El Rancho Restaurante

Great first experience. Ordered several items to offer a fair review.
Service prompt helpful attentive and clean.
Restaurant atmosphere reasonably clean as were bathrooms.
Ambience was a bit loud but knowing that wouldn’t have changed mind about going.
Entire meal was delicious and served at appropriate temps and was all very tasty and authentic.
Bill was quite reasonable and happy to overtip in appreciation of the experience.
$ 45 for all you see on the table.
They do a decent take out business I’m told, as well as karaōke on the weekend.
I will certainly say more good things and visit them again soon.

Amazing food! Great service! Had pupusas, burritos, carne azada and rellenitos. Everything was absolutely amazing.

Hmm. Well I. writing this review as I sit here. This place is interesting. I also was looking for a place similar to Apollo Campero. I wait for I don’t know how long. Should have timed it. It was a long while before my food arrived and there were only a few customers here. Bought the 10 dollar fried chicken meal. I expected a half fried chicken for that meal. I received a thigh (or a tiny breast… not sure what it was) and to teensy legs. Food was decent. I would have received more for the same price at KFC and been happier honestly. Anyway left my 20% and as per usual I leave my true thoughts on Unilocal.Hope these people get it together. As for me I won’t be coming back. keep the food fresh, tasty and plentiful and keep it fast… that’s all I ask.

I should’ve listened to Seth’s review. We went here at about 6:30 on a Saturday. We came in and they had a the karaōke setup in the back with the music playing fairly loud. We could still speak over it, and no one really thought more of it. After we ordered, a guy dressed as a cowboy came in and proceeded to slowly increase the volume until the speakers maxed out. The music combined with the flashing karaōke lights combined for a seizure friendly environment. The baby about 10 feet away from the speaker started crying. The Cowboy did the only sensible thing and jacked up the volume even more. Then he turned on the speaker in the back.
The tacos were quite good. The tortillas were grilled and just slightly crispy, and warm all the way though. The fajitas and tamales were all right and the cheese pupusa was not very good as the cheese was cold and tasted a but off. The fried chicken was way overcooked and the batter underseasoned. Seeing as how that’s what we came in for, we were disappointed. I left here wishing we went to Pollo Campero instead.
I’d give the place 1 star based on my experience, but I guess they only do the music on Saturdays? Even without the music, I wouldn’t recommend the going here, but they have passable El Savadoreon fare.

This place rocks. But beward, sometimes they have karaōke on Saturday nights and it’s deafeningly loud! They deliver if you live close which is cool. I always order the Enchiladas Salvadorenas; this is my favorite semi-​fast food meal in Boston. You can’t go wrong with 2 or 3 of them, I like them with chicken. The ingredients are always super fresh and they’re the perfect combo of crispy, crunchy, soft and chewy.
Note: It’s a little tricky finding this place, your best bet is to park in the parking lot next to Spinelli’s and walk across the street to Doreno.

Fried chicken? What’s wrong with you people!
I’m going to guess this place is Salvadoran… based purely on the fact that it says so on the website, on the menu, and on the walls of the establishment!
The food was priced higher than I thought it would be, but my friend ordered the pollo encebollado (chicken with onions) for $ 8, and it was a huge plate full of rice, beans, a little salad or slaw, and a mound of chicken with onions. It tasted awesome. And it came with two of these little thick corn tortilla things. Nice.
I was scared by the prices when we were ordering (because I’m a cheap bastard), and then I noticed the appetizers on the back — tamales Salvadorenos and pupusas de frijol (Salvadoran tamale and a bean pupusa). For $ 2 each. Sold. Wow. Both came out on one huge plate with that same salad/​slaw, and let me tell you that tamale is a friggin’ deal. Wrapped up in a banana leaf, the soft, moist masa melts in your mouth as the chicken stuffed inside dances on your tongue. The pupusa was also delicious, but I would go back in a heartbeat for the tamale alone.
Too bad it’s nowhere near anywhere I frequent whatsoever. Blast!

Little hole in the wall place in Eastie. The food is decent, could do better, definitely could do worse. I think the prices are a bit high for what it is but our meal was decent. I had forgotten I had even eaten here so it was pretty unremarkable. All in all I would categorize it as another place in Eastie not worth going out of you way for especially if you don’t speak Spanish because not maybe people here speak English. If you are in the neighborhood, starving, and want a fast meal that isn’t bad. Check it out.

I’ve been on a fried chicken kick lately. Healthy, yeah I know. So after discovering Pollo Campero I found Pollo Doreno which is a couple miles away from it. I noticed the similar sign. I had driven by it many times and then thought it must be a similar menu but time to find out if it was as good. So I decided to give it a shot.
When I started ordering in English, the girl quickly said she is no speaking it. Almost as if she could care less to try to understand what I wanted. I got a weird vibe off of that so I ordered in my best Spanish which got me by. That was the only talk we had. No smiles, she was not very friendly. While I was waiting I got the vibe that I didn’t fit in. It’s almost like don’t you want some diversity in your restaurant and want to try to make non-Latina’s welcome? Minus a star.
There is a large colored menu above the counter. I got a fried chicken combo. The combos are in weird sizes like 1 piece, then 8 pieces, then 15 pieces. One piece was not enough so I asked for the 1 piece combo then a piece on the side. All together for 2 pieces (breast, leg) french fries, and coleslaw was only $ 4.20.
The first thing I noticed was the chicken pieces were bigger and meatier then Campero. They tasted good. Not as spicy but still crunchy and you can eat it down to the bone. The breast part could have been moister. The french fries were good, the coleslaw was ok. It wasn’t stringy but more like minced.
The place is definitely a good value for the quantity you get. Good luck ordering if your Spanish is bad. Although I’m sure you could get by as someone in the back has to know English. There is a dining room on the other side so its half eat in/​half take out.

I noticed the sign when I first moved to the area and was reminded of Pollo Campero. The last time I ate at Pollo Campero was when I was 11 when my mom decided she wanted me and my brothers to see where she grew up. I felt like we ate at Pollo Campero everyday the 3 weeks I was there. Since then I have dreams of the chicken.
So, you would think that I would order the chicken from this place. And I was about to until I spotted the tongue (lengua) tacos. And I couldn’t resist since I love tongue. I ordered that and a cheese pupusa. After about 6 minutes, I had my food.
The pupusa was good and yummy like all other pupusas I’ve had in the past. But the tacos were outstanding! So flavorful, and juicy, and not oily. They were also tender. And there was alot of meat in them. For the almost $ 7 that I paid, that was a pretty good deal. I will definitely be back, maybe for the chicken, maybe for something else.
Minus one star because the girl at the counter let me know she didn’t know english (yes, even though my mom is from guatemala, this is her biggest pet peeve and she passed it on to me). Yes I know spanish, so I ordered in spanish, but it still isn’t an excuse.

I don’t know what Susan N was talking about. Crack chicken? What’s she smoking?
We had heard such good things about this place. From my Guatemalan friends even. On the way out, a fella in a suit raved about it for a good five minutes. Well, I was disappointed. I MAY go back. Doubtful.
OK, so it started off good. The place was hopping. It was some Latino holiday and they had a funny looking clown working with the kids and loud music. Everyone was happy and it was packed.
So, we decide to order some fried chicken, sweet plantains, and take it to go. We place our order. It was about average price.
So, we wait. We wait. Stomach rumbles. Oscar raises his head out of the trash can as I get grumpy. Fiancé is like UH OH, got to feed him fast!
So, after about 15 minutes, I go up and ask how the order is coming. They give me this look and speak concerned Spanish behind the counter. A few minutes later, they say it’ll be out soon. My mate and I look at each other. We’re like, we didn’t understand what they said, but we know what happened. THEY FORGOT TO PLACE OUR ORDER to the CHEF!
So, the manager sees we’re unhappy and offers us drinks to tie us over till it’s ready (not explaining what happened). I’m sure he knows we guessed. We asked for 2 waters. He looked surprise. Probably thought we needed shots of vodka or something.
The food finally comes out well over 35 minutes after we placed it. I think we would have been better off dining in. I’m glad we weren’t paying the meter.
So, we are STARVED. We take turns driving so we can pick away at the food. The fried chicken was SOGGY. The cole slaw and fries was not all that. The plantains weren’t that sweet. I had ones ½ the price at a hole in the wall earlier in the day that were sitting around forever that tasted better.
How to get there? Not far off 93/​rt1. There is street parking.

Crack chicken. That’s what I was hoping for. After eating at Pollo Campero, a Guatemalan fast food chain scattered around Central and North America, I’ve been passively searching for a place with crack chicken just as good in the Boston area.
The boy and I spotted a menu on the ground while walking around Eastie. We decided to stop by on the way home to see if the chicken truly lived up to my expectations. We walked in and I noticed it’s a Salvadorian place. El Salvador. Guatemala. They’re near each other, right, so chicken should taste similar.
Well, we ordered takeout and waited. And waited. And waited. The boy went up to the counter, and apparently they had forgotten our order. The manager caught wind of this and got mad at the staff. He even rectified the situation by giving us free drinks while we waited longer. The chicken had to be great at this point, right? I mean, well worth the wait.
We finally got our chicken and on the way out, this guy was raving about how good the chicken was over there. We were now super excited to try it.
We get home and the chicken is just ok. Not moist and succulent like I was hoping and expecting. And the spices were good but not crack chicken phenomenal. We may go back to try the roasted chicken but with so many potentially great Latin restaurants around the area, it’ll be awhile.