El Rancho Grande Mexican - Ottumwa

We travel 30 miles each way and pass 3 other Mexican restaurants at home eat authentic Mexican food once a week. While traveling to Iowa, we ate at this restaurant because of the glowing reviews online. I wish to set the record straight. The service was decent and the food arrived quick, but after that it was down hill fast. My monster margarita was a concerning florescent green color and had little to no tequila in it. My fajita meat was tough and burnt. The grilled onions had almost no flavor. My tortillas were paper thin and brittle. The beans were thin and runny and reminded me of store bought canned beans. The salsa picosa (hot salsa) lacked any similarities to a robust tomato based salsa. It was more like a wet paste. It wasn 't very hot either. I asked for a couple roasted habeneros with my dinner and I received 2 greasy deep fried jalapenos.(yes the waiter spoke perfect English) The only saving grace was the queso blanco (white cheese dip) because of the extra zing it had. The quesadillas contained the smallest amount of cheese all concentrated in the middle. This was a sad attempt at authentic Mexican food to say the least. Good Mexican food requires good ingredients, very little seasoning and proper preparation. This was bland food at best. Poor ingredients equals poor food.

This place is GREAT... Wonderful food and the best service I have ever had... and the best margarita's in all of Iowa.