Taqueria el Ranchero - Kapolei

Went on a quiet Monday afternoon for food with some friends and there was no wait.Happy hour (s) are from 2-6 with awesome cheaper drink and food options.Place was clean and service was personable and efficient. She was kind and suggested some food options that she liked as well.Guacamole, fresh and delicious, queso is cool, chips had a nice crunch to them as well. Pastor and beef tongue was okay as well, but my tamale was very dry.Is it authentic Mexican food that you'll find elsewhere, absolutely not, but it gets the job done and it's what you make it.Looks like they've upgraded their salsas as well, it's chunkier than previous times I've been.

Cliff notes: Great service, delicious food, affordable, easy/free parking, and clean. We ordered california fries with carne asada, elote, beef taquitos (app, not not the main), steak fajitas, birria tacos, fish tacos, tres leches cake, and loaded churros. Everything was amazing. The consomé here is so good. The free chips and salsa is a really nice touch, considering some restaurants here (looking at you mekiko in KoOlina) charge $15 for a "flight of chips and salsa". The salsa here is much better, you get the same amount of chips minus the attitude, and price tag. Our server was very attentive even though she had several other tables on the patio. If you want a more intimate atmosphere, I suggest the patio. The runner was great and very strong, balancing all our food! Thank you to the line cooks for making our food. You guys are my heroes. We had such a delicious dinner thanks to you guys. The consomé was so good I drank it after I was done with my birria tacos. I am dreaming of the next time I see them. The steak fajitas were perfectly cooked and not over salted. The corn tortillas they came with were soft and you can see the love put into them. The elote, fries, and taquito apps are not to be missed. If you havent tried it, take the plunge. The fresh, hot taquitos were perfectly crispy and went so well with the guac and accompaniments, the elote was well seasoned, and the california fries were crispy and delicious. The fish tacos come with this amazing sauce, and my sister fell in love with it. Lol! Dont skip dessert! The tres leches cake was huge! Perfect and creamy with a touch of cinnamon. Man those churros are so good! I cant wait to come back and try breakfast or their weekend specials.

We really enjoyed their food at their Wahiawa location so we decided to try it in Kapolei. Located at Ka Makana, this location sure is packed. We came on a Saturday night during Happy Hour where it was quite slow but once 6 pm hit, the rush came in. No reservations however there are plenty of seats. The menu is pretty much the same throughout all Mexican restaurants on the island. We ordered some items from the happy hour menu, their fajitas, and horchatas. The horchatas do not disappoint! It had the perfect amount of sweetness and cinnamon. Maybe it was an off night but service was really slow and we barely got checked on. The food wasn't hot and it seemed like it was sitting out except the sizzling fajitas. Overall I prefer the Wahiawa location as that's low key compared to the Kapolei location. Easier access to parking and definitely faster wait times for food.

Split the molcajete with my partner and it was delicious with more than enough food for the both of us +leftovers. Definitely worth it, and was presented nicely as a whole experience in the sizzling mortar.Service was adequate for being weekend dinner time. It is expensive for Mexican food, so I would only go every once in a while.

Needed a quick meal after my workout at 24 hour fitness and this did the job! I ordered a takeout order for the seafood burrito with shrimp and birria tacos and it was definitely worth it. Usually you can order the burrito wet as it comes spicy which is perfect. Highly recommend coming here.

1st time to this location. Nice and newish. Choke parking. Food for the most part good, but service needs some major tweaking. Went on football Sunday. Apparently the restaurant is totally 49ers. No biggie, except the side room is for their fans....which had about 10 open tables still. Not even realizing it, I showed up in a Bills Mafia top. Host told us only had tables outside unless we wanted to wait for her to wipe it. Way too hot to eat outside and even the inside isn't well air conditioned. We waited. No sense of urgency. Another person came over to check on us so we let him know...that sped her up since he started bringing us over.Waiting, waiting, waiting for someone to come by. Finally did. Waiting, waiting, waiting for her to take our order...It was restaurant week and I'm all about supporting so we knew what we wanted. Finally came to take our order. Ordered molcajete, with chips & salsa & guac, queso, 1marg & 1michelada, loaded churros.Chips & salsa come fairly quickly. Queso came next. The chorizo tasted like cinnamon or nutmeg...whatever it was was too overpowering for me. Queso good, chorizo not my favorite. Asked for more chips since was taking so long. Molcajete came next. Tasty. First time having it there. Everything cooked really well. Baby even ate the chicken...which she typically doesn't care for. Only thing that would have been better was a little heat and tako legs!45 minutes after we ordered, we got our drinks. We could have been done with 2 in that amount of time. Our server also realized "they never brought out the guac" so she went to get it. Asked for the check and asked them to just pack the dessert and bring the ice cream. Our server seemed surprised "they never brought it" yet. I am not sure who "they" is, but there must be some miscommunication somewhere.Overall a good meal. Service needs work...they kept saying 1 person was late, but I don't really care about excuses. Lot of people wandering around could have helped instead of just 2 running around. Servers were making drinks...(no bartender during lunch time on a football day?) and unless you sat at the bar, there was a wait. Probably won't make the effort we did to drive out there just to eat...but if I'm ever out there, will stop by.

We came here on Saturday night and this place was pretty packed. There was a lot of empty tables, but we weren't seated for a while. We ordered some of their specialties and it was pretty good! The food were very tasty and cooked really well. We also ordered their horchata, but it was a little too sweet for me. Their churros, though, was made fresh and it was so good! It was crispy and the ice cream just perfectly complement it. Their sauces were so fresh and tasty too! I love the spice that they include in the sauce.Overall, the food was pretty good, although the service can be slow. Definitely put in a reservation if you want to be seated faster!

A lot of great things are said about taqueria el ranchero by many people so I decided to give it a try. And the food really is great! The flavors of Mexican cuisine are all there, the freshness of guacamole, cilantro, and lime that I love about Mexican food are all there, and the take out that I ordered was packed very well. Taqueria el ranchero will likely be my go to place when I'm craving a California burrito.

We stopped by for "Taco Tuesday," but the deal (I believe it's $2.50 per taco) doesn't start until 6 PM. Instead, we ordered a few appetizers under the daily specials and happy hour menu (till 6 pm!). My girls enjoyed the $5 crispy tacos (four of them, likely filled with beans and mild chorizo) and the bean dip topped with feta and chorizo. I went for a $5 pork tamale, while my husband chose the $15 pork burrito, which was quite filling. The meal was complemented by two complimentary baskets of chips served with red salsa (spicy but slightly salty) and green salsa (delicious!).The interior had a lively, party-like atmosphere, but we chose to sit outside since my girls are already plenty noisy!

My go to when I'm craving Mexican food. I like their elotes and their lengua quesadilla wet w all the toppings. But this time I changed it up and got their seafood burrito w shrimp. If you follow my reviews, I don't really like rice in my burritos but the flavors in this burrito was so good! I also had the choice of beans and I picked black beans. And the texture and amount of shrimp was perfect with every bite. I need to remember to keep ordering this when I go. It's about $17-19ish dollars. Staff is always friendly and I love the ambiance there. But you will especially find me there on karaoke nights.