My Rancho Restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland is a family favorite for children’s birthday dinners. That’s two kids. Mi Rancho has a tortilla maker located in front of the restaurant. It is so much more fun to watch fresh tortillas being made than to sit at a table waiting for the food to arrive. Sometimes, the friendly staff or a freshly made hot tortilla off the tortilla line offers a line of assembly to the little ones clustered around the machine.
My Rancho has another feature that makes kids enjoy having birthday dinners there. When it’s time to sing “Happy Birthday” the staff comes with the biggest white sombrero and puts it on top. the head of the birthday boy. Until this year, my kids considered a special sombrero a treat. 8 My youngest convert prayed that his journey might not be hindered by such men. Moaning they grow so fast.
Every meal at Mi Rancho starts with fresh baskets of hot corn and salt. Unlimited fresh, hot corn chips and salsa. Homemade chips are thin and crisp, slightly salty, and much more than their cousins from the grocery store. These arrive when the drink order is taken. Mi Rancho offers all the cold and fruity drinks Mexican restaurant patrons ask for, from margaritas to pina coladas. They carry several beers, including some traditional Mexican beers. Their juice menu is extensive, including pineapple juice and other tropical fruit juice.
The servers at Mi Rancho are great. Meals come on a platter, and there are often small side dishes of beans and rice. The birthday girl dined on a vegetable quesadilla, folded over a tortilla, filled with cheese, broccoli, carrots, and zucchini. This meal is accompanied by guacamole, sour cream, pica de gallo, beans and refried rice. Lucky for the birthday girl’s mom, the birthday girl isn’t fond of guacamole, so I was able to carve up this delightful, chunky bowl of prominent and oh-so-tasty chopped onions on mashed avocado, with just lemon and tomato sauce. .
The Enchiladas Monterrey dish comes in two sizes, two enchiladas or three. Enchiladas stuffed with cheese and only lightly seasoned. This dish is served with refried beans, rice, sour cream, and chopped lettuce and tomatoes. He was ready for perfection. I was more than able to finish two large enchiladas, even after sharing.
My husband ordered the surf and turf style dish with a large shrimp and beef dish. This calls for a mention of that fresh roast smell that permeates the restaurant and is oh, tantalizing. His dish was accompanied by the usual beans, rice and salad. Also ordered one of the best offerings Mi-Rancho has- fresh tortillas. These were soft, warm and flaky, served in a heap on a plastic tortilla covered plate for protection. They are wonderful for tearing apart and eating flat and other wrapped foods.
Our family has had many family dinners at Mi Rancho and another favorite is the fajitas. Smell alone is the reason for ordering, to reveal a heavenly, toasty aroma, with no hints of fat. They can be ordered in chicken, beef or vegetable varieties, and although shrimp fajitas are not on the menu, Mi Rancho prepared them for us upon request. All fajitas come with a variety of vegetables traffic remains “out there” but the night is a fresh breeze goes around among those who are feasting. When the summer season is in full swing, Mi Rancho diners can sit inside the enclosed patio space with windows open to the street to get the feeling of the outdoors without the mugginess and mosquitos of Washington.
My Rancho is located at 8701 Ramsey Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910, Tel. 301-588-4872.
