Rancho Alegre
“El Jalapeno will remain my mainstay for fajitas, but nachos and enchiladas (and whatever I try next time), Rancho Alegre, you're the one.”
“But make sure to double check the school's calendar and agenda as well.”
“Our waiter, Manny, has known my friend for quite some time and was very friendly and welcoming.”
Rancho Alegre
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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This place has been here forever. I ate here with my friends all the time in the 80's after getting home from Edward R. Murrow High School. A restaurant can only last that long if it's steady, which Rancho Alegre is. Yes, there's better Mexican in the city, but the food here is very high quality, the ambiance of the restaurant is fantastic (it's a great date spot!) and the staff is attentive, friendly, and responsive. I personally love this place and will keep going back till they close or I die.
Appetizers
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Super Nachos: B+
A bit of a cacophony, but it has all the usual prime suspects found in high quality nachos. Could've used a bit more jalapeños, but as with most nachos, this could easily feed 2 people. It's too bad they don't offer super nachos with pernil! It was a bit too "mixed", but that may not be the chef's fault — this was delivered so perhaps it got rustled about.
Sopas
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Black Bean Soup: C+
Nice basic flavor of black beans, but very bland. The thing that gives it flavor other than "black bean" is the topping of raw onion and cilantro. The onion and cilantro along with the natural black bean flavor is very nice, but it still could stand a little zing beyond the onion.
Chicken Soup: B-
Pretty ordinary.
Combinaciones
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Cancun: A-
Beef hard taco was excellent (they make really good tacos here!) Cheese enchilada was great and the pork tamale was fantastic — the tamale's masa was very flavorful and moist. If I had to critique the food, I would say there wasn't enough pork in the tamale and the entire dish was prepared for an Americano's palatte: just a tad bland. They should've used hot sauce and/or jalapeños and/or jalapeño juice to kick the dish up a notch. People who go to tex-mex places tend to like a little heat. The hard taco deserves special mention. They make good hard tacos here!
Sizzling Fajitas
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Steak Fajitas: B+
Too many onions, but other than that quite nice. Steak was very "steaky"; nicely textured.
Rancho Specialties
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Pollo Mole Poblano: C+
¡Que horible! I feel SO bad giving this a C+, but my hands are completely tied. One could accuse the food at Rancho Alegre of being bland, yes, it's true. Their mole sauce is excellent: it's vibrant, *very* spicy (yum!) and just all around freaking amazing. But you're supposed to use chicken parts in pollo mole! That is, you're supposed to have a chicken leg, or a thigh, or a breast. You don't put chicken strips in pollo mole, Rancho Alegre! ¿Me escuchaste? Voy a repetirme…. ¡¡¡NO PONES TIRAS DE POLLO EN POLLO MOLE!!! ¡Que vergüenza¡ ¡Que lastima! Dios mio…. The mole is so good I feel like ordering this again, throwing out their damned chicken strips, cooking my own chicken parts and tossing them in Rancho Alegre's mole sauce! 😛
Dessert
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Buñuelos: B
I've never heard of these before. It's like a cinnamon twist with ice cream. Unfortunately the cinnamon twist had a hint of old oil.
Flan: A
A perfect flan. Very nicely executed. If there were more syrup, it would've been an A+. Lovely flan flavor and the top was nicely caramelized.
We went here recently and had a pretty bad experience. My boyfriend got enchiladas and I had enfrijoladas, which came with rice and salad. The rice and salad were fine, but the mole (which COMPLETELY covered our food everywhere) was really bland and ruined the taste of the food. The veggies inside my enfrijoladas were also really hard and tough to bite into, suggesting that they were barely boiled prior to serving. Consequently, neither of us ate much of our food. I did also get a mango smoothie drink, which was delicious.
Besides the dining side of our experience, we also had some unpleasantness with the waiter. Initially, he did not give us any water. When we asked for some after food came, he made a comment about the fact that we're asking for it meaning that we were not handling the spiciness of the food, or something to that jist. Later, when we asked for the check, he commented again when he saw that most of the food had not been eaten, that we were not capable of handling the spiciness of Mexican food, while this kind of food "is like popcorn to [him]". As diners at a restaurant, we do not need to hear judgmental remarks from staff, as it's our choice how much we choose to eat. Moreover, we go to Mexican/Latin American restaurants pretty often- it was the way that this particular restaurant prepared the food that was the problem.
The waiter made one final sarcastic remark at us by saying "thank you for this GENEROUS tip" when my bf gave a smaller tip due to the previous comments about spiciness.
Overall, we will not be returning.
The grown-up food was pretty good. Enchiladas are 3 with rice and beans, and the Fajitas are a good portion. The appetizers and kid's meals aren't worth the money though. The kids meals are too small for the price. Chips are also $3 after the first basket, which is a bit ridiculous.
The staff is nice – just don't bring kids here.
Wandered in here to grab a drink for Cinco De Mayo and we went for the mojitos. Very strong and very limey. Nice comp'd nachos and salsa. Had the steak Quesadilla which was actually pretty good considering all the other mediocry reviews. A raffle was being held and a few tables won shots, a T-Shirt, and the biggest prize was actually a big bottle of tequila. Festive! My only gripe would honestly be the fact that we weren't really being checked on in terms of if we needed to order any food.
WHITE SANGRIA!
Scene: my buddy and I were supposed to go rock climbing and Brooklyn Boulders was packed. After scouring yelp for a little and developing and insatiable hunger, we stumbled upon Rancho Alegre. When we heard that there was white sangria were SORTED! It was tasty, the staff is SO LOVELY. It felt family owned and comfortable.
I really liked it. I don't know if I would come back while the food was good, Brooklyn in FAR and to go to Brooklyn for just good Mexican food is not my favorite choice.
Oh there were also a lot of families and kids here randomly.
I came here today with a friend who only had good things to say about this place. This cute little restaurant is on the 2nd floor so if you're sitting close to the window, you get a nice view of 7th ave. Our waiter, Manny, has known my friend for quite some time and was very friendly and welcoming. There was a large serving of nachos and salsa on the table. We both ordered the fajita lunch special. She got chicken and I got beef. The portions were a good size with a generous amount of meat. It came with warm tortillas, a side of guacamole, sour cream and salsa on one plate and rice and refried beans on another. A great meal for under $10!
I like their chile relleno, it's gooey and satisfying. Our 4 yo son loves their shrimp in garlic sauce, which he happily refers to shrimp 'n bread 🙂 The also have this awesome shrimp in a half a avocado dish, the sauce that comes on top is like whoa!
Staff here is always warm, accomodating and willing to let you make up your own combo from their menu choices if you like.
I use to come here when i was younger and i recently had the pleasure of coming back. I came here with my brother to celebrate the birth of my niece. The food is great old school no frills mexican cuisine.
We started with margaritas which were nice and strong. For apps which was a huge portion was toquitos (?)shredded chicken and cheese wrapped in tortillas and fried. it had sour cream and mexican cheese on top it was really good came with guacamole. For lunch i had chicken enchilada mole. it came with rice and beans. It was very good. Def check it out if you like spicy.