Plan B - El Ranchero

Last week the co-workers and I were at a meeting and thought we'd go to lunch at El Charco nearby. Unfortunately, it was closed, as Kirk would find out the next day. They were closed for "remodeling". In a pinch, La Ley suggested that we eat at El Ranchero taco shop which is literally one building down from El Charco.

If you see this sign, drive past it to the run down building along the side....

This is the strip mall that is parallel to where El Charco and the defunct Tacos el Gordo.  Just drive up to the very end...

where you will find El Ranchero to your right. This is one of three locations (with locations on Main St. in Chula Vista and on Palm Ave in the strip mall with Teresita's, in Otay Mesa).

I was a bit disappointed because I was looking forward to having some adobado tacos with pineapple at El Charco.
I ended up getting one of their specials, three taquitos (soft tacos here) de barbacoa for $4.09. Two years ago the same special was $3.49.    Inflation.

There are sauces at the table...

and a separate area for more salsa - a mild tomato, tomatillo, and a spicy and smoky salsa.

La Ley ended up getting her favorite raspado combination.

She ordered half mango and half chamoy. It's like the chamango without the mango smoothie.

This one had mango chunks, crushed ice, a few generous squirts of chamoy and topped off with that spicy chile powder. Very refreshing and much lighter tasting than a chamango (which I still like better). I believe there were a few bits of chaca chaca candy on top as well.

This was Mr. TJ's quesadilla with a side of beans. The filling was carne asada meat with guacamole. This was pretty good but a bit on the heavy side.

Another co-workers order - rolled tacos with Senorial, a Mexican soft drink that is supposed to taste like Sangria but without the alcohol.

La Ley's tacos de birria and cabeza which she really enjoyed.  So much that she didn't even have dinner later that evening. You can see that the tacos have doubled corn tortillas.

Here was my trio of taquitos de barbacoa which was really tasty. The meat was tender and flavorful. The tacos, nice and soft.

Three was a bit more than I could handle.  I would probably just get two next time.

Mr. TJ's diet coke - we marveled at the size of the font on the can, which gave the illusion that the can was smaller but it wasn't. It was still the standard 12 oz. soda can. The design was simplified too. Just a big "D" instead of the word "diet".

If you ever go to the lovely gang-graffitied festooned bathroom here, good luck. It's a bit on the gross side. I went in to wash my hands and felt like I needed to clean myself off again!

I like the name and logo of this gas station!

The building just south of this gas station used to be the old Seafood City. It is now a Foodland. So our lunch ended up being Plan B and for the most part, we enjoyed our lunch, except for the foray into the grody bathroom.

Previous visit to this location of El Ranchero:
April 2011 - During the Epic South Bay food crawl with Dennis

I'm hoping El Charco will reopen soon.