Casa Ranchero

Jewel of Ladera. We always experience exceptional service and food quality. Taco Tuesdays are great. There are many topping options at their patio salsa bar. People bring families. The staff remembers their regulars and stop to say hello. Octavio the taco master is such a nice guy who cooks and prepares tirelessly for the customers. The bar has IPA, and a nice vibe with sports on the large HD televisions. Lastly the dining room regular menu is full of great options.

Just horrible service. Was there last night and not once did anyone refill our water or ask us for another drink or chips. Food was not good either. I don’t know how this place stays in business.

Best Taco Tuesday around! A great patio for chilling outside! Great chips and salsa! Best Happy Hour nachos in South OC! If this place had better live music it would KILL it.

Stopped by for a beer on a cool Thursday night and the place was pretty packed. The «Sangria Dark» was dead, the «Sangria Light» had a dent after refill and there were more ladies thab sausages, which is a good deal no matter what. Cougars seemed at ease and off the prowl, while younger women roamed loud and adventurously on the patio. The bar stools are comfy, Mexican and Domeatic tap beers, (Coor’s Light, Bud Light, Dos Equis and Pacifico, Modelo Especial, Modelo Negro, Uno Mas, and Trestles IPA.) Seems like a fun local Mexican eatery and full bar. Sports on the three screens in the bar, and a fountain and palm covered umbrellas on the patio. I would return to try the food.

We have been here many times and every visit it has gotten worse — now will never return! Tables and menus are filthy, waiters are uninterested, food took almost 45 minutes to come and when it did a simple cheese enchilada was disgusting smothered in what looked like cream of tomato soup! The blonde large manager had the horrific habit of reaching in to her bra to pull out her card to order on the computer then comes over and picks up my glass to refill — Did you just have your hands down your undergarments and now your holding the glass I drink out of?!? It won’t be much longer before they are closed down with Disgusting bad hygiene, filthy surroundings and poor food — go anywhere but here for Mexican food!!!

This place is losing its luster. Food is good but the service so uninspired. We were seated at a sticky table that was lopsided. The remedy? Slide something under the table legs and even it out and have a bus boy get a warm wrap and wipe the table down? Nope, you turn the table and wedge it against the wall, then take your used rag and give the table a once over. Should have left them and there.
The food was good though but my Cadillac margarita was over poured. Too much tequila, barely a splash of Grand Marnier.
Going to be tough to come back here when El Adobe is just 5 minutes away.

I really want to like this place every time, the food is slightly above average and probably priced accordingly, location is convenient, but the service is really sub par. I generally feel like the staff, especially the bartender (s) is self absorbed and more focused on their cell phones, then providing great service. Again, I really want to like this place, but I’d give the bar service an «F.»
If you want real service, try South Of Nicks (San Clemente) or Selanne’s Steak House (Laguna Beach)…
The more you know.

My husband and I tried this place based on a recommendation from a friend. We loved it! The guacamole is out of this world! The chips and salsa are some of the best I’ve had. And… The chili rellano fan freakin’ tastic! Also, I had their Bloody Mary, and I’m super picky about these! Amazing! I highly recommend this place!

Quality house margarita and tortillas hecho a mano! Romantic and hip design in the interior, including unique sketches of Latina doñas. Little artistic touches that really stand out in this area. Waiter was attentive. House made chips were insanely good, we had the street tacos, they were delicious, a little pricey but you’re paying for the atmosphere.

I think I just paid my last visit to this restaurant. I started working in the area 2 years ago, the food is average at best, it is pricey and the service is slow even when they normally do not have that many customers. Today was the worst as it is 5 de Mayo and this place wasn’t prepared to service 20 – 30 customers. We sat at the bar for 20 minutes and still no service or menu for that matter.
We decided to try our luck in the dining room, so we moved in there and still waited another 10 minutes to get our order taken, keep in mind we have an hour lunch break and 30 minutes have gone by and we still haven’t placed our order.
The food finally arrived and it was as usual ok, but I just don’t feel like ever going back.
Good luck to you guys!

A mostly clean restaurant with dark features. Mexican authentic food and atmosphere. It has sort-​of clean bathrooms. Much space in the restaurant as well! Great, friendly service! Bold flavored authentic food. I’d come here again.

Not the greatest experience tonight… Wife went to order take out for dinner tonight. We’re pretty new to Ladera so we figured try the local Mexican spot. BAD IDEA. We ordered over the phone to pick up. Girl repeated order back to confirm so we thought we were good to go. Nope. My burrito was wrong, wife got corn tortilla instead of flour, forgot my 2 year olds sliders, and in the 2 minute drive from restaurant to home the food was literally COLD… I guess we stick with Chipotle since they get it right.

Great spot for lunch with good combo dishes and nice service. Don’t be fooled by the nightclub’ing, bar sort of description
We had the beef taco and soup combo and crispy taco and enchilada plates. $ 30 and left overs for later.
Plenty of parking.
It’s Mexican– and it’s good, so if you’re into that sort of thing, make a visit!

The food is great. Good happy hour deals for $ 3, 4 and 5 bucks. Chili Colorado & the Casa Ranchero pork carnittas are fabulous. Some nights live bands.

My waiter Ricardo rocks!
Fun times with DJ Friday nights and live band Saturday night.
Best tortilla soup around.

Food: taco Tuesday. The carnitas were too salty, but I agree with other Unilocalers and like the carne asada. Not sure about all those raves on the chips and salsa. They were just ok as I’ve tasted much better, freshly made salsa. Beans and rice were good.
Ambiance: I like the outdoor patio vibe with music and kid friendly.
Service: our waiter was friendly, but not much to it since we mostly serve ourselves by walking up to the taco guy. All the condiments were empty, but he replenished them quickly when asked.

I used to eat here all the time, but gradually the experience I had got a little worse with each successive visit. After not going back for a few months We went here last night at 5:30 for taco Tuesday with the my wife, a friend and our baby girl. 2 more of our friends were coming a few minutes later. When pulling into the parking lot I could see the patio was about ¹⁄₃ empty and there was a perfect ½ couch type table that was empty. We parked right up front and went in. I asked to be seated at the ½ couch table by the patio exit because it was easier for our little girl and right next to a big heater. The older dark haired girl at the hostess stand who helped us said she would check and see what she had available. She comes back to get us and walks us to a table next to the one we asked for. I again point out that I want the other table and we had 2 more showing up in a few minutes. She then tells us that it’s «probably» reserved for a larger party. Of course I asked her to check and we might be willing to wait a little if needed. She give us a snooty short response of «I just got here and don’t really know» then while walking back in behind her to the hostess stand she goes directly to the 3 people that walked in behind us and says loudly «I can seat you now because they (pointing at us) don’t want their table». Rude, but ok I let that go. whatever… but then she walks the 3 people who came in behind us to the same table we didn’t want and they say the same thing we did «can we sit at the couch table» and without skipping a beat she seats them there !!! I walked over to her and asked why did she just seat the people that came in behind us in the exact spot we asked for but were told no. She didn’t have an answer and just gave me a bothered look. I got the very distinct feeling that we got snubbed because we didn’t look like we were going to be ordering lots of alcohol or something. Needless to say we left and went someplace else.
We ended up going to Avila’s El Ranchito, had a great time and ended up spending just over $ 150 because besides me and my baby girl everyone else had beers and margaritas.
The only reason I’m giving it even 2 stars is because I’m sure the whole place isn’t as bad as the hostess that helped us.
If there’s anything that’s going to turn me off or piss me off quick it’s a restaurant that does dumb sh$t like this. My time is way to limited to play a guessing game on the type of service I’ll get at a local restaurant. I doubt I’ll be back to this place anytime soon.

Definitely one of the best chips and salsa I’ve had at a mexican restaurant. I think the chips must be deep fried with the carnitas or something as it has hint of meat flavor. Its crunchy but not cut up inside your mouth crunchy.
The salsa has a lil kick to it, and really in a good way. My wife who is really sensitive to spicy heat (and she married a Korean!) was still able to enjoy them. I’ve only had 2 dishes here… and they were both to go. Carnita plate & the Roasted Chicken plate. Both came with rice and beans and chips and salsa (yay!).
For $ 20.00, they piled on the food and enough for family of 4 with left overs for chicken/​carnitas quesadillas later. Carnitas were tender and tasty and so was the chicken. Chicken came with skin of course, and I contemplated eating the whole thing… I resisted!
Both were cooked perfect! Rice and beans were standard fare and my kids scooped it down like it was their first time eating rice and beans… oh those kids.
I plan to get more dishes in the future as I’ve seen other customers eating it up and leaving empty plates or leaving with a big bag of to go box. They do have a bar here with a nice bar staff and a nice patio with the fire pit.
I saw on the advertisement that kids eat free on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or maybe both! Not too sure, but that sounds like a deal to me! Definitely recommend to take some chips and salsa to go as well. Oh and some times I see a lady hand making tortillas, and thats probably why the chips are so good… comes with lots of TLC!
Highly recommended!

Casa Ranchero is a neighborhood hot spot with tasty food and delicious margaritas!
The décor is cute, and the ambiance makes you forget you are in a suburb. The outdoor patio has a nice vibe.
My go-​to items are the chile relleno, which is the TASTIEST chile relleno I’ve EVER had, the chicken nachos, which are really good, and the skinny jalapeño-​cucumber margarita.
I took one star away because while the staff is nice and friendly, service can be slow and the guacamole isn’t that great.

Tonight was one of those nights where we didn’t feel like venturing too far from the home Ladera area.
It’s been a few years since I’ve been here and all around it was a bit better than I remember.
Their chips were crispy hot and very fresh they went supa well with their salsa which had a pretty yummy flavor as well!
They had a few choices that sounded scrumptious but I decided to go with the Casa burrito with steak inside. The burrito had a decent flavor but wasn’t anything special or over the top good.
The burrito needed a little bit of a kick so I added some of their salsa to it to make it that much better. Overall my food was kinda flavorless even with it already being wet but the salsa gave it what it needed so definitely keep that in mind if you come here.
Our service was excellent on the flip side our server knew the menu pretty well and was quick to help us with anything we needed.
Recently we got a 20% off coupon in the mail that saved us a little bit of bills which is something you can’t ever go wrong with.
They have a mellow patio area outside and live music sometimes as we saw a band setting up just as we were leaving. Overall I kinda felt bad for the band because on our way out we noticed by 8:30ish how dead the place already was on a Friday night but hey I guess that’s South County for you!
They have a decently priced happy hour during the week which might be the only reason I would return back here as nothing really set this apart from other Mexican establishments in the area.