Bad review mostly for service. Watch out for the cashier. I placed my full order for 3 people and I guess he thought I wouldn't noticed the random $15 added extra charge for no reason. My bill was so high for 12 tacos that I knew something was wrong immediately. He even processed my payment and didn't say anything until I demanded a receipt. He knew exactly what he was doing, it's called robbery. I'll never come back, the worst part is that I am also Latino and he tried doing something crooked like that. Tacos were all dry, flavor was okay. Carnitas was the best of the 3 flavors I tried. Tacos get a 2/3 stars. Just keep an eye on your charges if you're going to eat there. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Tacos. Asada, pastor, carnitas - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

I have been going to this place for at least 15 years. It has been my go to breakfast burrito spot. I moved out of California a while ago but always eat here when I'm in town visiting. This morning my husband brought home burritos for us and I was truly shocked and horrified to find a cockroach leg in my mouth after taking a bite! I had heard the restaurant had gone down hill in the last year or so but to have an experience like this was truly heartbreaking. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

Stopped by her for a quick lunch since I was in the area. This was my first time here and the Yelp reviews were sufficient enough for me to try. This is practically a hole in the wall because it's on a corner side of the shopping complex. It is closest to the drive-in theatre next door. Parking can be at a premium during lunch since there is a Chinese fast food place, Subway, donut shop on the opposite corner and a dry cleaners. When I stepped in, I wasn't sure what to expect. This is an older place and the furniture is old. They did have a variety of taco meats for your selection. I ordered the shredded beef taco and one potato taco. The shredded beef taco was good. The potato taco was not bad, more bland and filled with lettuce and cheese. I've had other potato tacos that were much better (check out Don Baja in La Verne) but this was filling enough for me. The potato taco is fried. The shredded taco was served on a soft corn tortilla. I really liked that one the most. They also have a decent salsa bar. Lots of options for red and green salsas. They do serve the food on a single thin paper plate, so you need the tray so the liquid doesn't soak onto the table. They also have a variety of Mexican style aquas frescos. I ordered jamaica and it was not too sweet. Overall, I would come back again if I was craving tacos and in the area. Is this a place I would come back specifically for, probably not since there are other taco places in the area. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Older booth that is a bit worn. - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

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I must say this spur of thaz moment decisions to grab a meal from here waz a winner! They had a $6.99 combo, 1 taco n a bean n cheese burro n a drink. It waz delicious!! Triqxee approved read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

I gave this place a try 3x. It's just not good. Each time I ordered the same dish & it only got worse. 3 taco combo plate. The tacos were stale & cold. Tortilla was not crunchy but rough & tough to chew. Salsa had no flavor. Very watered down. Beans tasted burnt. To top it off the guy cooking was not wearing gloves & grabbing food with bare hands read more

Best food in Riverside. Just like the old Papis. Get the ranchero burrito and enjoy the fresh salsa!! Nice people too! Highly recommended!!!! read more

If nothing else, let the taqueria be known for its selection of offal. Ranchito: Tacos al Carbon, meets this criterion. I can't speak for the mole, nor any other item on the menu because all I've eaten in my two visits have been four tacos, repeated: the same order two for two visits. Having said that, I did inquire to the waitress about their machaca option. Recently having learned of the Sinaloense practice of drying and then pulverizing beef later to be rehydrated in something of a vegetable sugo, ultimately eaten with the thin crisp flour tortillas of Sinaloa, my interest piqued see this on their menu. At first, she assured me that the machaca burrito was, in fact, the genuine article. I detected a nonchalance in her answer that made me dubious. Typically, when something special and exotic is offered, staff will either discuss it with hushed reverence or fall into the throes of ecstasy at its mention. I rephrased my question and learned that they simply used shredded beef. Machaca, I'll find you someday, someway. Before we get the offal truth, let's wade a minute in the salsa bar. Sidle up to the salsa bar if you will. The provisions therein are a source of elation. The salsas verde and roja, while nothing out of the ordinary, are simple, fresh, and effective. You can sit and taste them and if you are able to concentrate, the cleanliness of the flavors will allow you to list off the ingredients with precision. The escabeche, despite being solidly flavored and judiciously pickled, is done a disservice from having boiled carrots with no snap to them. Within this array of hits from the salsa bar, one item stands out. It's something I once heard called burnt oil salsa. The actual name is salsa mancha. I used to work at a gastropub and one of my brigade mates made a salsa in the same manner as Japanese rayu; however chunkier and less oily. It's achieved by frying a variety of aromatics in very hot oil before throwing the whole works into the blitz. The challenge is to only partially burn the aromatics. For if that line is crossed, the salsa becomes acrid. This one was done to a turn. With the salsa bar raising the stakes, I eagerly awaited a plate of offal tacos. I ordered three: cabeza, tripas, and buche. Two beef, one pork. Evidently, someone misread my order, for in place of the cabeza, I received a taco al pastor. No biggie of course. Not only was the mistake rectified, but I got a shot at trying a bonus taco. All the organ meat was gloriously prepared. I hope I'm not being too hyperbolic when I say that the tender well-seasoned crispness was done with heightened reverence. Funny enough, they did not administer the same care for the pastor. When you see al pastor on the menu, but there ain't a trombo in sight, you need to avoid this item at all costs. There are too many taqueros on the street serving pastor (or adobado if the cook happens to be from Tijuana) in a state of perfection to waste a meal, or even a taco on something less than. . read more

The food isn't good as we spect .. The atencion to the client isn't great eater, I think they should put more attention on that , the tacos i try doesn't have any flavor as they should, I feel bad to putting this but , maybe this would help them to fix that.. read more

Was not impressed. I got a potato taco, no flavor. I also got a ground beef and asada taco, those were okay. I also ordered chips and guac, the guac was brown sand it was in a small cup for $5.00. I threw it away. The cashier was very nice. read more

Looking for a place to have a breakfast plate and decided on thus place, Ranchito Tacos al carbon. Place was pretty busy when walking in With the order line being long. Looks to be family owned. Employees are nice and respectful. I had a basic breakfast plate. 2 egg, potato, beans, tortilla and came with a small salad. Salad I didn't really care for, as for the rest of the plate I can't complain, everything was cooked to perfect. Noticed a sign that they do hard shell tacos for $1.15 each, Monday thru Friday only. So I plan on coming back to try those out. Will let you know how they are on the next review update. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Front counter to order your comida - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

This place is quite underrated and hidden. The hard shell tacos are on point and what they're supposed to be. The rice & horchata were both good as well. They have menudo and Abondigas as well! read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

The food was amazing and authentic! Haven't been there for years and everything was still soooo good!

Food was very delicious. They had customers coming in and out, BUT my glass bottle of coke was warm. I asked for a cup of ice and the ice was dirty. I ordered asada fries with chicken and in the middle of eating, I found part of a fish fin. The inside of the place looks dirty, old and broken down, but the food was very good. I'm confused. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Asada fries with a side of fish fin. - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

I went in tonight because I was close by, well now I'll have to get myself here on a regular basis because the pastor taco will haunt my dreams. It was a generous portion and absolutely delicious. The guys working were also so kind and made me feel very welcome. My husband and I also enjoyed the California burrito as well. read more

Food is very good. If you remember Papis Tacos Al Carbon from back in the day this is a bit similar. Black beans, rice, and green sauce remind me the most of it. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Nachos & a carne asada quesadilla. - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

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Excellent food. Great price and not super greasy. I'll be back when I am in the area. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Taco plate - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

First time here. You have to order first and they bring the food to your table. Large selection on the menu. My husband Ordered the lunch special 3 al pastor tacos, rice & beans with a drink. I tried the pork in Chile verde sauce plate; rice, beans, tortillas, sour cream & guac. The salsa bar was fresh. The food was delicious. The mean was nice and tender , not chewy at all. My husband said the meat he got wasn't al pastor but none the less was really good. The customer service was good and food was prepared quickly. Plus they service beer! So that was a pleasant surprise. The place looked kinda dingy and kinda sketchy but it might be due to poor lighting. read more

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I am here for the first time and this Taquito plate is yummy the salsa is excellent as well. I love the pico and green sauce. Nice family run place. Come see Them Rock on! G read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - 4 taquito plate - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

I come here to get breakfast burritos alot. They are filled with your choice of meat, potatoes and cheese. If you want to add anything to them you can but at an additional cost. The service is very friendly and the food is delicious. The only thing I think I would change is maybe making a Pico that is a little spicier than just tomatoes and onions. The atmosphere is welcoming. This place is a hole in the wall but well worth coming to check them out. read more

Alway delicious never disappointed They provided such friendly service! Highly recommend this small family owned business!

"BEWARE", I use to go to this place for breakfast burritos, I used a credit card here, the order was for $9.14 and they added a $5.00 tip on after I left, I pay tips in CASH. They Cheat the customer and can't be trusted read more

Just want to give everyone a warning. My fiance and his mom's bf got super sick from eating tacos here. They ate here on Saturday March 30th. He's still sick until today. Bad stomach pain, fever and nausea. They are chicken, carnitas and carne asada. Hoping nobody else gets sick. read more

Honestly, it was nasty. There was a plastic shallow tub behind the register filled with what looked like some kind of meat that the cashier was then placing in smaller containers. It made me question how often she was being mindful of washing/being hygienic between handling customers and the meat. My chicken salad legit had a fly crawl out of it- I wish I had taken a photo but I was so disgusted I tossed it in the trash. The furniture was ripping, and overall the place could benefit from a deeeeeep clean. read more

The food was terrible. No flavor to their carne asada, and very tough. They get 1 star for their service.

Recently I ordered a couple of items including tacos. The taco meat was very dry and hard. I know this business can do better because they've been in business for a very long time. Please do better. read more

Came here the other night craving some Mexican food. We came right before they were about to close. They have a large selection of different types of protein you can choose from. I went with an am pastor burrito wet. The burrito came out larger then I expected. The only problem was I asked for cheese inside the burrito which I found out wasn't very much when I was eating it. The flavor of the burrito was on point. Make sure you visit the salsa bar to pick a few things to spice up your taco/burrito. Will definitely come back here again to try other items they have to offer. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Al Pastor Burrito Wet Style - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

I'm thinking at this point the good reviews are friends or I came at a really bad time? The only thing that I enjoyed was the salsa from the bar. Fish taco was fish sticks Shrimp was smaller than I would even use for a shrimp cocktail! See picture Just all bad this time and my husband used to love this place read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - lol shrimp tacos are better at Del taco - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

A perfect "Hole in the Wall" restaurant! The food was fantastic! The Al Pastor taco lunch combo was just enough and the price was great! I will be making this a regular stop.​ read more

Food good and great service with good communication. I like the taco menu, but I'll be coming back in the future. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Pretty amaze about this place, don't expect a 5 star restaurants besides some juicy tacos. Had 4 different types of tacos on this plater. - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

Great little place on the wall! Very good customer service. Perfect for families & kids. We really enjoy there Carnitas. read more

Their vegetarian breakfast burrito is to die for!! They even do my burrito with egg whites only!

I ordered tacos and chile rellenos from this place because I needed to take my dog to the vet at Lincoln Plaza. The first thing that I noticed was that the place was pretty dirty. The door was actually sticky. Next, I noticed that there was no cashier. The guy that took my order and my money ended up cooking my food, no gloves, no washing his hands. Then the woman who was cooking when I came in took the next order and again, without gloves or washing her hands, started handling lettuce and touching all the food. What if the person who handed the cashier something had feces on their hands? That feces would transfer to the cashier, who then handles the food. That's when I remembered, my dog pooped after leaving the vet, and I picked it up (with a bag, obviously, but still, ewww.) Not 5 minutes later, I was handing my cash to my "chef" at this place. Nobody washed their hands. To top it off, when I was looking for the salsa, it wasn't in the salsa bar. I asked, and was pointed to a nearby table where the salsa was sitting, in the sunlight, away from the refrigerated area to keep it from becoming contaminated. They said they were cleaning the area but hadn't finished yet, so, I passed on the salsa. As I was becoming more and more alarmed at my predicament of having already paid for my food, I noticed them loading two frozen chile rellanos into the microwave. Surely, I thought, they would just defrost them and then at least grill them. Nope. Straight from the microwave into the styrofoam container. If I wanted something microwaved straight out of the freezer, I had some frozen burritos at home. In fact, I did have such a burrito last night and it blew the chile rellano totally away. I'll give them 2 rather than one star because the carnitas taco I got for someone else was apparently "not bad," even though all of the tacos came with no onions, no cilantro, just tortillas and meat. But for the numerous health code violations and food that pales in comparison to what I can make for myself on the cheap, I would have to advise everyone to avoid this place at all costs. I mean, sure, I was willing to eat the food anyway and sleep on my side in case I got food poisoning and choked on my own vomit, but that's because I'm really cheap and I wasn't about to throw away food I had paid for that was mainly edible. But one thing is for sure. I'll never be back to this place. It's just plain nasty. read more

The cashier was amazing! Very observant and even put the names that we were using during conversation while ordering on our boxes. Great food, good service, fast and friendly! read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

It was just ok. Not a place I would go to again. I got the potato taco (after reading those glowing reviews :-( )and I got the chilli relleno plate. The potato taco had ZERO flavor and was a greasy mess. The potato taco at Taco Bell is a 100x better! The second disappointment was the rellenos. It was just soggy. The flavor was ok. There was a nice spicy kick to it. The salsa bar was nothing to write home about. Disappointing too. It tasted bland - like it was store bought. Overall, not a horrible experience, but not a great one either. read more

Had a could Al Pastor Tacos and a Pork Tamale. The pastor meat was just average not good but not bad, a little flavorless. The pork tamale, it was still in its wrapper and In a bag. Seriously!!! Unwrap the fucking tamale. The tamale was pretty good. The salsa bar had horrible salsa, stay away from that. There's no reason to come back to this place. It was cheap, that's the only real plus. read more

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So much flavor in the potato tacos very good and crunchy and the man is very nice and helpful

I have been to this location a couple of times and always enjoyed the friendly service and great tacos. Highly recommend the grilled green onions as well. read more

Ranchito Tacos Al Carbon - Mexican Near Me - Riverside, California

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Small hole in the wall. Got chicken tacos, bunche tacos, and some carne asada fries. Everything was good and the food came out hot and fresh. The only thing that kept me from giving 5 star was the bathroom. That definitely needed to be attended to. read more

The place is great. I called in my order and it was ready when I arrived. The staff is very nice and the food is delicious.

Ordered through grub hub and they did not follow directions on my order. I had a comment in the notes to add meat. They did not read or even contact me about it so I was given the wrong order. I do not recommend. read more