El Rancho Bar & Cafe

Stopped in last night for a quick bite and was pleasantly surprised! Service was great… they DID serve chips and salsa when you first sat down and both were tasty! Their home made tamales were great… a combination plate was on the spicy side but my husband enjoyed it (and he is not a fan of hot, spicy food…) their sopapillas were very good, the best we’ve had in Trinidad! All in all a very good meal and we will go back!!! Not really sure why the other 2 Unilocal reviews were so bad but try it yourself and make up your own mind… everyone has different taste! I only gave it 4 stars because I reserve 5 stars for places like Gabriel’s in Santa Fe.

1^st of all, no chips and salsa in a «Mexican» restaurant! ! I ordered the combo of taco, chicken enchilada and chili rellano. Ground beef taco with no flavor, chichen enchilada with a raw tortilla and a chili rellano that was fried and almost burnt. Ordered with the green sauce and it was so hot I couldn’t eat the food. We love Mexican food and being full time motorhome travelers we eat in lots of Mexican restaurants and love the food spicy but this was outrageously inedible.

Ground beef tacos and burritos, tiny fried chili rellenos. No chips in the middle of lunch. Masking mediocre food with overly hot sauces. Go somewhere else.

The décor is great inside. The owner has great posters of the Mexican revolutionary Zapata on the walls and other cool stuff. The place is large enough for a big party and for dancing. There is a full bar too. In fact, the place has two full bars and a decent sized kitchen that serves Mexican food. The last pre-​Blues Fest party took place here.
The problems with the place are the food prices, the portions and the donut cops that wait outside to arrest patrons after drinking. First the prices for food. They are steep and expensive. Is it because you get a full on Mexican combo plate? The answer is no. The portions are quite small. They charged me 8 $ for a tiny Mexican portion! I realized that the food was not worth it, nor was it that good tasting either. Stay away from the food. What about the drinking? Well, the beer prices and liquor prices are also quite steep. A Budweiser bottle is about 4 $.
The last problem with El Rancho is that it is on a type of main thoroughfare road, Santa Fe Trail Rd., which leads to Interstate 25, the State Police station and goes the other way into Main St. Trinidad. You have drive to get there, which means you will have to leave in a car.
This also means that the local donut cops and the State Police like to hang out on the hill road of Santa Fe and wait for unsuspecting motorists. If you drive around the El Rancho from 8 p.m. until 3 a.m., on Friday and Saturday nights, expect to be stopped for a DUI. They are harsh in Colorado. A first offense will cost you almost 10,000 $ in fees, loss of license and alcohol classes. The cops have not just caught the local drunks, even local business people have ended up paying some hefty state revenue.
The same thing happened to the great saloon, just out of town, out on 160 East, The Wagon Wheel. The cops waited for their DUI victims, and the old Wheel is now closed down. Bars are dying in Trinidad, and the small, historic city of Trinidad is dying too. Don’t let an expensive night of drinking take away your life. Drink at home instead. Trinidad has plenty of liquor stores and they are doing a thriving business.

Great authentic Mexican food!