Gran Rodeo

Food is average +
Service sucks!!!
10 min wait for silverware after food is served
No chance to order 2^nd round of drinks
Had to flag someone down just to ask for the check.
You’d never know this was the same place that moved from the old location. Loved them there, probably won’t be back here.

I must say, first time eating here at this establishment– the food was EXCELLENT! The staff was friendly, smiles everywhere, staff was on cue. Well come back again!

I love this place and would eat there every night if my wife allowed :)great service cold beer great mexican food! I did not have to wait for drinks as usual always had a cold pitcher of beer in front of me and the kids drinks were always filled please try them!

This restaurant is very clean and I love their food. They have great tacos, chips, enchiladas, fajitas, Mexican rice, refried beans. You name it, they’re all delicious. Good service too. I ordered no onions for my chicken fajita burrito but there were onions in it, and my waiter saw me picking out the onions and asked me if I would like a new burrito and I said yes. It took less than 5 minutes for me to get a new one. This is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Virginia Beach.

Decent place to have lunch. Been here a few times. Favorite dish so far is the arroz con pollo. It is delicious.

First time and not disappointed. Food was good and service was too. A lot smaller than I thought it would be but once inside you can be comfy. They had drink specials and a small bar area. Can see that it might get over run and the parking can get real busy based in all the shops there but worth a stop in. Will be back to try more off the menu.

Enjoying dinner, family and friends. The food was good and the environment was hopping! In spite of the weather we are partying!

There’s nothing really spectacular or terrible about this place. I didn’t hate the food, but it wasn’t anything to really rave about either. I’ve definitely had better. I wouldn’t mind going back either.
The service was great, though. Our server was nice and very attentive. She was very personable towards us. And all of the people who came to our table with food and drinks were very nice.
This place definitely isn’t my favorite place, but I’m sure I’ll be back again. It’s very conveniently located. The restaurant is very clean. I liked my experience enough to give it another chance one day.

2.75 stars.
The stars are mainly for the aesthetics of the place. It’s beautiful. I love all the details! (See my picture; I wish I took more.)
Our server was really nice and checked on us frequently.
The food was decent, my mom enjoyed it, but in my opinion, my «Alambre» (grilled thinly sliced beef, bacon, mushrooms, peppers, (I asked for no onions,) was over seasoned! I tried my mom’s Chori Pollo (Chicken and Mexican sausage), and thought that too, had a little too much seasoning. The prices are a bit steeper than the norm and I’m sure it’s because this place is brand new, and in the popular and growing area — Landstown Centre, across from Landstown Commons.
This place is not awful, it’s just not my favorite.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and this place has made a fantastic first impression. My husband, daughter, and I stopped here for lunch. My daughter got something off the kids’ menu and my husband and I split fajita nachos and my daughter got her typical kids meal of a cheese quesadilla with rice and beans as sides. The food was fresh, hot, and ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! It was definitely one of the better Mexican restaurants I have been to in a while. The place is spotlessly clean (even the bathroom!), it has ambiance that you would usually see in a franchise (to say good but perhaps suited towards getting people in and out rather than relaxing), and the service was great.
I have been a couple of times since my first visit, when I started the draft for my review, and each experience was equally as positive as the first. I highly recommend a stop if you are on this side of town and hungry for a good lunch.

God. I am just going to stop trying to eat Mexican food on the East coast. Its just, not working. I know, I know. I grew up in Arizona, I have a specific style of «Mexican» I am craving and no one around here can do it. Gran, I’m proud that you tried but sadly, I left unimpressed.
It took forever to get a drink. It took forever to order. It took forever to get our food and it took forever to get our bill. Aint no body got time fo’ that.
The food, which included enchiladas, chicken tacos, fajitas, queso, tamales, chips and of course rice and beans. were mediocre at best. It was just, sad.
Anyway, i’m done talking about this place. Next.

Décor, cleanliness, service, and location are all 5 stars. I have no complaints and actually praise our waiter, Jesse’s attentiveness.
Unfortunately, the food was a, ho-​hum, dead middle, average. There was nothing special about the salsa, white sauce or chips… salsa was boring. We ordered 3 items taquitos, chili Relleno al la carte, and #16 lunch steak burrito.
The taquitos… well, if you call an unfried corn tortilla smothered in cheese sauce a taquito… then average. Unfortunately, a taquito should be rolled and fried until crisp. The chicken filling was very bland with big hunks of onion. The beef one had better flavor and the better of the two. The taquito was edible but ultimately a fail.
The chili relleno, my favorite of all mexican dishes was very, very average and could have come from plaza azteca or mi Casita. The sauce tasted canned.
The burrito was the only stand-​out. The steak was tender flavorful and the burrito was a good size and had good all-​around flavor. I would get that again.
All-​in-​all, this place is another mediocre mexican resturant. Olé’

Can’t go wrong with Mexican food. This place is near by my house and it’s pretty good, chips were nice and hot and the dipping sauces were perfect. Burritos are good and same thing goes with everything else!

Tried it out cause it’s close to home. I won’t waste much time on this review. Would have been one star had by boyfriends dish not been horrible. It’s average. Nothing special. No reason to back except one, the Chiles Rellanos. I don’t eat them my boyfriend does and he said they are the best he has had in awhile. The red sauce was delicious on them. I should have read reviews before we came here. But I forgot. As other people already said the chops and salsa are standard as all other Mexican joints, but this salsa is terrible. Tasted like crushed tomatoes. No flavor. Really watery. The chips had zero salt on them and barely fit into the deep dish they barely fill for you. Carnies asada had no flavor and was over cooked. The only think good about my burrito was the cheese sauce. Otherwise all food was bland.

Stick a pin in a map of Virginia Beach and within 5 miles there will be 1 – 3 Mexican restaurants. It’s a pretty tough environment to differentiate yourself in.
What you have with Gran Rodeo is just another clone of what you see at all the other places. All the usual suspects on the menu, with no specialty, no creativity. So, I’m forced to compare them with my traditional yard stick, their Chorri Pollo.
Nothing stands out here. The chicken was good, the chorri was like most places, satisfactory, but didn’t feel like it was made locally. The cheese sauce was a little weak and the rice and beans were «fine».
Ultimately, it’s another Mexican restaurant in the Va-​Beach-​Down-​To-​The-​White-​Sauce template.
Seating was clean, well organized, and the staff was as nice as was to be expected.

Food here is like any other mexican. Location is great and the interior isn’t bad, it’s clean and the colors are modest. The flavors are spot on. I really like the burritos, however I noticed the menu lacks authenticity for it is Americanized. I understand that’s the theme of the restaurant but for me personally it’s a big thumbs down. The service here could use work too. I walk in and look around and there’s no one at the entrance, I’m seated by the host/​server I don’t know which. My food is given to me by some other person. And my server is standing around and goofing off with the other workers. I understand it was slow the time I arrived, but it’s no reason to be ignored. I will give them another try for lunch and we’ll see how my next visit does from there…

Stopped in for lunch and was pleased. The chips were a little thicker than I’m used to and crunchier, but they were perfect at scooping up the meaty salsa. And the white salsa was also excellent.
Simple enough, I had one of the lunch combinations which included an enchilada, a chile relleno and a taco. Served quickly (is it really difficult to put these things together?) and on a very hot plate.
Not my first Rodeo (ha!), this was classic quick serve Mexican and it was good. I’d return.

I’m being generous by saying this is a 3.5 star review. It was pretty close to 4 but there were enough hiccups to keep me from raving about the place.
The décor and layout are quite pleasant. Since it is in a newly built strip mall, the restaurant is the first occupant of this space. Therefore, everything should have that sparkly look with a new car smell.
The chips and salsa are the same as you get at every Gringo-​oriented Mexican joint in the region. Bottled red salsa that is so bland your taste buds fall asleep. Thankfully they leave a bottle of green habanero sauce on the table. A couple of dollops and you have a salsa worth dipping a chip into. The ubiquitous Hampton Roads white sauce is there, too.
Just ask yourself, why don’t they serve this stuff at the grungier, real-​deal Mexican spots in the area (Jessy’s, El Rey, etc.)? This answer is because it has absolutely nothing to do with real Mexican food. It’s just what we, the Gringos, have come to expect at one of these places. But I digress…
My wife ordered the California burrito and loved it. The filling was well seasoned and you get a lot for the money you pay. It is also exactly what you would expect. No surprises whatsoever.
I tried the pork chili verde with rice and beans on the side. This was an outstanding version of the dish. So much so that I was well and truly surprised by the delicious flavors on the plate. The pork carnitas were as good as any I have had in the area, meaning they were likely cooked in their own manteca. The green chili was vibrant and sharp on the palate. I was shocked at how good it was and I will be coming back based solely on the quality of this dish.
However, there were other area that were not so impressive. The cocktail menu is yawn inducing. The margaritas, while well priced at $ 7.99 for one made with top shelf tequila, are also made with what tastes like those bottled, corn syrupy-​mixes. I know that making your own fresh mixes for margaritas is time consuming and more expensive but one of the ways you can make your restaurant stand out is to be the one that does make all your margaritas with fresh made ingredients. And you get to charge more. That is the beauty of it.
The non-​margarita cocktail list reads like something out of a Sex and the City episode. Very sweet sounding (not in a good way) and very 90’s. This is a restaurant in dire need of a professional bar program.
The service was pretty good during the whole visit until the very end. Our waiter promptly brought out our check when we were finished but then disappeared for almost 20 minutes before coming back to take my card for payment. If I had been in a hurry I would have become agitated but as it was, my wife and I were having a nice conversation so it wasn’t an overly big deal. They just need to be a bit more on the ball. Forgetting about your customers even for a couple of minutes can ruin the entire experience.

The funniest thing when walking up was that it read closed but had a flashing open sign. The restaurant is new so the interior is sparkling clean. I liked the design inside furniture, art, the aesthetics were great.
The servers were chatting about since it must have been pre lunch rush. The service was pretty fair never had a problem with the server and was able to get exactly as I needed and make simple menu item adjustments.
The chips were fair but the salsa sat so little in the tiny saucer, it was chunky which was great but with chip to salsa ratio it was messy. It just spilled all over with simply just trying to eat it.
The food was pretty decent altho there weren’t many options for lunch that caught my eye. They seemed more like dinner items. Just my thoughts. I didn’t have a problem with the meal just wasn’t something that struck me as wanting more.
Fair shot guys, but a decent place to get some good tea.

Now open in Virginia Beach… Gran Rodeo had their ‘Gran Opening’! {{Bada-​BOOM [Ching-​]}}… Get it? «gran» opening… {{{Crickets}}} …
OK, off the comedy attempt and on to the review:
Located in the expansion area of Landstown Commons. Fairly spacious restaurant with many high-​back booths, which I love because you get more privacy. It is brand new, so everything is pristine clean. There is a nice bar as well. Several TV’s throughout the place, so you can entertain yourself with that if your eating partner is boring.
Food and Service: We ordered a couple lunch combos (pictured), freshest ingredients used and everything tasted very good. We ordered off the Lunch Special section of the menu, so each of our entrees was only $ 6.99. Great pricing. Served on fiestaware types of dishes, so that made for good presentation. Our server was very kind and on-​point with refills on a consistent basis. Also, less than 10 minutes passed from the time we placed our order until the food came to the table, so they are very fast.
Our first visit was a very nice visit, and I recommend Gran Rodeo at Landstown Commons :-)