El Rancho Nuevo

Always a good choice. Veggie quesadilla is amazing. Burrito are huge and always tasty. Fast friendly service. A monthly stop for us

We had ate here few times and awsome every time people are nice food is excellent would def be worth the time to stop in

See my tip and photo but in a nutshell — outstanding spiciness in my vegan fajitas. I will stop again on my way through.

If you’re a woman traveling alone looking for some awkward table talk with your server and the busboy while you try and order (a microwaved (!) quesadilla, then by all means, make this little establishment your destination when a midwestern thunderstorm threatens your life while driving cross-​country on I-​70.
If you’re like me, you’ll wind up ordering the same thing three times, to two different people, making up a boyfriend (which won’t matter anyway) while they take turns asking:
–where your boyfriend is?
–why you don’t sleep here tonight?
–if they can bring you a (giant) margarita so you have to sleep here tonight.
–a slew of increasingly personal questions.
After 17 hours of driving, it really was a bit of comic relief, and after 15 minutes of waiting for my quesadilla (presumably the time they thought it would take to get me to stay in the middle of nowhere Illinois for the night), I was grateful for ordering my food to go.
I give them one star for delicious, homemade chips and another for entertainment.

Went to El Rancho Nuevo (it means «The New Ranch» — I took Spanish in high school) with a coworker of mine after an appointment we had in St. Elmo. I don’t have super high standards when it comes to Mexican, but I was not impressed with the chips and salsa. The salsa was bland and had very little heat, and the chips were, how you say in Spanish?, tasteless.
On a better note, my chimichanga and my coworker’s fajita nachos came quickly, and the food was acceptable. The waiter even allowed us to have our last soda in a to-​go cup, a very nice gesture. Other than that, there is not much to distinguish this restaurant from the many, many similar places in the Midwest. In fact, the food is similar to El Rancho’s large «Mexican Restaurant» sign that can be seen from the highway — straight to the point, nothing fancy.

I don’t really have many nice things to say about this place. It smells like grease and commercial cleaning products. Most of the items on the menu taste the same. It’s cramped. It’s often kind of dirty. The food just doesn’t taste that good. It’s greasy. The whole thing is in an old KFC building.
The good things? Well, it’s cheap. It’s one of the few non-​chains in town. The service is usually pretty fast.
I try to avoid El Rancho Nuevo. If you’re in Vandalia and you don’t feel like cooking, though, your options are kind of limited.

I love this place! It may be a dive but it has some great mexican food. I order the chicken chimichanga or fajitas. The chips and salsa are made fresh. The Margarita pitchers are a great deal and super yummy. AND you get to wear a sombreo on your birthday!
Downfall, you are cramped in there like sardines. If you order a plain quesadilla you basically get a mexican grilled cheese ie: a tortilla with cheese. eew.