Tio Pancho Mexican Grill

The place closed down as it should have! They were never going to make it at the rate they were going.

Imagine you are traveling to Mexico for authentic Mexican food or you are traveling to Peru for the delicious Peruvian Chicken. Imagine every bite is amazingly incredible. Now imagine you are sitting in a place where you are the center of attention and the atmosphere is lively and interesting. Now imagine you are waking up from a dream and the reality is so much uglier and darker and is about to leave a really bad taste in your mouth. Literally.
I had the discomforting pleasure of having a family dinner tonight with 10 adults and bunch of children. Although our family doesn’t agree on much but thanks to Tio Pancho our jury had a unanimous vote on how the food sucked beyond sucking. The ambiance was depressing. Although the girl serving us was nice there was no life in her. There were only 2 people «running» (or slowly walking) the restaurant.
I asked her how is your Peruvian Chicken, «It’s really good» was her response. I should have followed up by «Does good mean really bad by any chance?» but I behaved and decided to trust her.
Food slowly started arriving. Now imagine a Fajita platter on a hot plate without any sizzle. Ok forget the sizzle, now imagine it’s just lukewarm and nearing cold. Now imagine every entrée is served lukewarm cold and without much flavor or taste to it.
I ordered Peruvian Chicken with white rice and fries. I got lukewarm chicken that didnt have much flavor, with coleslaw. I am not a coleslaw fan nor did I ordered coleslaw. When I mentioned it to the girl, she says oh sorry about it. She showed up 10 minutes later and says sorry we dont have white rice so we «gave» you coleslaw.
Others in our group ordered chimichangas, casedillas, enchiladas and every single person was disgusted at their first bite. The best feedback I received was from a 10 year old who was eating french fries and goes «Even their fries are bad, how do you make fries bad??» — they were from a grocery store bag and it was obvious.
Running restaurant is a tough business. Running a great restaurant is a tougher business. I am hoping Tio Pancho will use this feeback to improve their food and service. From today’s experience it was obvious that they are in the wrong business.

This spot is under new management, great and pleasant staff. The chicken is tender and juicy and they make the best beans ever. Between the beans and chicken I will be back often. When you come in make sure to speak with the owner, Farzana she is super… You won’t regret eating there.

I am a regular customer at this restaurant, before they closed it was a full on Mexican restaurant but now they added delicious charcoal chicken at an excellent price. The Mexican food is amazing as well, I really recommend the fajitas and the quesadillas. I wish the owners the best in making this restaurant successful.

Overall I would have to say that I’m am not planning on going back here, nor would I suggest it to my friends. I went there with 6 people from my work and here are some tips I will share to better assist you with your experience.
Things to know:
— We all asked for water and were brought water bottles, we didnt want bottled water…
— They rang everyone up on the same check and when I asked for them to charge me and others indivually they were unable to acheive this — its called Voiding a check :-)
— I asked for no sour cream 3 times and was given a burrito with sour cream inside and also a side of sour cream.
— I asked for hot peppers on the side twice but gave up asking and never received it.
— My «Loco Burritto» which was a smaller version of a Chipotle burrito was way overpriced — $ 11.50 — with no sides of any sort. I also found a pea in it although nothing on my plate was made with peas.
ADVISE TO OWNER (S):
— Ask customers if they want bottled water before charging them, most restaurants provide cold water in a glass, free of charge.
— Ask customers if they are paying individually or as a group.
— Provide a receipt and void the original bill versus collecting seperate payments and confusing the order.
— Take a look at your menu and prices and compare it with the market. You are way overpriced for the market and the quality is not great. A burrito from Chipotle is almost half the price and so much better.
Sincerly,
The voice of a customer

I haven’t try any Mexican food yet but all the Peruvian dishes. And I am completely disappointing, Beginig with ceviche, pollo a la brasa, lomo saltado, etc. The owners are a friendly Indian couple and the cook is a Salvadorean lady that have no clue about Peruvian food.
If you go to the restaurant PLEASE don’t order Peruvian food. I will came back to try the Mexican.

Service was horrible — waitress was not nice at all after we told her that their soda was flat. They lost a customer as I will not go back to this restaurant nor will I recommend it.

2.5 stars
So we came here still looking for a good mexican/​tex-​mex restaurant and again, to no avail. No beers on tap either.
We got the:
taquitos — $ 5 for 2 — guacamole was good tho
chips and salsa — chips were cold and old, salsa was good
trio fajitas w/​shrimp, chicken, and steak — pretty good, kind of oily, steak tasted ok, rice was no bueno
steak burrito — best thing. it was actually really good so one star for the service, waitress was nice, second star for the burrito
Wouldn’t go again, but it wasn’t gross

Just tried this place for lunch and YUM! I am a Mexican food fanatic so I am very excited that this just opened close to my work. The chips were super fresh and the salsa was delicious!
I got the pork tacos, super fresh and very good. The other two people with me got a chimichanga (I tried a bite and it was soooo good) and a fajita type chicken and shrimp dish which looked super fresh.
Our server was great, very attentive and my water glass was never empty. I will definitely be adding this to my list of favorite lunch spots. The price for the food is not bad either.
Try it, you will not regret it!

We came here because we were starving and wanted some Mexican food. The good reviews and comments on Unilocal made us venture out of our way to give this newer place a try. Our experience was the exact opposite of the ⁴⁄₅ star reviews! How disappointing.
We walked in and were the only people in this restaurant on a Sunday afternoon aside from the staff chatting at the bar. We got prompt service at first. The chips were hot and fresh despite it being obviously a slow day at the restaurant. The salsa wasn’t bad — but it came in a small ramekin which you used up after dipping about 10 chips. The poor waitress had to bring 3 of them just for us to finish the first basket.
My husband ordered a chicken burrito and I ordered a chicken tamal, shredded beef burrito, and a cheese enchilada to try a variety.
This is where things started going downhill fast (or slow rather.) After 20 – 25 minutes, they finally brought our food out. We watched the staff sit and chat at the bar another 15 minutes before they even went to the kitchen to make our food. When it came out, the dishes were uninspired and they had gotten our order slightly wrong (tomatillo sauce instead of guajillo.)
The cheese enchilada was by far the worst thing we got! It was stone cold shredded mix cheese (no sign of heat applied) inside a luke warm tortilla covered in sauce. The tamal wasn’t much better. It was a brick with no flavor and a half inch thick of masa surrounding very little densely compacted shredded chicken. The burritos were alright, but the beef was super fatty and chewy/​tough. Seasoning was sub par.
Getting the check was easy, but the waitress sat and chatted about 5 more minutes before I had to get up to walk it over to pay. Again, this entire time we were the only table in the entire place.
If they can’t be bothered to give me good or even half-​decent food/​service when it’s dead, I can’t be bothered to give them another try.

I have only been there once (they have only been open 3 weeks) but like it. Nice, fresh, good food. Talked to the owner and the family actually has a couple of other restaurants (I believe down in the Woodbridge area).