El Rancho

Out of business! What kind of moron would open a Mexican food cart in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant?

I just stopped for lunch at El Rancho for the first time today. As with any Mexican food cart, the first thing I try is one carne asada and one chicken taco ($ 1.50/taco). The chicken taco was flavorful and the meat was very tender, with a little hot sauce it wasn’t bad. The carne asada was cooked nicely but average overall, I like a little more acid in my asada. Overall, it was just average Mexican cart fair.
I see good reviews for the breakfast burrito, perhaps that’s what I should have ordered? :)

Places like this were why the word «ehn» was invented. It was fine. The guys on the other side of the counter were friendly. It wasn’t expensive. It wasn’t super cheap.
The food wasn’t that great. Or that bad. It was fine.
But, if I’m in NoPo looking for a great burrito, I’d keep going towards St. Johns (Santa Cruz). There are too many other fantastic food carts at the North Station Food Cart Pod, that there’s no real reason to eat at this one again.

My wife and I have been there twice now both times for breakfast burritos. I have nothing to complain about. The burritos are Very large and you get to pick from chorizo, egg, potato, mushroom, spinach, and I think there might have been one other that I’m not remembering. Anyways you can pick as many as you want or just a single ingredient and it’s always $ 4. Obviously there’s always cheese inside and you get a side of salsa with it too. Very tastey and very convenient we’ll keep going back and will try non breakfast food eventually too.

This cart is AWFUL. The fish burrito was the worst I’ve ever had. The fish seemed to come from a frozen fish stick box, totally flavorless. The burrito was full of a flavorless rice with carrots and peas. Yuk. The «salsa» was sub-​Tabasco, and cheddar cheese on a fish burrito? Please. If you want real fish tacos and burritos, hit up the cart at SE 34^th and Division. That cart cannot be beat. The people working here are nice, but this is not authentic Mexican food, not by a long shot.

Um… worst fish burrito I’ve ever had. It was basically fried fish sticks with cheddar cheese (??) and that flavorless rice with peas. Any place that puts rice in a burrito (except KOI Fusion) is suspect anyway. The salsas were watered down and tasted like nothing. The girl working there was very nice, but I’m sorry, this cart SUCKS. After eating the fish at the cart on 34^th and Division, nothing comes close. Go there.

great portions and nice people. the breakfast menu has a vast array of options — though wish they would bring the tofu back (hint. hint).
the cart is a great addition to the ‘Refuel Station’ and we’re glad to have them in the neighborhood. my kids love the quesadillas.
p. s. don’t miss their green salsa. mmm

I love the amount of Mexican food that Portland possesses. I spent over 5 years away, somewhere that had next to no mexican food, which made me very sad. If it was called «Mexican» it was usually that over-​processed, americanized mexican style food. And since I am Mexican I really like Mexican food.
Just visited the El Rancho cart recently. I can remember eating tacos out of carts on 82^nd ave a long, long time ago. This one serves up quite a large menu of food. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to order, but I settled on a Fish Burrito. They don’t have prices listed on their menu which is a bit annoying since it’s cash only and I don’t always have cash on me, so I like to know what I’m getting into before I order.
I had a feeling that it would probably be a big ass burrito and I would only eat half of it and shove the other half in my purse for dinner or lunch the next day. It came out, yes it weighted 2 pounds, BUT it wasn’t filled with rice, in fact there was no rice. For some reason I hate rice in my burritos, I find it to be a boring filler. It was really good and the fish was nice and crisp. I was pretty hungry and ventured slightly past the halfway point and decided I had gone too far to make saving less than half of a burrito worth my time. So I chowed the whole thing.
I did however have to grab a coffee after lunch because I knew eating a whole burrito was going to put me to sleep and pulling a George Costanza style nap under my desk was going to be all too tempting. Crisis avoided. I will be back.