matt's el rancho

another great patio, and one of the oldest restaurants inaustinis matt’s el ranch on south lamar. the restaurant has been family owned and operated for over 50 years, with some of the best mexican food the city has to offer. definitely try the skinny margarita made with freshly squeezed lime juice along with niman ranch beef & chicken combo fajitas.

chile relleno. i have been in love with matt's chile rellenos for forty years. i was
a restauranteur inaustinin the early seventies and visited matt's old
restaurant regularly back then. i note to people that it is the best single menu item i have ever eaten. try to find another like it. i am still searching california for something close - reported one in marin county but have not yet found it!austinhas some remarkable tex mex and matt's is a must visit.
shame on the detractors!

rio rancho!. i waited two years to try this place. two years ago, while living in chandler az, i was at barnes & noble, when i saw matt's el rancho texmex cookbook. i missed texmex food, so i purchased the book and started using it. the food was good, but i wanted to try the real thing one day. well, just as luck has it, i moved to austin. i gathered up some friends here inaustinand took them to matt's; suprisingly, they have never been to matt's. we all ordered various meals, such as the carne asada, chili rellenos and a couple of texmex plates. now this restaurant seems to be a combination of athentic mexican and texmex, nonetheless, it was worth the 2yr wait. the menu is unique, i never expected frog legs, but i may try them next time, i visit. the only drawbacks are the parking and wait, but it is a popular restaurant. also, our waitress wasn't too knowledgeable of the menu items, which is one of my pet peeves. it was a great experience and i do recommend it.

a landmark!. keepaustinweird and full of good restaurant. thisaustinlandmark has been kicking out great mexican food for year.

anaustininstitution... but.... matt's el rancho strikes me as one of those eateries that lives more on its fame and reputation as anaustin"institution," than it does based on the actual quality and originality of its food.

in the course of 25-odd years in theaustinarea, i probably ate at el rancho a couple of dozen times. the food is, quite frankly, fairly basic, ordinary, rather bland tex-mex with a few "american bistro" style touches added here and there. i've had most of the enchilada dinners, the soft tacos and the fajitas; my ex always went for the tostadas compuestas-- i'd describe all as "serviceable," but no more than that.

if you're not into mexican food (but why would you be at el rancho, if you weren't?), you can also have things like chicken fried steak or a burger.

back in my days at ut, part of the attraction was that it was "cheap eats," but that's hardly the case these many years later, when compared to similar quality food around austin. honestly? i'd rather eat at somewhere like nuevo leon (or now-defunct la tapatia) where you can get similar but better menu items for $2-3 less a plate.

yum. my favoriteaustinrestaurant for mexican food and yummy margaritas.

this place is great! if you're looking for a classicaustinmexican restaurant that's the best, you've found it here. if you have not eaten here yet you are really missing out.

getting better. i decided to tempt fate and visit matt's again since everyone i was with wanted to go there despite the previous problems.

i will say that this visit went extremely well and at least makes my rating "forks sideways".

drinks were excellent as always. this time i made two successful trips to the bar without any problem.

the food also was good and there were no service issues. the waitress was attentive and brought everything as ordered. checkout was quick as well.

what you are served has never been an issue at matt's, just if it got there. thankfully this was a trip that did not encounter any problems and will make me a visitor again.


-----26 oct, 2009-----

disappointing again. i want to love matt's el rancho. the decor is great with indoor and outdoor seating, and the food is above average. the drinks are great when you can get them, which leads to this review and the main repeated failure of matt's. the service is routinely horrible.

the restaurant is anaustinicon, and as noted in the sign outside, "famous". the is never a surprise to wait an hour for a table as they are frequently crowded and do not accept reservations. there are several huge dining rooms, which again may lead to the lack of service, with them trying to handle so many people at once.

on a prior visit i stood at a crowded bar trying to get $60.00 worth of cocktails for a full half hour without getting service. i finally ended up leaving with no drinks.

this visit was problematic due to the server. we were not there at a busy time and only had a table of five. we were there an hour before they stopped serving, but it seemed like they had already shut down, mentally at least.

troubles started again with the drinks. one person changed their order during the initial drink ordering. simple enough, but he was then brought two drinks. my drink never came and had to be re-ordered. i also asked for a water which i did not receive until asking midway through the meal again. in addition, the waiter never asked if i wanted another drink and left me with an empty glass of ice, and no water when the meal was served.

we ordered an appetizer which never came. the only bonus to that was it was not on the bill and i did not have to ask to have it removed.

the food was as good as usual, however took in excess of 40 minutes to be served, which is unacceptable.

one person had part of their entree accompaniment missing, according to the explanation of the menu. the chili rellano was supposed to be served with pecans and raisins. this is one of the dishes that they are known for and it came without them. it was also served cold. this could be a cook's fault but a waiter should look at what he is presenting as well to make sure that it is correct as well.

after the dinner we stood up to leave and no sooner did we rise that the staff began slamming the rolling metal doors down on the outside bar. it was obvious that they were more than ready to have everybody gone.

even though the food and drink is above average, the service is so horrible every time that i would rather eat average food somewhere else with more attention given to the service.

anotheraustininstitution. like many of the oldaustinplaces, this is an institution. while i'm not a huge fan of their food, it is good. i think there are better tex-mex places in town, but none have been around as long as matt's.

if you're visiting austin, this is a must visit place. it has a long history inaustinand has been a favorite of many for years.

matt's is always on my list of must visit places for out of town guests.