Pancho's Villa Mexican Restaurant

A fantastic meal and SO affordable. Great service. Great food and big portions. Completely worth the 6 minute detour off the interstate! Take the time to stop! You won't regret it.

My family and I love eating at Pancho Villa's, I just wish that the prices were more affordable. I am a teacher and when I take my family of four to Pancho's my bill is anywhere from $65 to $70 dollars. I can take my family to Red Lobster or Olive Garden for my much better price. Last week, we ate at Cracker Barrel and our bill was $40. I wish the prices were less. I have had to limit my visits to the restaurant, due to the amount of money is costs to eat there. My husband and I are teachers and due to some many changes in budget and lack of raises for 4 years, we are on a minimal eating out budget. Thank goodness there are other restaurants that don't charge so much as Pancho's. Hope the prices will go down soon so my family can go back to enjoying this restaurant more often!

I gave it a 2 stars for the following reasons:



First, the restaurant is super small and the dining area is about the size of our living room, but with about 15 tables inside. It felt very crowded and lacked privacy.



We asked for guacamole and margaritas. The guacamole tasted like the kind you would get in the frozen section at the supermarket, but mixed with a lot of water. Which is fine... (if you like that sort of thing). Maybe folks don't typically order guacamole there, because the waitress came to the table, sighed real loud and practically threw it down so it slid across the table. The margaritas were perhaps the worst I'd ever had. If you love margaritas you will be disappointed. However, if you regularly drink the Collins sweet and sour neon-green mix straight from the bottle - you will love them.



I ordered steak Acapulco and my husband ordered carnitas. The carnitas were authentic, served with cilantro and onion, though a little on the bland side. I was impressed the restaurant was able to pull off some authentic carnitas after being served reconstituted guacamole and store bought margarita mix! The quality of the meat in the steak acapulco was not bad. It was tender enough, but the sauce was very heavily tomato-based (almost to the point of tasting like tomato sauce out of a can). I expected a much more flavorful and spicy sauce. Fortunately the rice and beans were good.



I think a restaurant of that small size needs to have excellent service and excellent food to overcome the size limitation. The restaurant could go a long way by making a thick and creamy guacamole and making a good margarita (please lose the collins sweet and sour mix - yuck!). Adding some more spice and flavors wouldn't hurt also.