El Ranchero

Our family’s favorite restaurant! Economical, delicious, folks who know you. What could be better, other than the Chicken Diablos! Always an enjoyable experience and far better than the average Mexican fare, even in Houston! Despite the fact that we always come out smelling like fajitas, our hands down best place to go for anything special or ordinary!

I didnt like, yesterday I had the Fiesta plate that consisted of chicken enchiladas, rice and beans. The enchiladas and the rice had some sort of cheap cheesy velveeta type of sauce blended into them, the enchiladas had very little chicken in them and the rice started clumping up due to the cheese sauce as it cooled down. The waiter, cashier and the girl who served my Ice tea, chips and salsa all presented the attitude like they would rather be some place else, but it was monday, LoL. I do have to admit though that the interior of the restaurant was very authenic and very much had the feel of Mexico to it, too bad the food wasnt as authenic as well.

Our company has Mexican Monday’s every Monday. We have been eating at El Rancero for about 90% of them. In the last couple of weeks the food has been off. We are going to try some other places for now. I really hope they can get back on track.

I walked in at a very busy time and placed a large to go order. It was filled very quickly with lots of chips and salsa too. I was very pleased with the quality of the food and the amount. Very good texmex, so close by and affordable! Their queso is great!

Great place, only substandard items would be their rice & chalupa but everything else on the menu, and after 50+ visits now we’ve pretty much tried it all, literally everything else is safe-​bet good stuff to order when really hungry for texmex. Beef fajitas & cheese enchiladas here=YUM.

We ordered the chicken fajitas for two and our meal came out in less than five minutes. Everything tasted old and reheated. There were virtually no peppers in the fajitas and some of the onions were barely cut. Overall, a very disappointing experience.
There’s no way the chicken hadn’t been pre-​cooked and then reheated. It was extremely dry and some pieces were still cold.
On the up side, the tea was good and the chips and salsa were great.

The food is always great! The staff is always nice and accommodating. The taste of the food and drinks are consistent every time! Large portions, beef fajitas never disappoint… fajitas for one is enough for two with leftovers.

Consistent Tex-​Mex. El Ranchero definitely does it’s chips and its own take on salsa verde right. I typically order the enchiladas con mole, and they are consistently covered in some sort of mole sauce and filled with some sort of American/​cheddar (?) blend cheese mixture on the inside.
I’m a little disappointed where volume has been going with El Ranchero though — I noticed that the fajitas-​for-​two plate (which my folks typically order) has been diminishing in size recently (hence, my 3 star rating). I hope this trend stops in the future!

Horrible food. Absolutely tasteless «queso». Even melted Velveeta tastes better. The ground beef didn’t smell like any beef I’ve ever tasted. Completely gross. The cheese enchiladas were filled with something resembling Velveeta. WHAT’S SO HARD ABOUT USING ACTUAL REAL CHEESE IN A CHEESE ENCHILADA???
Bland rice and beans.
When we left, my teenage daughter asked, «What just happened there?»
Horrifically nasty Mexican food. That’s what.

Easily the worst Mexican food experience of all time! Our dinners were both ruined by processed cheese. The cheese this restaurant uses is without a doubt Velveeta or most likely a Velveeta substitute. It has the exact flavor and consistency of Velveeta. It was so disgusting neither of us could eat our meals. I’m not absolutely positive but it also seemed to me that the guacamole is out of a can. This is the type of food I would expect to get at a food court in the middle of the mall, not exaggerating. If you enjoy trying to swallow your food with an aftertaste of paste this is your place. Very disappointing, our waiter was super nice and I liked that they had a little mariachi band, oh well.

By far my favorite place to eat for lunch in Kingwood. They have a very large and inexpensive lunch menu with many different combinations (at least 29 choices) The services is quick and the food is ready really fast. Almost questionably fast but not quite.
My favorite item on the lunch menu would be the pollos diablos. Bacon wrapped chicken tenders with jalapenos. More jalapeño would be welcomed with open arms but they are delicious nonetheless. The rice that accompanies this magical combination of spicy and bacon is also remarkable. A bit oily but definitely delicious.
We have used Ranchero’s catering for work functions as well and we’re always pleased with portions and the generous tortilla amounts. ⁴⁄₅ would recommend this place.

We love this place! I’ve never tried anything bad here. My favorite thing to order is the Camarones el ranchero (shrimp brochette!). This place is very casual. The salsa is pretty good, my son loves the queso and quesadillas too. :)

Received a coupon in the mail for fajitas for two at $ 15 for two, so we thought that we would try it out. Read a few reviews on Unilocal and they were mixed…
So when we got there we were seated right away. The gentleman that brought us the chips/​salsa was also the same that took our drink order. I asked if all draft beers were $ 1.50 and he said they were and listed them off. We chose the Victoria Draft beer.
We ordered the combo fajitas, which were good and two kids meals and a half order of cheese sauce. The sauce was not worth the $ 5 they charge for it as it is almost like velvetta. The kids meals were a rip off as well. My daughters order was the taco and queso plate and it was $ 5.50 for the taco and queso drizzled over an upside down taco shell!
All in all, the beer was not the draft beer price and they wouldn’t honor the waiters mistake and had said it happens all the time.
Bottom line, fix the dang menu and train the wait staff. Needless to say I would have been better off spending my $ 51 somewhere else for Mexican.

Seriously — I have eaten here about 500 times over the last 12 years.
Love the service and speedy service. Fajitas are the bomb. Moist steak and chicken. My favorite meal are the Cheese Enchiladas. That is my benchmark for all Tex-​Mex restaurants. If they can not cook Enchiladas, then I will not return.
The only area I wish they would improve is the Queso. It is just a step up from warmed up Velveta — however, my son does love it.

This place is amazing! I always get the taco al carbon (: the chili con queso is yummy, but I always add the salsa in it and it turns it into something extraordinary.
I’m really picky with drinks and I’ve never had a problem with the drinks being flat or over carbonated. Chips are just amazing.
I would give this five stars but, I prefer my refried beans to be more smooth and not ‘beany’

$ 1.99 margaritas for happpy hour ??? Yes. Automatic 3 stars .
Service was not great the waiter that took our drink order was cranky and literally gave me a pop quiz on my license. All the food came out at the same time. Meat was bland but the salsa and chips were amazing. The stuffed pepper and prices were great.
Thats really all I have to say about El Ranchero.

This place is very popular with the locals for a reason. I have never waited long for my food here even when it’s extremely busy. Not expensive.
Home made chips are good. Good variety on the menu and the cheese they use is the best! Love those Nachos Compuestos! The Enchiladas are very good as well.
This place is a more of an authentic Mexican food type place. If you are looking for Tex-​Mex look elsewhere.

A couple of visits over the years have led to the conclusion that
while they are not bad, and while some peoples tastes vary so much,
I would not plan an outing here. Too many nearby choices to pick from.

This is our good to place for a good quick dinner with the kids. Food is tasty, prices are great, services is great also!

My Kingwood colleague recommended El Ranchero for happy hour as an alternative to one of the chain Tex-​mex restaurants around.
Happy hour prices for regular margaritas were reasonable, $ 3 I think. The top shelf, which are really the regular margaritas with a shot of Cuervo Gold, are not at $ 7. No happy hour pricing there. And they were fair at best.
The chips and salsa were good and the queso, while flavorful, had a powdery taste to it. Since we stayed longer than expected, and I had to drive downtown, I ended up ordering fajitas. Nothing spectacular, but solidly done.
So, there isn’t anything gourmet here, just basic, no frills Mexican. It apparently is really popular with the Kingwood crowd. By the time we left around 7.00, there was already a wait for tables.