El Ranchero Restaurant

I love their burrito de lengua. The 3 chips that came with it must have been for design, but I got full before I got a chance to complain. :)

This used to be one of my favorite places for quick and cheap Mexican food. Since they’ve changed management over the last year the food still remains good but the service has gotten spotty. Sometimes, it’s friendly and quick, other times like tonight it was cold and my order was wrong. Happens all the time but stands out more at a place that once was consistently good.

Hoping to find a diamond in the rough, this tiny Mexican joint was a complete bust. The tacos, the taquitos, the sides, all of it just really missed the mark.
Inexpensive as the food may be, the quality of meat is on the low and you can taste at first bite. Sadly, the accompanying guacamole made for a worse off taste, which I can only describe as going from bad to worse. I found myself bathing my food in hot sauce just to liven it up a bit.
I’d rather pay for better quality elsewhere, but if I didn’t have the extra 50 cents per taco to spare, I would probably scarf down just the meats for sustenance.
Not the worst, but far from the best, I’ve experienced better.

Recommend their chicken burrito! So good with hot salsa. Shrimp cocktail is a little bland but still tastes wonderful with enough tapatio. I give 4 stars coz there is only one chef and one cashier work at a time, they are so busy that sometimes she forget some of the orders.

Great food, good service, good prices, I work near here and come in often to try a few things. I highly recommend it especially after 2 everyday for shrimp and fish tacos their good and only 75 cents

I had the worst beef taquitos ever. The meat was dried with no flavor and they barely put any meat. Totally not worth it. The cashier was nice very polite that’s the only reason why I would give this place a 2 star.

Location/​corner of Garfield @ Mission rd.
3 parking spots in front of busy street.
Food was small portions no real flavor and overpriced.
The chairs are wood benches which normally i dont mind, but when there’s other benches in the way which makes me have to throw my body against the wood bench. Doesn’t feel so good. (south west corner of restaurant).
This is alsoa cash only establishment. The atm machine is old and slow.
When you leave theres another maze to get to the trash bin.
Overall, ok to eat if your starving like i was. I would recommend waiting a bit more for another restaurant.

Plenty of free parking, cashier was nice, but food was overpriced and portions were very small.
I decided to buy 5 tacos and was not even close to being filled, and I’m a small guy.
I had fish tacos, shrimp and al pastor. The fish and shrimp tacos are $ 0.75 but they basically get two little shrimps and up them up and put them in a tortilla that’s about 4 inches big (very small), same for the fish taco. The pastor taco had a decent amount go meat, still small.
The taste is authentic and decently flavored, just overpriced and too small.
Wouldn’t really come back again.

Absolutely bottom of the barrel food.
The young lady at the cash register is very pleasant, and there’s plenty of free parking in their lot.
But the food is some of the worst I’ve ever eaten at a Mexican restaurant. I ordered the green chile pork plate. There was maybe two ounces of pork smothered in green chiles, sliced tomatoes and onions, served with cold refried beans and stale rice.
The smallest portion of green chile pork I’ve ever been served at any Mexican restaurant.
Definitely not worth seven dollars.
The only reason to dine here is because you’re waiting for your car. There are three Smog Check garages surrounding El Ranchero.
The restaurant is located at one of the busiest intersections in Alhambra, Garfield at Mission, so they must get a lot of one time customers to keep them open.
Nothing to go out of your way for.
Hard wooden bench seating.
Styrofoam plates, plastic forks.

With a great price and great service ill be sure to come over and over again. And be sure to come early Saturday and Sunday mornings for they have great specials… Highly Recommend!

The food is not great but service is fast and food is cheap. I got the ceviche tostada and the tostada wasn’t fresh. Also carne Asada tacos and the meat was dry

The lady that took our order was very pleasant considering we got there 10 min before they closed. We ordered their fish tacos and loved them. Needed a late night snack and these were perfect.

Went to this place on a Monday night (50 cent Taco night) after a 6 hour flight from Canada. (My first meal in Los Angeles)
I ended up getting 10 of those tacos and a burrito. It was like an orgasm in my mouth. I don’t think I want to get married after experiencing that.
Very satisfied.

I’ve always heard good things about this place. I came here for lunch while the wife was having an MRI across the street. I had a couple of tacos that were tasty but the wait was longer than I expected for a relatively empty fast food joint. Don’t think I’ll be back.

Ordered soft and hard shell Asada tacos. The Asada soft tacos were okay and not bad. The hard shell Asada tacos are a different story. Taco Bell use better taco shells. The ones that they use seem store bought. Plain and bland. I’ll give them another shot and try out their other dishes.

(Taco based review) I don’t think you can get $.50 tacos anywhere else near here! (Mondays after 5PM) They are like palm-​sized small tacos, but it’s worth it for $.50! I live on this street, pass by everyday and have only had it twice. Their flavors are good, but I wish they gave more cilantro/​onions. Maybe I will try asking next time! Never tried other foods there, since you get your bang for your buck with the tacos.
Recently, they posted up $.99 fish tacos everyday after 3PM! I got that yesterday and expected that to be a regular sized taco, but it ended up being as small as the other tacos! I wouldn’t really recommend that for $.99, since you can get a better tasting fish taco at Macho Café in SG.
Parking is small. You probably have to wait for other cars to leave, then park. There’s like 10 spots there. But it might be emptier if it’s not a Monday.

Last night after meeting my friend at his work place, I was really hungry I was looking something good and cheap. I notice this restaurant on corner of Garfield and Mission called El Ranchero restaurant selling tacos for fifty cents a taco, I notice it’s Taco Monday that’s the place I have to check it out.
Wow this restaurant always get busy on Taco Monday, I see why people come here at the El Ranchero restaurant for fifty cents tacos that’s cheap eats that’s a good deal to get. When I enter the restaurant it was pack with people in line and waiting for order for fifty cent tacos.
It was my turn to order, I order 12 tacos of varieties choice of meats like chicken, carnitas, al pastor, carne asada and other meats and large horchata to go. When I arrive at home I couldn’t wait to eat and share my tacos with my wife. The tacos have great flavor and tortilla was nice and warm and the chili was little bit spicy it didn’t bother me, but my wife told me it was too hot for her but she love the tacos.
Overall we like El Ranchero restaurant very much I would go back again for the fifty cent tacos and other deal they have. This restaurant is CASH ONLY..

One day I was just super hungry and was literally going to get the first restaurant I drove by, and El Ranchero happened to be the lucky winner.
I’m glad I stumbled upon this hole-​in-​the-​wall. Legit Mexican food, for sure, with a great location (Mission/​Garfield).
Combo Burrito ($ 4.50)
I got mine with chicken, rice, beans, cheese, lettuce. cheap/​fast/​BOMB. I can’t really ask for much. Highly recommended!
French Fries ($ 1.50)
I always get mine with no salt (only God can judge me). This is one of the few places that doesn’t try and rip you off for fries. I’ve been to places that charge $ 5 for a regular side of fries. Nope, not Ranchero.
Coming back for sure, but they should probably take off that there’s new ownership in their Unilocal title. Makes me think that this place was garbage before.

I’m not sure what happened but I am 1000% sure last year when I came here for a mid night snack, I got a Carne asada fries.
Yesterday, I went there again cause I was really craving for some and it was on the way home. Walked inside and the person taking order had no idea if they had some, so she had to go ask the cook, and she came out saying there isn’t any. Then I asked what type of tacos they had. She didn’t really know either lol so I just ordered some chicken and carne asada tacos. When she asked if i wanted «everything on the taco» I was expecting a lot more than just onions on my tacos.
Anyways my carne asada fries craving was not satisfied yesterday.
Nor the tacos i order, cause they weren’t so filling.
I guess they changed a lot in 1 year, so their menu might be different now.

What the hell happened to this place???
They use to server their version of carne asada fries called California fries. Just ordered that to go today and it was literally like 10 pieces of fries on top of the driest thinnest piece of steak ever. It came with a side of rice and beans.
On top of that the guy didn’t even know what to charge us so our total ended up being like $ 19 for one burrito and the fries. Of course, we were like, there’s no way that’s the total. So it ended up being around $ 14. The burrito is only suppose to be $ 5. Basically the worse order of carne asada fries costed at least $ 7 – 8. What the hell.
Definitely took a picture of said fries. Take a look, be warned. Don’t order.