“Restaurant Review: Rancho Grande”
from The Local Voice #31: Download PDF

Eigth Stop: Rancho Grande
1604 Jackson Avenue West
Oxford, Mississippi
662-234-8273

I bet that a lot of Mexican restaurants in town wish they were as good as Rancho Grande. This place isn’t afraid of a little (or a lot of) flavor bursting from its enchiladas, burritos and fajitas, and that’s only one of the reasons why I’ll keep coming back.

Service is always friendly and efficient to a fault; no matter what I order, it’s ready in minutes and served at my table, fresh out of the kitchen. Moreover, no food item I’ve had here has been anything less than delicious. For an appetizer, we ordered the addictive queso fundido with mushrooms—I could make a meal out of this sizzling hot platter with bubbling cheese and just the right dose of seasoning. Happily, Rancho Grande makes most types of traditional Mexican dishes available as vegetarian options, and I tried the vegetarian chimichanga (bucking my usual trend of ordering the fajitas, which are also excellent). The beans and vegetables were wrapped in a tortilla and fried, then covered with cheese sauce and served with sour cream and guacamole—indulgent, yes, but well worth it.

Rancho Grande may not have the bells and whistles that other restaurants offer, but it does have the most important features of a restaurant: consistently delicious food, low prices and great service. Qué bueno!

Liz (the meat eater)

Finally! A Mexican restaurant in Oxford that knows good Mexican food! I was beginning to think it would never happen. Even though it took me a few months after Rancho Grande’s late 2006 opening to discover this little gem, ever since my first bite I’ve been hooked and try my best to order something different each time I go. The queso fundido with mushrooms is scrumptious, it’s true, but if you like meat, I highly recommend the version made with chorizo. Yum! Take my advice and leave all thoughts of calories and fat at home. Your diet will be ruined when you step through the door—but you seriously won’t care! The chicken fajitas, the taco salad, the carne asada, the tacos…um, shall I go on?

What still baffles me is how fast they operate. You sit down and within seconds your heaping bowl of chips has arrived with its own carafe of salsa, and only moments after ordering—not even enough time to reach the bottom of the chip bowl—your meal is already at the table, piping hot and delightfully tasty.

Let’s just say I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been to Rancho Grande; probably enough for the staff to start recognizing me, but not nearly enough to have tasted everything I want to try!