el rancho tapatio restaurant

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

my favorite of this type mexicanrestaurantin 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.

terrible service!!!. my husband i went there for dinner on sat 10/18/14 around 6pm. therestaurantwas not busy at all but they managed to screw up my order not once but three times!!! my husband finished his meal before they even brought mine and it was terrible. we will never dine there again and advise anyone reading this to do the same!!

to go orders are last priority. i have eaten at therestaurantmany times and thought it was a good place to eat. i stopped in there on a sunday afternoon at 3:20 and placed an order to go. it was 4:00 when i got the order. one couple came in right after me and was leaving before i got my order. the clerk told me they were very busy.

the food was cold when i got home despite the efforts to package it in nice foil containers.

might consider eating there again, but never for carry out.

family place is highest praise from me. because chinese, mexican, whatever, a good and truly authentic non-american stylerestaurantin community well-represented by that ethnicity, will always have plenty of customers of that ethnicity in the mix, especially *families*. if you don't like the sounds of (actually pretty well behaved) kids and babies, stay away.

so no, not a fancy place and not a trendy place. as another reviewer mentioned, entrees aren't automatically cheese-drenched, but nacho sauce is not what mexican cuisine is about. you can order amazing ala carte soft tacos - that's nothing elaborate, but always a good way to get a feel for whether mexican food is the real deal in a place. carnitas or pastor is great but i love lengua - beef tonuge - and so will your kids. maybe if you don't tell them what it is.

be sure to ask for the hot sauces. besides the salsa that shows up with your chips, they have two green sauces (one tomatillo and one chile based), a red chile hot sauce, and (sometimes? just discovered this one & don't know if it's always available) an orange habanero sauce with just the right amount of *yummy* searing pain for me. husband wishes it was hotter.

beans (ordered to made my soft tacos less lonely look runny and sad but good. don't know how they are made but certainly something more than refried beans can #3. but this ties into my only possible complaint - traditional mexican is not particularly accomodating to those on low or lower carb diets. (on the other hand, those looking to avoid wheat gluten will have a plethora of corn choices.) nice people, we are quickly becoming repeat customers.

haven't found a better mexican restaurant!. i've been to all sorts of mexican restaurants although most of them have been located further up north (near cincinnati). i found this mexican place after the girlfriend and i looked around on urbanspoon. we've been a few more times and out of all the mexican restaurants i've been to this has been my absolute favorite. don't let the outside appearance turn you away, this place is amazing. i'm not an expert of mexican cuisine by any means but i feel like their menu is the most authentic of any other mexicanrestauranti've visited. i had the bistec a la mexicana last weekend and really enjoyed it. i also love the authentic tacos where you can choose whatever meat you want. i have yet to try a margarita but i have plans on trying one on the next visit!

love it!!. love it! love it! love it! so glad to find this restaurant! great food-----friendly service------very cold draft beer! the best mexicanrestaurantwe've found. mariachi band on friday nights.

fantastic!!!!. we saw the review in the paper this weekend so we tried el rancho for for our first time tonight. being from texas, we thought we knew of and had tried out every mexicanrestaurantaround our 11 years in lexington. wish we found el rancho before. it was by far the best tex-mex we've found since leaving texas. the tamales were as good as, or better than any we've ever had, the fajita's were also fantastic. the assorted salsa's were fantastic. the service was great! what more could i say. highly recommended.

great food, service & friendly staff! we had been looking for a good mexicanrestaurant& we found one here! we started with a nacho platter that was huge as well as delicious. i had the burrito fajita with cheese sauce & my husband had the enchilada verde. we give both a thumbs up as well as the variety of condiments! i failed to mention the warm chips & salsa that they immediately brought to our table. we had soft drinks to drink, left plenty on our plates & our bill was only $27.34 before tip! will we go back? definitely - can't wait to try something else from the large selection.

no other mexicanrestaurantcomes close!!. crave this place!! we've taken friends to share the fun friday night experience of the mariachi bands as well! best tacos... favorite is the tripa, but there are no bad ones! start and finish every time with a ceviche tostada of mixed octopus and shrimp --- heavenly! great variety of hot sauces too... love the super hot they'll bring out if you request it. haven't eaten at another mexicanrestaurantsince we first tried here! friendliest staff in the world too! :)

hands down the best cantina in lexington!. lexington urbanspoon users are always raving about a certain locally-owned (we think bland)cantina chain near the mall that always stays in the top ten on this site. our theory is that these people may not be familiar with other mexican restaurants in town because of their loyalty to just one place or they haven't yet taken the chance to familiarize themselves with the culinary road less traveled. el rancho tapatio is just the place to break away from mundane tex mex. we were seated in a huge, comfortable booth by a friendly hostess and given attentive service by our server. chips were brought out and we could tell right away that they were fresh and the salsa was perfect. just as we were exclaiming that we could be happy just eating the salsa and chips, the server brought out little jars of salsa verde, habenero sauce, an avocado sauce, and two additional pepper sauces. one was better than the next. for dinner, we decided to order a wide range of dishes off their expansive menu(which does contain tex mex favorites like quesadillas, chimichangas, and crunchy-shelled tacos). we had a tostada topped with octopus ceviche. it was simple, fresh, and elegant. after that, we had an empanada filled with a pepper mixture called rajas and cheese. it was like a garden wrapped in fried, fluffy goodness. we tried a gordita filled with chicharron (fried pork belly) and a verde sauce. the taste was reminiscent of something a sweet grandmother would make for the family she loved. it was homestyle at its best. for our main dishes, we shared the tacos dorados el barbacoa and mojarra frita. if you look on their website in the picture gallery at the tacos dorados el barbacoa, then you will be able to imagine what they are like. amazing, fried shells are filled with tender shredded beef, fresh onions and cilantro, with a huge side of fragrant grilled onions. trust us, its as good as it looks and sounds. the mojarra frita is a whole tiapia, head and all, seasoned to perfection, fried and served with rice and vegetables. by the time we got finished, it was a meager pile of bones on the edge of the platter. we enjoyed it so much that we ate every scrap of meat in the thing, including the eyes. the rice was flavorful and just the right texture. on this visit, our first to el rancho tapatio, we were served what we agreed was one of the top 5 best meals that we've ever had in arestaurantin our entire lives. we aren't exaggerating either, the food was that amazing, the service was that great, and the mariachi band capped off the perfect, laid-back ambiance. our bill only came to $32 for a table covered in many plates. we will never go to the place near the mall again now knowing that el rancho tapatio exists and we will be back, probably in the next few days.

new grocery interfering with quality?. ever since it opened last year, my family has been a huge fan of tapatio. we go for dinner there about twice a month and for lunch almost as often, because it is the first really reliable mexican place i've found since moving back to kentucky a few years ago.

over the past six weeks or so, however, we've noticed that the service has gotten increasingly spotty--missing drinks, confusing orders, slow service, etc. but we ate there last saturday, and now the food seems to be suffering too. the chiles rellenos were overbreaded and soggy with grease; another entree that usually has a nice, full chicken breast now has little pieces of chicken instead.

why? well, it might have something to do with the fact that therestaurantis opening a companion bakery/grocery in the same strip area. i'm really looking forward to trying out the store, but if the food and service at therestaurantwill not return to its former quality, it's going to be a darn shame.


-----02 aug, 2010-----

finally, great mex in lex. for the past 4 years i've lived in despair of finding arestaurantthat would compete with my old favorite from champaign-urbana, illinois, dos reales. but el rancho tapatio has finally replaced what i was becoming convinced was a psychological fixation!

their chiles rellenos are easily the best i've had in years. my partner had enfrijoladas and loved them. good vegetarian options. neither of us had meat, but the veg. menu would keep us happy for ages!

the wait staff is friendly, and the service was impeccable. zandale isn't the most exotic or romantic of locales for a lovely meal, but you won't hear us complaining!

best mexicanrestauranti've been to in lexington. you can get the same dishes here that they serve at all the other mexican restaurants in lexington, but skip all that and go the the page on the menu labeled, "especialidades ranchito." the mexican tacos in particular are great. if you aren't sure which to get, try the pastor. and they are only $1.50 each!

edit: since my review i've tried their bakery next door. big selection, lots of variety, and very good prices.

best mex in lex.. after becoming so tired of the usual suspects in the lexington mex scene, that taste just like every other mexicanrestaurantin every other town, we were thrilled to discover el rancho. first things first: you can get your fix with a huge coke complete with crushed ice. they have the best coke in town. my husband loves their "puffy tacos" (tacos de barbacoa), their mexican hot dog, and their fajitas, which he says are the spiciest things he's ever eaten. i'm a vegetarian and love their enchiladas, which you can get topped with with grilled/sauteed potatoes and carrots. highly recommend green sauce for enchiladas. as for dessert, don't miss their churros, which come from a lady in versailles.