Verdes El Ranchero

Food is amazing every single time. $ 6.50 Sculpin. Our waiter, James, was great tonight. We’ll be back.

You ever work at a hotel or somewhere with an employee cafeteria and when you’re done with your meal you scrape the remaining food into a big bucket that they feed to pigs later? That was what my plate looked like. Maybe that’s mean, but someone has to counter all these good reviews. Margaritas, bad. Chips, bland. Ambiance, deserted. Cheese crisp thing, dumb (except if you add green chiles which we did without the waitress recommending it – it totally saves the appetizer from being a zero.). Go elsewhere people.

This place wins the most bland chips I’ve ever had along with worst drinks and food. How they have 4-​star rating escapes me. The only saving grace was the cheese crisp. The margaritas were extremely strong and just bad. The food came out as «slop». I ordered the chile relleno stuffed with rice and shrimp. It wasn’t awful but not great. My husband had an enchilada and tostada. Nothing great. The service was good, although there were three people in the restaurant when we walked in and maybe six when we left. Very disappointing in general.

Very much a locals spot, I swear every other person walking in the door knew other people there.
I’ve been twice and I can say its hit or miss. First time the salsa was amazingly flavorful and chunky. Carnitas were pretty bomb. Second time a month later everything was meh.
So I guess I need to know when the first chef is back in the kitchen…

Food wasn’t bad, but I really wish that they would make clear that they add an automatic tip to bills of parties over 6. It was my first time, I didn’t know, I was busy chatting with my friends when I paid and didn’t see the added tip, so I gave a 20% tip, which means I ended up giving 35% tip total. Ouch. I think an experienced server would intuit this was likely a mistake and say something. Unfortunately, they didn’t. So an otherwise good experience left a sour taste in my mouth.

this is the best sit-​down mexican food restaurant in La Jolla. Don’t waste your time with Su Casa, Jose’s, or Lena. The Ranch has strong margaritas, free chips and salsa (I love the salsa roja — a little bit spicier), and tasty, traditional mexican food. It’s a great local place and the atmosphere is always fun! Love the machaca plate and carnitas tacos

This is my new favorite Mexican restaurant in La Jolla. I ordered the chili relleno stuffed with shrimp. It was delicious. My wife ordered enchiladas. She liked the red sauce. Which is a giant compliment. My daughter had her first tamale and she really liked it. Service was excellent. The atmosphere was relaxed. The home made chips were the best. Pacifico draft came in a chilled glass with a lime. It is no chain Mexican restaurant.

We went there last night for first time, it was fantastic. I have lived in Texas all my life and so recognizing great Mexican, including Margaritas, is very easy. This place has it all with a very laid back feel. Try the crispy tacos — excellent. Tamales and Cheese Crisp (chorizo) were also great. Service was friendly and prompt — enjoy the best Mexican food I have had in San Diego county!

Dined here with family after sunset. Loved the cheese crisp with carne asada! Shrimp ceviche wonderful! Daughter loved cheese enchiladas and mixed reviews on the chicken enchiladas. Attentive service… loved Chip our server.

Cheese crisp is one of the well known dishes for this restaurant, and it was so delicious I scrapped my plate clean. Great, efficient and friendly service/​staff. Place looks like you’re in a Mexican hacienda.

We walked up from a morning at the beach and we’re so happy to have stumbled across this restaraunt. The atmosphere was cozy, the waiter friendly, and the food was amazing… especially the guacamole!

This is a great, hole-​in-​the-​wall, authentic, family-​run Mexican restaurant. Not a lot of frills, just delicious food and excellent service. Our server hustled the entire time we were there, my glass of water was never empty (very important to me), he checked in regularly and took care of things quickly. The chips and salsa are always fresh and my quesadilla was delicious. Great experience all around!

Parking is hit or miss because you have to look into the neighborhoods for street parking.
FREE CHIPS & SALSA. YAAAAS, this is exactly what I want when I come to a sit down Mexican restaurant. I discovered this place after a long day of being at the beach and fell in love with it ever since. I came here on a Tuesday evening with two other friends and we sat ourselves down. Our server always made sure we had water and it was not difficult to flag anyone down. I noticed it’s a family owned restaurant and a lot of locals come here to eat. Verdes El Ranchero is like the Mexican version of an American Diner which is refreshing to have in San Diego where it mostly has Mexican food joints.
Their combination plates comes with a side of pinto refried beans and spanish rice. You can pick and choose your protein as a tamale, enchilada, tostada, or taco. I ordered mine with a shredded chicken enchilada and shredded beef taco. The plate comes out hot so be careful when you start eating! My enchilada has this red sauce that gave it a nice smoky flavor and the taco has a crispy tortilla that contrasted the shredded beef. Even though it was shredded, both proteins were moist with flavor. The rice and beans were also really yummy and definitely satisfying.
Sidenote: They have multiple TV screens to broadcast all the sport channels. Great place to catch up with some friends or take your family out to eat!

New favorite restaurant, hands down. So far I’ve loved everything I’ve tried, especially the enchiladas. Both the chicken & cheese were wonderful — the red sauce goes great with their rice & beans. I also loved the Suiza sauce. very unique and fresh!
The drinks are delicious, nice variety of beer cocktails & the margaritas are delicious — not too sweet/​syrupy like most places. You can really taste the quality here in the food and drinks. Cozy ambiance — I can’t wait to try EVERYTHING. Eventually. They make fabulous leftovers and the portions are pretty standard for a Mexican restaurant.
The Ranchero cheese crisp wasn’t cheesy and crispy enough for my taste, but mostly because it’s loaded with tasty toppings. and my love for cheese is out of this world. Decent prices for good food in La Jolla, but with drinks the bill adds up quickly. Fortunately, it’s worth every penny!

Hands down my go to place for great Mexican Food in La Jolla; actually my favorite in San Diego.
Today my Server/​Chip continued their legacy of warm friendly service! Kudos to the whole team!

Stopped to eat here while passing through La Jolla. We got the queso blanco dip to start and it was delicious. For dinner we shared the cheese crisp and the carne asada dinner and they were both outstanding. I loved the food and would have given the restaurant a 5 star if it were not for the extremely slow service. We had to wait for an extremely long time for the check after eating because there was only one waitress working. Overall I had a great experience here and would definitely go back.

This place was the bomb. In the mood for sit down Mexican in La Jolla and this popped up. I must’ve driven by it a million times and never even knew it was there. It’s kinda small, with Mexican murals painted on the walls. The chips were perfection, super fresh and warm, and the salsa was good. Now my pollo asada CHEESE CRISP was off the chain! Fluffy, crispy, loaded with Mexican goodness and hit the spot sooo good. My friend’s carne asada was bomb too!

Love this place! They make a great margarita and the cheese enchilada, yum! I’ll definitely be going back.

This place is amazing! I have been looking for a sit down Mexican restaurant by La Jolla for some time. SD is great for strip mall taco shops and fast Mexican food to go, but besides Old Town there aren’t a lot of restaurants where you want to spend an hour or so eating with friends. This place has a fantastic, warm ambiance and great homey feel. The service was fast and friendly — it seems to be run by a super sweet family, everyone was working together really nicely.
Food was so yummy, better than the tourist traps in Old Town in my opinion. I got the Chicken Enchiladas Suiza and would highly recommend. My mom got fantastic margaritas and flavorful carnitas crispy tacos (rare in SD where tacos are usually soft), and my boyfriend got a Cali burrito that was bigger than his forearm. The prices are fair (~$ 12 for entrée + rice and beans) and the free chips and salsa were delicious. My only criticism was the rice was a little bit hard/​oily but I still thought the whole meal was bomb. FYI, they also seem to have some pretty great food deals for football Sun, Mon, Thurs.
I’m so thrilled to finally have found a sit down Mexican restaurant with great food! Definitely check them out!

I wish I would’ve read over the reviews to learn about the cheese crisp before we ordered! We were in the neighborhood at a friend’s house and walked the 4 blocks over here for dinner on Valentine’s Day evening. Considering the night, we only had to wait about 15 minutes before a table opened up, which wasn’t bad at all.
I’ve always heard that you can tell how good a Mexican restaurant is based on how hot their salsa is, which I definitely agree with. I’m pretty sensitive to spicy stuff, so I thought this stuff was fairly spicy. But definitely not uneatable. But a good start. Our waiter was super helpful, obviously very knowledgeable about the menu, and gave a lot of really good suggestions about what to get.
I ended up going with the chiles rellenos, which were excellent. Crisp and light breading and not greasy, which was great. I also got one of the grilled fish tacos, which was excellent. Great flavors and the fish was cooked well and didn’t taste too fishy. Kind of weird to say that, but I hate fish that has a real fishy taste to it.
Regardless, everyone had nothing but good things to say about this place. Margaritas were on point as well, which is always a good sign. I’m just disappointed that I don’t live closer to this place. Would definitely come back!

Great carne asada torta, chile releno and cheese crisp — good margaritas — classic socal mexican restaurant.