Pancho’s Mexican Buffet

Not quite the insult to Mexican food that taco bell is… but also not as good as taco bell once you accept that you aren’t eating Mexican food.

omg where to start. no hotsauce, nasty greasy dry over cooked cafateria style food. brown lettuce, improperly labeled soups, i thought i was getting chicken tortilla soup i got meuendo (intestine soup) barf. the chile releno was like a sponge filled with grease. all the chimichongas were over cooked and dry, all the flautas and taquatos were way over cooked. the enchalads were gross it was nothing but corn tortillas covered in cheese whiz no fillings inside. i wrote a letter to panchos telling them about my poor experience there and the manager wrote me back telling me it was my fault about the soup cuz on weekends they do meuendo and i should have known this as a first time customer. also she told me theres no hot sauce because they dont put them on the table anymore cuz customers steal them. i wouldnt send my worst enemy to this resturant. also the tamales claimed to be red or green sauce yet there was neither inside either one of them. so gross so nasty also the place was dingy and dirty. like a dive mexican resturant with bad food.

What can I say about Panchos… its a buffet with lots of mediocre Mexican food. Upon first entering the strange multiple sectioned building with lots of loud colors on the walls, you must enter a cafeteria style line and pick what you would like. Here, you have all kinds of stuff to choose from: greasy chili rellenos (aka cheese sponges), several types of enchiladas, tamales, small chimichangas, flautas and taquitos, rice, beans, tacos, and tostadas. The cost is pretty reasonable for all the food you can get and if you like non authentic greasy Mexican food made with lots of trans fat, this might be an ok deal for you. Once seated, you can obtain more items from the buffet simply by raising a little flag at your table. I will admit, this might just be the best idea ever! You raise this flag and the waiters are standing at your table literally seconds later. If only all restaurants would get on board with this! All in all, Panchos is an alright spot for a large unhealthy meal. The service is always good thanks to the flag system and it actually seems like a fairly clean restaurant. Also, who can resist fresh hot sopapillas after your meal? I know I can’t, which is why I reluctantly agree to go to Panchos when the hubby asks (he loves those cheese sponges).

The Red stew and the Sopapillas are the Best my wife and myself have ever had.
Thanks for a great meal.

There’s no use in pretending Pancho’s is a haven for good Mexican food, you know it isn’t, it’s a haven for the fatties and college kids. I made many a stop at Pancho’s during my college years, and on my most recent nostalgia filled trip I realized it just isn’t the same anymore. Same less than good food, same little flags you raise, same sopaipillas you want to eat until you vomit, but now I have a steady paycheck and access to whatever food I’d like, so it’s not all that exciting anymore. I didn’t even eat until I thought I’d die… sad day. But look, Pancho’s fills the niche it’s shooting for perfectly, you’re getting all you can eat Mexican food for a few dollars, you can’t expect to be served food comparable to The Mission, it’s going to be cheap and underwhelming, but TONS of cheap and underwhelming. I’ll be stopping by here every rare once in a while, just for old times sake, but if you’re in college and lacking money, or a fatty trying to support your habit, Pancho’s is A-​OK.

I have been going to Panchos for about 7 years and it is about as good as I can expect from a Mexican buffet. I like their chicken enchiladas with the green sauce, the green corn tamales, and the beef taquitos. There are plenty of not so great food there too… but, again, it’s a buffet, so if you get something you don’t like, get something else. The place is cheap and the food is fine. Be sure to raise the flag and get some sopapillas… the best part of the meal, with a little honey inside. The place is cheap and, although not authentic, it’s decent food. I will continue going here and people should not be scared to give this place a try because they have never heard of a Mexican buffet.

I am 36 years old and have been eating at Panchos for at least 32 of those years, It is really really good… It may not be authentic Mexican Food but it is still very good for what it is and an excellent value. I always look forward to going there, and I dont think anyone should be so harsh on it, It definately beats Taco Bell

Pancho’s is great if you like eating dog shit. This was honestly some of the worst food I have ever eaten, or attempted to eat. All, I MEAN ALL, of the food is frozen and tasteless. The enchiladas were smothered in a sour tasting sauce that undoubtably came from a can. The taquitos were inedible, you would find better ones at the gas station. The tamales were unexplainably bad. To add to the wonderful dining experience at Pancho’s, the clientele is fat, morbidly obese, diabetics who shovel mountains of this god awful food from their plate to their mouths. You couldn’t pay me to eat here again!

There’s a bit of nostalgia for some people when they talk about Pancho’s Mexican Buffet. And, I suppose this is the best Mexican buffet that I’ve been to.
The three-​star rating is not a knock to the quality of the food, service, or cleanliness of the restaurant. All of that is, fine; it’s a buffet after all. It’s a little different in that they serve you cafeteria style and if you «raise the flag» on the table the servers will come to refill your drinks, reload your entrees, and bring sopapillas (with honey!). If you’re not super familiar with their offerings, make sure you take a good look on your first time through, so you know what to ask for.
It’s pretty busy and there’s a lot of turnover so the food was all very fresh, but nothing was really excellent. The best thing is the sopapillas; fresh squares of fried dough, drizzled with honey. They’re really good.
The food is not really authentic mexican, but it’s a few steps closer than fast-​food Taco Bell /​Del Taco.
Bottom line, if you had a big group with kids and want to have a sit-​down dinner with okay all-​you-​can-​eat food that isn’t too expensive, Pancho’s is pretty good.

Sub par. Go to Taco Bell instead. This place is terrible! Apparently it holds some memories for my wife («It used to be good»), but it was not good. All the food is bland and basically just filler. Stay away.

In my family, Pancho’s is a definition of a specific style of Mexican food. Nope, it’s not good, +but it’s acceptable, cheap and overflowing food.
There are times that My Bride will specifically say she wants Pancho’s Mexican. Other times we want Real Mexican, other times Tex-​Mex, and rarely Del-​taco/​Taco bell Mexican.
Pancho’s is steps above Taco Bell, a distant relative to (bad)Tex-Mex and they have almost nothing to do with real Mexican.
As the other reviewers stated, all you can eat, fun flag to raise for refills (kids love it) sopapeas are quite wonderful and fresh, like a beignet sort of. The specific food choices dont matter in a place like this much like a cafeteria, food is food. But if it’s nearby, and you have a few kids to pay for, this is a fine way to please everyone who isn’t expecting great food. $ 6 a person to eat out? And you dont have to eat in a car? Expectations should be set at that level, and you will be happy.
I admit that I enjoy it, but it’s like admitting you like the McRib. Is that a real rib? Don ask, and bask in the wretchedness of awesome.
It’s a 5 star place, because it invented it’s own definition of food, I just cant click on more stars and consider myself a trustworthy eating human. It’s a 1 star joint, unless it’s your poison of choice, then it’s 4 stars of embarrassing guilty pleasure.
Enjoy or avoid, hope this helped in some way.

this is the place to go when you are low on change in your pockets and just looking to get full on mediocre food. buffet style food, nothing super spectacular. food is what you would expect, beans, rice, tacos, enchiladas, chimichangas, taquitos, tamales etc. salad bar was far from a salad bar, and decided to stay away from that area, did not look to appealing so dont think i missed out on anything there. they do have servers walking around to get you things you need once you are seated which is nice. the dessert was better than the actual food. So yes i got full here but dont think i will be craving this place anytime soon and begging to go back.

Great value– truly all you can eat and pretty good food. Great family environment and great service from the buffet line to our waitress. Too bad the area is not thriving because it wasn’t as crowded as you’d expect for a friday lunch.

We started with Pancho’s about 1970 when we lived in the Northeast part of Phoenix. We went to the one at Metrocenter (now closed). The one in Mesa is our «go to» Poncho’s now because our daughter and son-​in-​law live in Mesa.
We raised four kids with visits to Pancho’s. And this is its genius. It’s designed for families. Get it? The food is good, service fast, servers friendly and you can take a party of 12 without scaring them or you to death. I did so last January and we all had a ball. Went in July too, when we were there for a visit.
Our kids always fought over who’s gonna raise the flag. They absolutely adored the sopapillas. If you don’t get honey on your elbow, you’re not doin’ it right.
If we want real Mexican food, we go to a mom and pop somewhere near. If we want the Pancho’s experience and price tag, we go to Pancho’s!

To say Panchos sucks is a huge understatement.
It is gag reflex bad buffet food. I went back to the buffet a couple times just hoping there was something edible. I must have thrown three full plates away.
Stay away! Go anywhere else. I had to go out of my way to tell people not to even bother with this place!

It’s ok if your hungry but taco bell tastes better. It’s a buffet, so don’t expect the best. Beans are dry and taste like they came from a can. Rice is bland. Enchiladas are gross. Sadly the best thing they offer is the sopapillas at the end. Drizzle with honey and your in heaven. For the price and amount of food you can get, it’s ok. But if you want flavorful authentic Mexican food, keep on driving.
Also, a bit of warning. Both me and my roommate at the time, both ended up with upset stomachs after eating here. Did we eat too much? Its possible. Was it the food? probable.
Note: Please don’t mistake this BUFFET place for the authentic, sit-​down restaurant on Central Ave in south Phoenix. Ponchos in South Phoenix has excellent, authentic and really tasty ‘home-​cooked’ style food.
This buffet place? Well, again, think of Taco Bell, cafeteria style.
While its not HORRIBLE, its not very good. Save your money.

The Northeast is bereft of good Mexican food, much to the dismay of Little Brother and I, who reside in Boston and New York respectively and have nicknamed each other «Salsa.» So when Little Brother and I took a trip to Arizona in February, we vowed to eat Mexican food at least once a day, every day of our five day stay in the Sunshine State.
One day we were in the car, looking for a place to eat when we saw a sign for Pancho’s Mexican Buffet. Little Brother and I were smitten instantly and demanded to stop there ASAP. Apparently we were the only ones in our family who had such amorous feelings for Pancho’s. We begrudgingly ate somewhere else but the next day Little Brother and I borrowed the rental car from our mom and headed to Pancho’s for lunch, accompanied by our cousin who shared our good taste.
When we got inside I paid less than $ 25 for three people to eat at the all you can eat buffet. And that includes drinks. I felt smug. Only at Pancho’s could this public interest lawyer treat two people to a sitdown meal without having to mentally recalculate how much her net worth had gone down as a result of the expenditure.
Our eyes were bugging out at all the choices. Four different kinds of enchiladas, refried beans, rice, burritos, chips and salsa, fajitas, ice cream, sopapillas, among many other food items.
Pancho’s combines the gluttony and endless choices of the all you can buffet with the hospitality of a sit down restaurant. You fill up your plate at the buffet and sit down to eat. If you need seconds (or in my case, thirds) you raise a miniature Mexican flag at your table, signalling to the server that you need something. You then tell the server what you want from the buffet and they’ll bring it back for you. I’m suspicious of this setup; Pancho’s website makes it sounds like the server is there to enhance patrons’ experience but I feel like this is a tactic to curtail the amount of food that people eat. In the time it took the server to bring me a second plate of enchiladas, I could have already been working on a third of taquitos, had I been able to make a return trip to the buffet on my own. The same thing goes for the fact that you don’t help yourself to the food at the buffet but are served by Pancho’s employees who stand behind the counter. But I digress; don’t want to give the impression that poor Jeanne didn’t get enough to eat. We enjoyed our lunch at Pancho’s so much that the next night, we casually suggested Pancho’s once again for a family dinner, hoping the rest of our family had forgotten that Pancho’s had been vehemently vetoed a day earlie. Unfortunately our family members weren’t dumb enough for that.
When I got back to New York I immediately when to Pancho’s website, eager to see if there was a Pancho’s nearby. Too bad for me and Little Brother; Pancho’s restaurants are located only in Arizona, New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana. On days when I feel overwhelmed at work and disillusioned with the criminal justice system, I dream about a second career as the proud owner of a Pancho’s restaurant. If I can’t bring justice to my clients, maybe I can bring Pancho’s to the Northeast.

It’s not what Pancho’s use to be … back in the day, or from what I remembered, but it is what it is. Its faster (not fast food) Mexican. I love the set up, and the amount of food you get, but if you are looking for quality — you won’t find it here. Just average.

We stopped by this place on the recommendation of a friend of ours who works at Fiesta Mall. We just happened to stop by near his lunch hour and enjoyed a nice, quick lunch at Pancho’s with him.
I had never even heard of this place before but boy did I enjoy it! Upon first entering, you can pick up a tray and pay for your meal. It was very inexpensive, under $ 6 a person. You can then go down the line and the servers behind the buffet will dish out what you ask for. After you are seated there is a salad area as well as a delicious dessert area. Once you finish your food, you can raise the small flag at your table and ask the server for anything you like — definitely be sure to try out the sopapillas! They are huge, fluffy and absolutely delicious.
I tried each dessert, as is my habit, and liked all of them. The sopapillas and flan are my favorite. As for the main course, my favorite of the choices was the chicken soft taco.
I think this will be our regular lunch spot when we are near the Fiesta Mall area of Mesa.