nice.... then, once we got our chips and salsa both had zero flavor. ended up just adding our own salt to both the salsa and chips. we were never asked if we wanted more chips and salsa, but when we asked they never came. then, our waiter eventually asked us and, again, never brought them.

next, we ordered margaritas since it was 2 for 1 night. i ordered pina colada and it tasted nothing like a margarita, tequila or a pina colada... and came with... whip cream on top?? um? needles to say, i sent it back. for dinner, we decided to split fajitas with chorizo, shrimp, steak and chicken thinking fajitas are a hard thing to screw up and surely with chorizo they'd be good.... well, somehow they managed to have dry chorizo with no flavor. it's like they don't have spices in their kitchen... not even salt and pepper.

last, we received the check without being told, "thanks, have a great night" so we just sat there thinking he'd come back to get our card ... nope... wasn't till we noticed other tables taking their checks up front we realized we pay up there. thank god we had a gift card... we even had some left on it, but just handed it to the person behind us because we will not be returning again.

6/8/16 - i cannot believe i've missed writing a review for this mexican restaurant. it is probably one of my favorites in town. the salsa and chips are good - the cilantro and garlic are very prevalent in the mix. i like food - it's always good no matter what you order. the only reason i didn't give them a higher rating is because of their sweet tea (it's fountain syrup and not brewed).

my favorite of this type mexican restaurant in town. super flatuas, tacos de lengua, tortas, fajitas especial, and fajitas tropical are all favorites of mine. this place has a few more authentic choices in addition to the typical american-mex that you would expect. i don't think i have ever had a bad meal here or bad service. very friendly staff, good drinks, good specials, and great food. 

definitely one of the places i have eaten at the most in the city.

awesome food but it was weird that no one knew how to use the credit card machine when we tried to pay. we had to wait for the manager to come back and ring us up. i guess they had a new credit card system? other than that it was great!

enjoyed a fantabulous meal when we visited lexington in march. we came all the way from melbourne, australia. the food was good and the margaritas were so addictive. loved the atmosphere in the restaurant.

i heard good things about this place and finally checked it out.
did it deliver? yes!
the empanadas are excellent. so is the torta, which is not skimpy with meat!
the chile rellenos and super flautas are good as well, with large portions for leftovers.
i highly recommend the picadillo and pastor meats.
the rice and beans (side dishes) are typical, nothing special. but that is not what you come for.
tip#1 - for those dishes that offer the typical beef and/or chicken, you can often substitute one of the other meats, such as pastor, for a slight upcharge. imho, it is very well worth it.
tip#2 - the tamales are very strong/spicy. be careful.

wonderful restaurant, dishes are tasty, margos delicious and friendly service.