It inhabits the former 'On The Border' building and has free parking on the front and side of the restaurant. The side is where Joe's Noodle House is located. If you were to take the metro, the closest stop would be Twinbrook on the Red Line.
As you can see there's a huge neon sign in front of the place, so you can't miss it from the road.
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When you walk in there's a bar, and then the coolest thing ever, which is their tortilla machine! Some lady got really excited and asked one of the workers there if she could work the machine herself =) Basically a ball of dough is dropped into one side and it goes through and gets flattened and put through its oven and comes out ready to eat.
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The place is big with lots of tables to accommodate large groups of people. The chandeliers were kinda cool, and overall it looked like a festive, but not over the top place.
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Here is the other side of the restaurant with booths on the perimeter of the restaurant.
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We were served salsa and chips as we waited for our meal. The salsa was mild and had a smoother consistency without many chunks of vegetables.
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I'm a huge fan of really thin tortilla chips that are freshly made, so these were really good.
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We didn't order an appetizer since we loaded up on the chips. What I didn't realize is we pretty much ordered the same dish, just with slight variations from the Platos Combinados part of the menu.
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I ordered the 'Jalisco Platter- 2 Beef Enchiladas, 1 Chicken Taco, 1 Pork Tamale. Served with sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes' for $12.95. Everything was really good, however if I had to choose my favorite, it would be the enchiladas. Great filling of beef, onion and spices, and the melted cheese and sauce made it really good. Not to mention the tortilla it was made in wasn't mushy and still kept a great texture and flavor. I love pork tamales, however it was mostly corn meal without much meat, but it was still good.
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The bf ordered the 'Laredo Platter- 2 Chicken Enchiladas, 1 Beef Taco, 1 Pork Tamale. Served with sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes' for $12.95. His enchiladas had a white cheese on top that went better with the chicken. He enjoyed his meal a lot and ate the entire thing! I took 1/2 mine back since they really give you large portions.
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Our dishes came with a side of beans, which were really good when you added in the rice from the platter.
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The service was super fast, which is great when you're starving, and the portions are huge! It's a great place for kids to come and be intrigued by the tortilla machine (every kid in there was standing and watching it work) and the prices are fair. It is a large space and we didn't have to wait to be seated.
Aside from the delicious food, "Mi Rancho Restaurant is a family operated restaurant that has been serving our customers since 1990, " which I think is great since I love it when small businesses can flourish in the day and age of national chains.
1488 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
Website
7 comments:
Mi Rancho's ribs are my favorite and its definately kids friendly... nobody looks at us crazy when i take my nephew and he yells out "I have to caca" at the top of his lungs (spanglish for "I have to take a dump"). I believe they have a location in Germantown as well.
There food could be better, yes they are prompt to serve, there manager could use some work though, he totally discriminated me and my husband, I’m LATINA FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!! I rather go to a mobile Mexican stand next time I’m in the mood for Mexican food or to my best friends house, her moms Mexican food is so much better! And another thing I’m in the food industry, and I know for a fact that you must treat your customers well, because they will come back and their friends there after!
We decided to stop at Rancho for lunch on a Saturday. We didn't even make it past chips and drinks before we had decided we had to leave. The chips they brought tasted burnt and stale (recycled chips anyone?), the salsa was essentially red sauce and black pepper, and we ordered cheese dip - which was literally melted velveeta. They didn't even have the decency to throw some rotell in there, but they did have the nerve to charge $5 for it. At this point we had also ordered two drinks - one regular margarita, one strawberry. The regular margarita tasted like lime juice and salt ONLY and the strawberry margarita tasted like pure mix "fresh" from the bottle. It was clear they were trying to cut costs by skimping on any alcohol in the drinks. At this point I asked for my check and told the waitress that we would not be eating lunch there. She asked me why and I told her politely that we had been disappointed so far and did not want to continue the experience (especially considering their entrees are very expensive for a tex-mex place). She called the manager over, I told him again why we were not going to eat there - the chips, salsa, cheese dip, and drinks. He said he had never tasted the chips or salsa so he couldn't judge them (quality control???) but he said I was right that the cheese dip was just melted velveeta. He then proceeded to lecture me that next time if I had a problem I should tell him right away so that he can do something about it. Are you serious? We didn't make it past chips and salsa. How much clearer can I make it?
Anyway, terrible terrible experience. Food and management need a major overhaul.
K. - That sounds like a horrible time! Man, we haven't been back in like a year. Sorry you had a bad expirence, hopefully management will read this post and comments, and see that people aren't all that happy.
All - thanks for sharing your expirences with me! This is how we help one another eat and support good food and good service
I stopped by at 4:15 pm just to spare some time while my laptop was in repair in Best Buy store that is very close by. The bar was empty, but I was waiting for a while to get attention and menu from the bartender because she was keep chatting and serving her friend. Service is bad and manager is a snob. He got in argument with me when I asked to substitute lettuce with avocado in my salad (and was willing to pay for that additionally). He said that I was too picky and that why I was alone at the restaurant. That was an absolute insult! In United States a woman can come to the restaurant without man's escort, especially at 4 pm.
He refused to tell his name (just mentioned that he was owner's son) and literally showed me to the door. None of waiters wanted to tell his name either.
Ahh! That's HORRIBLE to hear! I hate it when places are rude. Do they NOT want customers? Sorry to hear that. I haven't been back since I wrote this post, and from what you wrote, I don't think I'll be going back either! Thanks for sharing, people need this kind of info.
I've also had an awful experience there as well. My fiance and I went for lunch on a Saturday afternoon. The place was completely empty(seriously, we could have picked any table in there) but it still took our waiter over 20 minutes to bring us menus and ask us for our drinks order. It took him another 10 minutes to come back and give us our drinks and take our order. We were so hungry and not in the mood to eat anywhere else so we sat and waiting and waited for our food also. I wish, in hindsight, that we had asked to speak to a manager and dealt with the issue. We have not been back since.
Our FAVORITE Mexican place is actually two places about 5 minutes from each other in Rockville, under the same management. Cavos(formerly Tobasco) and Villa Maya. Seriously, if you're in that area, TRY their steak and shrimp fajitas and they're on the rocks margaritas are to die for! :)
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