7/12/2006: El Ranchito

This south Dallas establishment is a pilgrimage for our lazy asses. Because we're residents of the EDT (East Dallas, TX), the Wednesday Night Mexican Club has an unofficial criterion of driving distances less than 10 minutes for food. This works out nicely because 1) there's an abundance of good Tex-Mex cuisine in that range and 2) we're lazy. But El Ranchito gets top marks in our gang, so we didn't hesitate to make room for such a journey.

This visit, however, blew ass. My guess is that we got the "white people will tip us no matter what" treatment (we were one of only three white tables at the restaurant that Wednesday). Our service was slow and sloppy; the worst was when our order for pre-meal queso didn't show up until one minute before dinner was served, and as soon as the queso arrived, we needed more chips...those didn't arrive until AFTER dinner was served. Bitch bitch bitch, maybe, but if we're overpaying for melted cheese, we should at least get it on time. It was pretty bland queso at that, which was a first. Can't attest for the rest of the table's dining experience, but I wasn't fond of the enchiladas suizas. There was no discernible flavor in the mess of sauces piled upon my chicken enchiladas.

But on the bright side, the live mariachi band was tops. They have live bands at El Ranchito frequently, but this one actually had a horn section (rather than just a synth-horn rig). Perhaps that made all the difference; the oompa-oompa songs kinda ran together by dinner's end, after all, but you can't beat real effin' horns.

2 chips out of 5...plus a bonus chip for the band.