Pancho Villa

This place is amazing! A must try if you are in the area. The staff is friendly and service is fast. This was the best Mexican food I have had in a very long time.

Seems a lot of reviews are kinda dated. I’ve eaten there a few times in 2015.
It’s an okay place. But seeing there’s two other Mexican, and an El Salvadorian restaurant within a 2-​mile radius, Pancho Villa’s needs a bit of a wake up call. I’d give them 2 and a half stars, compared to 4 to 5 for their competitors in Lenoir. Got to round it off to 2, when adding-​in Morganton Mexican, 10-​miles away.
Pancho Villa’s is real close to home, and I was hoping they’d be my go-​to Mexican restaurant. Out west, I found that a decent ‘yardstick’ to measure the quality of a Mexican restaurants’ food, was their salsa, and Huevos Rancheros (Mexican style breakfast). Salsa there is like a blended purée of tomatoes and other stuff, as in canned other stuff. The Huevos Racheros was the worst I’d ever had. It was like scrambled eggs mixed with a can of kinda spiced-​up Campbell’s tomato soup, with some retried beans on the side. That was my first meal there, and it took me months to go back and give them another chance or two, before I gave some feedback on Unilocal.
I think they make some decent chicken quesadillas, a little greasy, but still almost more than a person can eat, and have a fair amount of vegetables. If you’re like me, and equate too much cheese to bringing you back to when you were a kid, and tried to chew-​up an entire Bazooka bubblegum pack, you’ll love the overload of cheese there!
I find the atmosphere there to be overall pretty drab, depressing and dark, although it’s certainly spacious with the super high ceilings. Waitstaff has always seemed like they were either annoyed working there, or just didn’t like Gringos. Usually smug, rarely even a half smile. I enjoy having an exchange with folks who work at restaurants — but I’ve learned at Pancho Villa, you need to put in your order, and hope to at least get your drink topped off without having to flag the staff.
Except, of course, the owner/​manager, who is pleasant, jovial, and always says «see you tomorrow!» If only the staff acted like that…
I just found out there’s a Pancho Villas’ in Granite, I’ll have to check them out soon. I kinda eat on short notice — that being said, and knowing there’s 3 great competitors within 5 minutes distance, going to Granite Falls may take awhile!

I’m working close to this restaurant and frequent it atleast once a week, the staff is nice and the menu is pretty similar to most Mexican restaurants. There’s nothing that really stands out about this one but I enjoy the quick pace of the wait staff. As you sit down chips are coming in behind you and I usually order the special and I’m in and out quickly! I actually had a two chicken taco lunch special for $ 3! I felt like I was ripping them off so I dropped my first 100%+ tip. If your in the area try them out!

The food was good but the service could have been better. The menu clearly says that if there is not an item on the menu– to just ask. Well my wife wanted a wet burrito with the sauce and cheese– then came out a dry burrito with lettuce and some white sauce. This was clearly not what she ordered. The waiter clearly could not speak English and did not understand the request of the order. It took three people to explain the order and get it clarified. The waiter takes the burrito back and simply wipes everything off and pours sauce on the burrito clearly not doing it over and the right way. The burrito was back on the table in like 90 seconds. This was so uncool. The only good thing was the prices are very reasonable with the food– BUT the service sucked big time.
Be careful with what you order!!!

Everytime my wife and I come to Lenoir, which is a few times a year, we end up here at least once. They have a friendly staff and decent food. It’s a nice spot to meet up with some friends and have a few margaritas. I recommend.

If you’re looking for authentic Mexican food, don’t eat here. If you’re looking for Tex-​Mex, this is the best place in town, it’s priced well and is a great place to meet with friends.

Authentic. They know how to spice it up if that’s your bag, baby. It’s a Mexican restaurant. What can you say? Five stars doesn’t exist. They’re all tacky even when they try to be more upscale. So why try? It’s like trying to be a liberal Republican. Wtf?

Up till now I’ve always eatin’ at Mi Carreta but Pancho Villa is much better. At Mi Carreta you are forever waiting for refills and someone to take your order. Plus you’re packed in like sardines. Pancho Villa my glass never even got a chance to get empty. Not one but all the waiters filled my glass. The portions were generous also. I got the nacho special but after seeing and smelling the fajitas, I wish I had got those. I didn’t think anything was swimming in cheese either like the other poster stated. I think it was just right. Also the nacho chips were fresh and not greasy so I think they’re baked. Big bonus, I’m from Atlanta and there alot of chips are a tad greasy where they’re fried.

As someone pointed out below, this is a tex-​mex place, so expect your dishes to be smothered with cheese. I ordered the ACP (mixed meat, beef, chicken, and shrimp) Texan. I should have known better than to order anything that says «Texan», because the plate was bigger than my head and everything was covered by cheese.
The flavors were good and the meat were well-​cooked, but I had to «rescue» my meat out of the cheese pond that they were sinking into. Needless to say half the plate went to waste. But if you like cheese, you will love this dish.
I also had a frozen 12 oz peach margarita that was just so-​so. It didn’t taste like alot of alcohol but then again that made it refreshing.
Service was quick and efficient.

Pancho Villa is the best restaurant in the area. I am not from this area so finding a good restaurant was such a perk to living in this small town. Their food is always hot and made when you order, the service is great, and the food is always fantastic. I would recommend Pancho Villa’s wet burrito to anyone trying it for the first time.

Great Tex-​Mex food. The service is always quick as in most tex-​mex restaurants.
The serving size is huge. I mostly got taco salads, which are amazing. The cheese dip is also pretty good (not as good as in Charlotte) Its a great value for your money. They serve the traditional chips and salsa for free.
Parking can sometimes be a problem; they have additional parking in the back of the building, but its a little hike to get back there.