Rancho Rustico

This was the first time I’ve been. The food was great! I had the seafood Molcajete and it was soooo good! And a beautiful presentation! I carried it to the bar so I could take a picture in good light. :) I will for sure be back! Yum!

We went to RR twice, once when it first opened and again about 3 months later. First time was fine, good enough for a quick meal that we didn’t have to leave the neighborhood for. The memorable items were margaritas and queso dip– so memorable that we took my mother in law when she came to visit 3 months later and demanded a margarita. Halfway through the meal a manager came over and asked us to move tables because some «VIPs» (their words– no sh*t) needed the space we were in to make a larger table. You could have knocked me over with a feather– I was so embarrassed for them.
Hope they enjoy those VIPs– cause they certainly won’t have any neighborhood regulars acting like that.
Good day, Rancho Rustico.

I live in this part of town, and we’ve needed a good Mexican place there… well, forever. I was thrilled when this place opened and I’ve never been disappointed. The décor is quaint and the place is really cozy. The booth seats are too vertical, though, and I catch myself slouching because of that. The staff is really friendly and professional, and they speak Spanish, so I get to practice. Service is fast, too — expect to get your entrée’ withing about ten minutes from your order.
The food is delicious — the salsa is incredible, and the seafood enchiladas are the best I’ve had in Tucson. One small issue is that everything tends to be too salty for me. But I don’t cook with salt and I use almost none, so that’s not surprising. I’ve had good luck with requesting «low salt,» and then everything has been perfect.
If you live in the Tanque Verde area, try this place. It’s almost as good as South Tucson places like Mi Nidito.

I was in town visiting family and friends. Normally I visit my favorite Casa del Rio, but convenience won out and we did Rancho Rustico as it’s near my parent’s house. I’ve heard rave reviews about this place, so I figured let’s give it a go. I wasn’t disappointed.
They passed the highly critical chips and salsa test.
I ordered the carne molcajete. I haven’t had a molcajete this good in years. The tomato based broth was perfectly seasoned and generous with the meat. I think it cost right around $ 15.
The service was great. Our waitress was very nice and attentive. I don’t think my water ever was more than two inches from the top.
There are very few restaurants in this part of town, but I’m glad we’ve got one this good.

This restaurant is really, really good. I wasn’t sure coming in, expecting a more family style Applebee’s type of Mexican restaurant. However, the food is great! Every time I’ve gone here, I’ve gotten something new and enjoyed it.
Most recently we went for lunch, and I got the shrimp and rice lunch special. It was cheap and the portions were HUGE! I had two separate meals from my leftovers. It was also delicious, full of veggies, shrimp, rice, and cheesy sauce. Their burritos are also on point.

Half of our dinner party had a delicious meal and the other half got extremely sick after eating the mango chicken salad. Not saying it was food poisoning but something was definitely wrong. Won’t be going back any time soon.

We dined at Rancho Rustico (N.E. Tucson) for dinner in June. The restaurant is located near Tanque Verde Rd and Catalina Hwy in the Safeway parking lot. Overall the dinner was good, but food was average Mexican Food. Nice family run type restaurant with good selections. I thought the prices were fairly high though for the quality of the food, and the environment. Portion sizes are not very large either, especially for the price. If you live in N. E Tucson (or visiting), this place is close to you and convenient. Other than that, there are better options for Mexican Food fairly close (Poco and Mom’s Cantina, El Charro Café Ventana) just to name a couple.
I believe this place is more suited for Lunch or Breakfast than Dinner, for the prices.

This is a really good restaurant!!! I’m surprised at some of the poor reviews. The bartender makes amazing alcoholic drinks, the food tastes great, the service is excellent and prompt and the prices are good. The atmosphere is clean, family friendly and relaxing. I highly recommend this place.

Went to the pool place next door and got recommended here. The rosarita Margarita is awesome and the quesadilla is great. Just came for a quick appetizer, but we will definately come back. Food/​drinks are good and waitress is very friendly.

After coming to the Tanque Verde place for over a year, the service and food has been spot on consistent the entire time. We have breakfast here a couple times a month because my wife loves their menudo. She raves, and craves, theirs over anybody else within easy driving distance. We used to drive here from Rita Ranch over the one across the street on Houghton, that is how good they are. If you like really good Mexican food and live anywhere on the Eastside, this is a must go to for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

My wife and I love this place food is always great service fantastic staff very professional. We love the boss expecially the nice TV. we have yet to have a bad appetizer or dinner will be back all the time.

Got the tortilla soup and it was really good. Most places can’t get tortilla soups right and make it with some store bought broth but this actually had its own flavor. Loved it. We will definitely be back for more, the menu is quite extensive. I wanted to try an ‘organic margarita’ but next time. Mmmmm

I went to Rancho Rustico with my boss for lunch today. I had never heard of it before. I was pleasantly surprised! We shared the molcajete bowl for 2, and we were so impressed! It was oozing with chicken, steak, shrimp, cheese, corn, salsa, chilies, and onion! It looked like a cauldron! It was bubbling when it came out! It made lunch interesting and exciting. The chips and salsa were great, and this is the first mark of a good Mexican restaurant — the chips were warn, and there a mild and a hot salsa, the mild was ok, a little tomato saucy, but fresh, the hot was very good, with yummy hints of lime! The service was good, they checked back often refilling our drinks and salsa, and they polite and friendly. This was an enjoyable experience, and another good Tucson Mexican restaurant to add to my list.

Not sure why my Oct 2014 review was removed? Try again:
Have been here several times previously, and no major issues worth noting. Stopped by last week (~10/​2) around 5 PM. Place smelled strongly of restroom cleaner, we were told to «seat yourself,» and waited 15 mins. No one showed up at our table. We left. The place was empty, save for a few gents who got bar service and sat outside and one other couple… sitting and undoubtedly soaking in the overpowering scent of bathroom sanitizer. Wow. What happened?
On prior visits we found the food so-​so, but entirely acceptable with some creative salsa usage. We’ve had some of their house specials, combo platters, and a la carte items, as well as a margarita or two. My dad did like his tortilla soup, and my daughter enjoyed the shredded beef taco. We live very close by and had hoped for a really reliable, tasty Mexican option. This isn’t it, sadly.

Wanted to try this place as it is near our house. Somewhere we could drive nearby and get dinner if we choose not to cook or deal with eating at home. Dont get me wrong, eating at home is awesome and we dont get out that much, so when we do — we want it to count and we want to enjoy dinner!
We took our 18 month old son, and it was the perfect environment, not too stuff and not too simple/​fast food feeling. Nice sit down restaurant that leaves you feeling comfortable.
Dinner was great! Service was awesome! Clean. Loved the food. I got the 3 taco plate and the carne asada and chicken was very tasty. Food came out nice and hot, came out fast and my iced tea never went empty (and I drink lots of them). :)
We will definitely return!

Superb margaritas, excellent food and very good service add up to make Rancho Rustico a place to come back to again and again.
The food is consistent and very good, portions are perfect, not overwhelming and never leaving you wanting more quantity.
Sometimes it can be a bit chilly inside, so bring a sweater.
My favorites are the Al Pastor Pork, the Carne Asada, and the Patron Margaritas. If you get there early, their Micheladas are fantastico.
The service is great too.

We stopped here for lunch on a Sunday afternoon, and for our first visit to Rancho Rustico, found everything to be filling and delicious. We came in time for their lunch special (11am-​3pm), which featured combos of one or two choices of tacos, tamales, quesadillas, etc. and included rice and beans. Prices were very reasonable at only around $ 5 – 9 dollars a plate! I opted for the taco platter, which was delicious and just large enough that I was able to finish my entire order without leftovers. If I had ordered the taco + enchilada plate, I would have definitely had to take some home! For dessert, we had the churros with carmel sauce and whipped cream, and they were the best churros I’ve ever had.
I’m looking forward to coming back and trying other menu items they have to offer, especially breakfast!

Rancho Rustico is a homey little Mexican restaurant built in a former Pizza Hut and nicely re-​decorated into a place that seems pretty authentic. At first. We were offered the choice of a booth or table. The booths look like they are set very low, which I see others have commented on in their reviews, and we chose a table instead. The chairs turned out to be terribly uncomfortable — the horizontal bar across the middle of the back was painful to sit against, so it might as well have been a bar stool because I had to sit forward.
I ordered the Pollo de Mole because I have been craving a nice, traditional mole. When it came out, the plate was gigantic — half chicken mole, one quarter beans, one quarter rice. But this was no traditional mole. To start, it looked more like Chinese food than Mexican. They had even sprinkled sesame seeds on the stringy slices of chicken. The flavor also reminded more of an asian dish. It was very sweet, almost like teriyaki, without the taste of chocolate that I would have expected. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad. It just was not even close to what I was expecting. In fact, I thought this is what a chicken mole dish would taste like if it were served at a Taco Bell. And I love Taco Bell.
The next issue was the flour tortillas, and this is worth taking a full star off of the review. The tortillas were undercooked. Each of them appeared to be nearly raw on one half, and barely cooked on the other. They were doughy, translucent, and all-​around bad.
Other thoughts: Their Happy Hour is from 2pm to 5pm, which is just baffling. The table salsa didn’t taste like it was fresh, but it was quite good and I would be happy to buy a can of that. The refried beans had an unusual flavor that I couldn’t quite place, and I didn’t really eat all of them. The chicken was cut into small strips, but parts had some cartilage or something else really al-​dente in them. The rice was pretty good, though. And the portion size was large.
Actually, I might rather have had smaller portions in exchange for a lower price. For prices like this, I would rather be eating at El Charro.

Wanted to try this place since it was so close to home, went there and service was good, many of the staff can only speak Spanish so be prepared for some Spanglish, menu pointing, and nodding if you don’t speak it. They gave my husband the happy hour price for his beer even though it wasn’t included in HH. Had great chips and salsa. Things started to go downhill when our food arrived, tasted very bland and dry, with very little flavor. Was very disappointed in it. And in my refried beans there was a fish bone about ¾ inch in length. Super gross because neither my husband or I ordered anything with fish.
Final verdict, may go back during happy hour, but only because it’s conveniently close to home, NOT for the food.

If you are looking for delicious Mexican food on the NE side of Tucson… Then this is the place. Brand new location. Excellent food and service. Large portions and a warm, casual, family friendly atmosphere. Friendly efficient staff. Full bar with drinks done well.
Reasonably priced. I love this place!