Laura Zastrow
The carne asada, chopped to the right size for tacos, legitimately holds its own against others in town.
There is nothing new under the sun, says the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes. Meet the new boss; same as the old boss, says The Who’s Pete Townshend. I’m not sure how I feel about the inherent limits placed on human creativity in those words, but sometimes, as restaurants come and go, you can feel like you’ve been there before — even when you haven’t.
That is the short story of El Rancho Mexican Grill, the newest tenant at 4527 Cottage Grove Road. It replaces Mr. Torta’s, which replaced Papa Bear’s BBQ, which replaced Bull’s BBQ. You get the idea. The east side El Rancho is itself a second coming of sorts, with the original location still on South Park Street. There must be some sort of thirst for Mexican food on the Cottage Grove Road corridor, because I can’t think of a compelling reason why there should be two El Ranchos otherwise.
El Rancho is very similar to the former Mr. Torta’s, which didn’t last particularly long. Like Mr. Torta’s, El Rancho serves its meats in a variety of formats: tacos, quesadillas, nachos, tortas and the like, plus sampler platters that come with loose tortillas for the build-your-own experience.
Most of the meats are bland and, due to being held in a hotel pan, sitting in too much juice. The carne asada-style steak was far and away the best, legitimately holding its own against other asadas around town. It’s chopped to the right size for taco-style delivery, and also complements a quesadilla with fajita vegetables. It may be wetter than I’d prefer, but it’s not sogged out completely and there’s no gristle to contend with.
Pork suffers the most, in both carnitas and al pastor forms. The al pastor is described as “spicy pork” on the El Rancho menu, an unfamiliar but not-incorrect characterization as there’s a good bit of heat to this meat. There’s also a lot of gooey sauce, and so much onion the meat almost feels outnumbered. The carnitas has no textural element whatsoever, and such minimal seasoning that if you told me I was eating lunch counter hot turkey, I wouldn’t question you too hard.
An exception to the blandness may be the chorizo. It was fine on one visit but I found it aggressively oversalted and overseasoned on another.
Maybe there’s a way to order a torta that doesn’t immediately fall apart under the watery weight of beans, sour cream, and salsa. Maybe a torta isn’t the best way to order the al pastor pork for maximum satisfaction.
The second issue that bedevils El Rancho is the fundamental flaw of “the Chipotle of” restaurants: they feel less like a product of their food, and more a product of their style, mechanical and kind of bloodless. The people who run El Rancho are very nice, welcoming and pleasantly chatty. But there’s a risk when you not only let, but ask, your customers to assemble it — it can lack a certain soul when some dope like me puts it all together.
That said, it’s also possible that you shouldn’t overthink or linger over this kind of food too much. It’s inexpensive, it’s put together fast, and most of the business I’ve witnessed is carryout. There are a few small booths in the joint for dining in, but while it’s a clean and comfortable space, dining in is just not the El Rancho model.
El Rancho can still scratch an itch for Mexican. A couple asada tacos on the way home from work would be a great way to celebrate kicking the loafers off. It is right and good to patronize a business run by friendly locals you can meet and leisurely chat with, instead of a big faceless corporate machine. But I worry that El Rancho is making the same mistake as its predecessor yet expecting different results.
El Rancho Mexican Grill
4527 Cottage Grove Road
608-467-6692;
facebook.com/elranchomadison;
1 am-8 pm Mon.-Sat. $3-$20