Gran Ranchero

While the wait staff service has never been spectacular, the food is on point. Good portion sizes always hot and fresh. The shrimp fajita burrito is awesome!

I’ve been all over Mexico. The food is authentic, it is just that I don’t think it is anything special. The worst thing about my experience is that they didn’t have my first 2 beer choices (nothing special, domestic stuff!).

Get the Ribeye!!! — Great food, great prices, highly recommended! Huge Margaritas, and very large portions. Worth going!

This is always my choice for fast Mexican food. My family and I go here probably once a week for good service and good food. Not the best Mexican in Athens but probably the second best!

Despite coming highly recommended by a local, my expectations were low. I lived in Texas for several years and came to know good Mexican food. Honestly, most small town Mexican restaurants aren’t very good.
Gran Ranchero has typical Mexican restaurant in the US décor, you know what to expect before walking through the door. The chips and salsa at Gran Ranchero were excellent, a good sign. Service was responsive, if lacking personality (maybe a cultural thing, the waiter was a Latino male). I ordered a combo dinner with chile relleno (it was good) and tamale (wow, excellent!) with a side beef taco (bland, lacked spices). Another at my table shared a taste from their «Texas Fajita» (shrimp, beef) that was delicious. The margarita was very good, another pleasant surprise, not the poor quality premix I expected.
Gran Ranchero was better than expected for a city the size of Athens. I’ll go back.

Great food, great ambiance, and great salsa… What more could you want? Food was excellent and hot. Great place for groups because it is so large!

This is the best Mexican restaurant in Athens! Their chips are divine and the salsa is fresh and delicious (tastes like home made). The portions are very generous so you will likely have leftovers to take home.

Good average Mexican food in Athens. I ordered the fajitas quesadillas. Not what I had in mind but it was ok. Chips and salsa was ok. Waiter was low voiced. Not very attentive.

If you are like some of the other reviewers here and have dined at some of the best restaurants in the country don’t bother stopping here. If you are savvy enough to recognize that you are about to dine in a strip mall in small town Athens, go ahead and check it out. The dishes are tasty, though nothing remarkable, and the prices are affordable. My man enjoyed his fajita. I had a cheesy, tasty enchilada. The salsa was fresh and had tasty cilantro in it. In other words, nothing stellar but no complaints either.

I have been coming here for years being a student at Ohio university. I remember being here the week it opened. Great for large parties. Never had a bad meal. Food is Delicious. Service is great. Had my first date here with my boyfriend 3 years ago.
Amazing memories here.

Ok, given its in Ohio in the middle of no where. Portion small for Mexican restaurant and salsa and food was a bit salty. If this were in NY where I am from it would get 2 stars

One of the worst Mexican dining experiences of my life. I may be biased, having dined in some of the best cities in the country, but this place is nothing but cheap, strip mall, Midwestern Americanized Mexican, with foods primarily prepared either out of can or via microwave.
The salsa is good because it is commercially manufactured. The dish I had, the La Deliciosa, consisted of a platter of flank steak hammered thin to grill up to beyond well done in minutes, chorizo that had clearly seen better days, and chicken that was well past prime and cooked dry as plastic, over a bed of wilted peppers and onions. The good: it’s over quickly because its ore cooked and not something to linger over.

This place was pretty decent for being out in the middle of nowhere. It is your typical Tex-​Mex fare. I ordered The Delicioso which was a skillet of crumbled chorizo, steak, and chicken and came with rice, beans, and warm flour tortillas. It was really good and if I came here again, this is what I would get.
Betty ordered chicken enchiladas, but she received vegetable enchiladas which is pretty disappointing. She didn’t really realize because she was engrossed in conversation and I actually mentioned that it didn’t look or taste like there was any chicken in there until she was down to one enchilada so we just cut our losses and said oh well.
The freshly made tortilla chips and salsa were a nice bonus as they were very good. If you like spice ask for the spicy salsa.

This is your average American Mexican restaurant. You can expect to pay between seven and $ 15 for an entrée which includes rice and beans usually. The California style burrito is my boyfriend’s go to meal because it’s huge and covered in white cheese sauce. I like the four enchilada plate which comes with one bean, one cheese, one chicken and one beef enchilada.
My absolute favorite though is the Pollo loco! It comes with a good serving of veggies, A pounded out chicken breast or two and rice on the side. Also guacamole.
The margaritas are weak and sugary but pretty cheap depending on which night you go. I did have to wait for a table here last time I tried to go on a Friday night. This hasn’t happened before but it wasn’t surprising based on the good prices and the consistent quality of the food. The service is usually pretty good chips and salsa come right away and the food only takes 10 to 15 minutes.

This place gets two stars for being exactly what you’d expect based on this description: a strip mall Mexican restaurant.
Absolutely no character. Food is not very competitively priced given the poor ambiance. The nail in the coffin was that the fajita didn’t sizzle. Someone in my party got their order mixed up. You get the idea: this place is nothing special — don’t waste your time… and realllllly don’t come here if you want a taste of Mexican «culture» as you will be very disappointed.

Great Mexican restaurant in a pleasant atmosphere. The food was delivered quite fast. I came here with a large group and service was great. We sat and chatted over their large margaritas– mango/​pomegranate, strawberry, banana. I really liked their tequila in most of the alcoholic beverages.
Otherwise, I ordered the enchiladas verde with guacemole/​rice/​beans. The prices were decent for dinner menu items of about $ 8. Chips came out hot off the stove with fresh salsa. We ordered the cheese queso dip as well.
I recommend this restaurant. It is a nice getaway from the loud college area. The prices are just right. And while the food is not authentic, it is the closest thing to it in the Athens area.

Prompt, earnest service accompanied by fairly decent tasting food that is also generous in portion. These are the hallmarks of a sustainable restaurant in a college town. Had an enjoyable meal and visit here, so will definitely consider this for a return visit.

I was very disappointed with the service. We ordered margaritas at $ 11.99 a pitcher and then they added $ 6 to the price because he thought I asked for Patron. I understand having a communication issue, but I can’t understand not wanting to make it right with the customer. The food is ok, but I like Casa Lopez, ½ mike down the street, better.

Fast friendly service. I ordered the Chicken Quesadilla off of the lunch menu where all of the items were discounted. It was absolutely delicious.
Their chips and salsa were delightful, and our server was quick and attentive.
We were easily out of there as quickly as we had hoped so that we could make an appointment we had already scheduled.
I’d recommend it, and if I’m even in Athens again, I’d probably stop by for lunch.

This place is the bomb. I ate like a king for very little and boy was it tasty. Even know the menu is huge, I went with my traditional fajita burrito. They did not let down! The ingredients were fresh and melted in my mouth. The cheese on top was the kicker!
I was with a group of 10+ and we were all pleased with our food. The margaritas were also huge and very affordable. I might be moving down to Athens so I can come here weekly.