Panchos Mexican Buffet

Pleasantly surprised!
Food was fresh and as good as it was years ago.
Will definitely be back.

I was disappointed !!! I remember this buffet as a kid being great. I remembered celebrating birthdays and other special events here. I don’t know if my taste buds have evolved? I just couldn’t recommend eating here unless you want to just eat flautas and chile renos.

Good dessert. Best sopapillas ever! The rest of the food is average or below average. Keep coming here people of Arlington. Keep the last of a dying breed a float!!!

Man this place has certainly gone down hill. I used to love this place when I was growing up but it is nothing like it used to be. The food overall is just bad now. There are still a couple of things that isn’t bad like the flautas and tacos. Other then that the food is just not up to par. I still might come back here to pick up some flautas or tacos but that’s about as far as it goes.

Just plain bad. I’ve been eating at Pancho’s since the late 60s. It has gone so far downhill that I’m not going to finish the first plate. So long old friend. You aren’t you any longer.

I can believe that some people enjoy this place with the benefit of extreme nostalgia, because that’s truly all it has going for it. Not having grown up coming here, though, I don’t have the benefit of rose-​tinted nostalgia glasses, and I’m going to steer clear from now on.
The buffet was fairly understaffed, with just one person doing all the serving, with another at the cash register. They were both hustling, and got us through reasonably quickly, so kudos to them, but it would have been helpful for there to be a third person there.
As far as vegetarian options, there was actually surprising amount of variety. Maybe cheap cheese is cheaper than cheap meat? I told the guy at the buffet line that I was veg, and he just served me up a bunch of stuff, so that’s the way to go if you don’t feel like navigating the whole selection process. I wound up with: one «chile relleno,» one cheese enchilada, one sour cream enchilada, rice, refried beans, and little dishes of squash and some kind of Mexican noodle dish. Dessert was «flan» and sopapillas. Here’s the run down: the chile relleno wasn’t. I don’t even know what that was. It’s like a sad jalapeño popper that somehow wound up with three times too much breading, got doused in flavorless cheese goo, lost all its flavor, and the cheese inside congealed from embarrassment. The enchiladas were fine, but had barely any filling. Most of the flavor came from the bland, tepid sauces, which isn’t saying much. The rice and beans were perfectly reasonable. They actually tasted less like cardboard than I was expecting. The squash was squash! Recognizable vegetable matter! Woo-​hooo! A little over-​cooked, but generally pretty good! The noodles were… reasonably tasty, but simultaneously strange and unexceptional. I didn’t know Mexican noodles were a thing. Honestly, all this stuff is in the same approximate class as Taco Bell, except that I actually sometimes *enjoy* Taco Bell and they have Fire sauce that you can slather on everything.
The Panchos table salsa wasn’t spicy. At. All. Glorified tomato sauce.
Dessert was more palatable than lunch, although the «flan» was unrecognizable as such. It’s more like caramel pudding served in tiny plastic cups. No drippy beautiful caramel sauce to be seen. Still it’s tasty, and the rice pudding also looked decent, although I didn’t try any. The sopapillas come 6 to a basket — which is super confusing, because I don’t know how anyone could possibly eat that many. I was actually looking forward to the sopapillas on a friend’s recommendation, but was sadly disappointed — they’re not particularly sweet, and they have smooth, slick exteriors which make butter and honey slide right off. The dough is pretty thick and has a sturdy flavor, which makes the butter and honey take a back seat (WHAAAT?), and there’s no cinnamon sugar in sight.
Kitschy Mexican restaurant is kitschy — lots of colorful tile, fake plants, and goofy wall paintings. No surprises there. Still, the server was attentive, the food was (mostly) edible, and they actually have a reasonably wide selection of vegetarian options.
For those of you who grew up with it, don’t mind me — keep enjoying your childhood favorite, and I promise the lousy food won’t interfere with your experience too much. If you’re looking for a new Mexican restaurant, maybe try someplace that uses real cheese, isn’t afraid of flavor, and perhaps even serves the food hot. (Side note: I’ve had a stomach ache for the last hour — be careful with your portions, my peeps. This stuff sits like a rock.)

I was craving Mexican food so I had my husband stop by for takeout and bring it home to me and the kids they had a family special for $ 29 although it was a lot of food most of got thrown away the next morning the flautas were tasteless the enchiladas tasted worse than fast food Mexican. Most of the food had no flavor just salt and lard very disappointed if my has been one husband wouldn’t have been so tired from work I would ask him to take it all back. We will never go there again. If I were starving I would rather eat a bowl of dry shredded wheat cereal with no milk!

I was disgusted on so many levels. The place wasn’t clean. Tables were not clean. When asked to clean off more tables, so we could eat, people ignored us. One person cleaning the tables was on his phone listening to music. Silverware was no where to be to found along with napkins. Customer service was horrible; the server were tacky and had an attitude. The soda was watered down. We couldn’t even make it through our meal due to such poor circumstances. We will not be back!

When you come to Panchos, you need to know what you are in for. We used to come here as a family, when I was a kid. Now, I only come here about once every three years. The first reason is because there are very few Panchos around anymore, and the second reason is that my stomach can no longer handle the food. The one in Arlington was very clean, and the staff was very attentive. Panchos is an all you can eat buffet, but instead of a buffet that you get up and help yourself, you raise a flag and they bring you more food. The food is not authentic Mexican food, but taste more like fast-​food.

Stopped in for take out. Big mistake. Staff was rude and took forever. Three different people acknowledged me standing at the counter and not one took my order. Finally about twenty minutes later someone came and asked if I had been helped. She took my order and ten minutes later I was out the door. Really big mistake cause the food was horrible.

Went back after a few years away as I moved out of the area. Still good after all these years. They added a new hot salsa which is excellent…
Chile relleno was good. Added fried chicken…
Enchiladas were ok. Rice and beans good. Finally the sopapillas were great as usual.
Restaurant was CLEAN. service good.

All I want to say about Pancho’s Mexican buffet is the Sopaipilla are wonderful and delicious. And I never had any better. But they do have other food and I will get to that in a minute. Pancho’s has been around forever and they were very popular at one time. But now they seem to just get by. I never see them very busy anymore. I only go to Poncho’s about once a year. And that is mainly for the Sopaipillas.
The restaurant is a cafeteria style line you pick your food as you go by. The food is fair to good I like the beans, rice, enchiladas, and the tacos. Plus the fried chicken is very good. The price is very good and it is all you can eat so you can stuff yourself to death. Just raise your flag. You must save room for the Sopaipillas with honey. They are the best thing they have and make sure they are hot and fresh.
With all the other Mexican restaurants out there it makes it hard to come to Pancho’s. Since the food is sitting in the warmer it does not seem very fresh. If they were busy the food would rotate out faster and maybe that would help. But overall they are not that bad they are just okay.

Oh when I was a kid how I loved this place. I remember having contests with my cousins to see just how much each of us could eat. The food was great and was a real treat to come here once or twice a year.
Now fast forward 30 – 40 years and things have really changed. The food doesn’t suck but it the suction is getting started. Most of the food is ok but the enchiladas (which are my favorite) are just mushy like they were made a few days before and left to sit until they are needed. There is no bite to them just mush.
This would be a 1 star review but then you get the sopaipillas. This almost makes the mushy enchiladas bearable.
Once a year and just for the sopaipillas is about all I can do for this place anymore.

I was in Arlington from So. California. Discovered this place by accident. We were pleasantly surprised! The food was excellent and since I am slightly disabled the cashier and waitress helped me to the table! Thank you ladies, I appreciate any help I can get! Even the sweet tea was delicious! I’ll be back

Raunchos Mexican Barffet strikes again! The servers are nice and that about all I can say that’s good. The place is dirty and messy. The food seems both decent and terrible all at once. You will feel terrible and bloated after your meal and if you were suffering from constipation, don’t worry my friend, you will be cured by the meal you have just eaten!
If you have a cast iron stomach, perhaps you will be OK. If you don’t, eater beware!

Pros: The guys were very outgoing and nice. No wait. Quick to come to the table when the flag went up.
Cons: Price is way too high for the food you get. Food standards have lowered over the many years I’ve eaten at Pancho’s. The quality also doesn’t stay the same. I tried a chicken enchilada with the sour cream on top for the first time and LOVED it. When I asked for another when the flag went up, the second one I got tasted and looked different and was definitely nasty.
Wasn’t worth the price you pay.

It has been à long time since I’ve been to Pancho’s and for various reasons… lot have closed and good not so good… But i went to this location after à hard day of moving à family member… and i must say i was glad i did… the good was great! Every thing was hot and fresh and very good!!! Hope this was’nt à one time thing cause i do intend to go back!

Oh my, what can I say. I don’t know what prompted me to stop at Pancho’s for lunch yesterday. I guess I still remember the «hay-​day» of the chain when I was growing up. I remember, as a child, it was quite a treat and the TexMex was good (we didn’t know any better at the time). I really did used to enjoy it.
Yesterday’s visit put the nails in the coffin. It was one of the worst buffets I’ve had, nothing tasted good. It was all sub-​par. Sorry Pancho’s, it’s time for you to close the doors. The restaurant was «aged» and not clean. I wish I had something better to say, but I don’t.

I am a little disappointed! I used to vist this place all the time when I was living in TX and younger. The service used to be great but now it is below average. The food quality was not great and overall my experiance was poor. I am not sure if I will visit again but just to be fair I think I will give them one more chance. If my next visit is better I will update my review.

Not only was this place awful, it was weird.
We were seated systematically by an employee whose sole purpose was to seat you in the order that you came in. Personally, I found it unnerving. Usually, this «seater» would’ve been the waiter, but since he was too busy seating other patrons, absolutely no one waited our table.
The food was worse than a Patio frozen dinner. I was sorely disappointed, as I enjoy all other Panchos locations. This one is dead to me.