Rancho Alegre - Columbus

We REALLY like Rancho Allegre. The place is big, so with the exception of May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) you can almost always get seated right away even on a Friday or Saturday night (unlike many other Mexican restaurants in the area). Service is always quick and attentive. Drinks are strong and fairly priced. Food is very good, with generous portions, and they have wide variety of menu choices. Very family friendly. This is a very solid, go to Mexican restaurant that 's right in the Upper Arlington neighborhood...

Great tex-mex food and overwhelming house margaritas at this big strip-mall restaurant and bar. Four stars for food and drink, but service still needs some training. House frozen Margarita was huge, strong and surprisingly good, plenty of lime flavor and intensely cold. Just $6. Did I mention strong!? Seriously, it's great when they actually put in some tequila, not just wave the bottle nearby LOL. Chips are not quite as dense as typical house-made corn chips, they're a little puffy and just barely salted. Salsa comes in a small bottle, pour as much as you want in your own little dish. Notably spicy, almost medium, great. Om nom nom, who needs an entree? On weekends you can still get the cheap lunch menu at midday, awesome. Just $7 for most combo plates is a total steal. I had the lunch tamale special, a chicken tamale with red chile sauce, a crispy corn taco plus mex rice. Excellent tamale, not dry. Taco had seasoned (but not sauced ground beef, lettuce and cheese, good. Red rice was much better than expected, a tad crispy in places. About that service. Not everybody speaks English, the kitchen was a little slow with our food even tho the place was pretty quiet and my order went in wrong. So my food came out wrong, our waiter fixed it but didn't fix the computer. And then of course the bill was wrong. Front counter people fixed that too, and threw in a free cinco de mayo tee shirt plus a coupon. They're really trying here. The huge cantina area has eight (8! TV screens, a broad choice of tequilas and friendly bartenders, very nice. The Alegre margarita is a frozen margarita with a corona kinda added on top. Hmm, a Coronarita. Uh, maybe next time. Very yelp geeky to be reviewing a Mexican place on cinco de Mayo I know, but hey, what can I say :

I adore this place! The ambiance is wonderful! Not too bright with neat things to look at. The lights are interesting and I love the stone bar! The service was excellent; I loved our server. Everyone was friendly and prompt. I was a bit skeptical due to the negative reviews about their food, however, it must be my lucky day because my chicken fajitas were wonderful and my wife loved her taco salad. I'm not even kidding when I say they have the best margaritas I've had in the Columbus area! My wife and I get the frozen strawberry. Highly recommend! It was a bit expensive.... that's my only complaint. $9 for one margarita is a bit nuts for lunch, but there's no doubt that I will be back for more! It's definitely worth checking out. And get a margarita.

Gosh, this place is so bad, where do I start? Well, I really should have paid heed to the reviews. Sadly, I did not. We arrived at 5:45 on a Saturday and the place was nearly empty. Why did we not leave then?! The food was truly terrible; dry, overly salty, and was clearly languishing under the heat lamp while the waitress was doing . . . what? Scanning the employment needed section of the newspaper, as there has to be something better than this? I don't know. You'd think she would have asked why we didn't eat half of our dinners, and why we declined boxes. Nope. She knows. I give this place six months.

3rd time here and I'll be dammed but the food is excellent every single time. Drinks on the spot, taste no question and cleanliness just superb !! I recommend anything and everything !!! Get chef soup , tilapia with vegetables or amazing tacos with jicama shells. First however a margarita on the rocks !! With salt!!