Pancho Villa Mexican Restaurant

My visit on January 31, 2016 was far less than pleasant. When we arrived the parking lot was full and we thought good the place must still be great. I don’t know why the service and food quality has been reduced. My companion and I both ordered quesadillas fajitas texanas, beans and rice. The quesadillas were comprised mainly of vegetables, mostly green peppers, and all the vegetables were burnt. I had 3 small shrimp in mine, a few pieces of shoe leather type beef and what tasted like boiled chicken. The beans were as expected. The rice had vegetables that were between raw and al dente. The best part of our meal was the chips and salsa.
The service was extremely slow, we had to hunt down the «to go» boxes, which we got from the hostess, and the check. There was a guy in a suit standing by the kitchen door doing nothing managerial at all but was blocking traffic. The restaurant floor was filthy, loud and many tables weren’t cleared. In 2006 we frequented this location often but we won’t waste money here again and I feel foolish for recommending this place to anyone. Drive to Warrenton, there are 2 good Mexican restaurants there! All that for $ 50 for 2 adults. What a waste.

Well, happy to report that we bought the $ 15 Unilocal deal and it was honored as stated for $ 25, but only after 4 employees looked at me like I was crazy and told me that the manger would be in in about 10 minutes. My thought is, if you’re running an online deal, give your employees a quick head’s up???
Other than getting to use the coupon, the rest was downhill. When 2 tables that had been seated after us got their food, we called our waitress over and she said something about «sorry, the computer was messed up» (she never volunteered an explanation until we asked)… By that time, we were all stuffed on chips and salsa because we were hungry and everyone ate less than half of their meals.
With the other great Mexican restaurants around, we won’t be coming back to this one.

Great food and service; however, was alittle upset that i bought a Unilocal $ 15 for $ 25 deal and when i used it the manager only gave me $ 15 off. They said thats they way it worked. Why would i pay Unilocal $ 15 just to have the reaturant take the $ 15 off my bill? I bought it to get the $ 25 off the bill. I will not be buying a Unilocal deal from here again.

Terrible. If I could give minus two stars I would. I ordered chicken tacos. The came out so plain and dry, nothing on them, only chicken on a tortilla shell. My boyfriends burrito was nothing to be thrilled about either. All they did was stuff the tortilla wrap with my tacos side dishes and barely added beef. It was a $ 5 meal at most but we were ripped off $ 30. Would’ve got a better deal and probably a more tasty meal at Taco Bell. Never again

Went to eat at this restaurant let me tell u from the manager on the cell constantly and server looking all over for him for a damn discount to the food taking for ever to be made and been over cooked greasy and burned
The server was very friendly and she did her best but if you can be serve good food there’s nothing they can do. Also as I was eating I found a produce sticker inside of my food. That us unsanitary and disgusting.

The Chiles Rellenos were burnt and mushy.

Fun and food ! The drinks were huge and great! Prices were fair for happy hour. The table side guacamole was to die for. The waitstaff is always kind and gives the customers what they want! Will definitely be back! Great mexican food.

A fun and festive traditional Mexican restaurant. We love the tableside guacamole, you get to pick how they make it. Other favorites: vegetable fajitas, nachos, sides of refried beans, anything with their queso on it. Great for birthday celebrations. Friendly service. Very kid friendly.

We love this place!!! Every time ibexes ten here it is always fast great service. Very kid friendly. And also good for date night:) table side guacamole is amazing!!! Highly re commend the chicken chimichangas. You won’t leave hungry!!! Extremely pleased with everything about this place… YUM!

We were in town for the mardi gras festival today and I was craving Mexican food so we stopped in here. My expectations for Mexican are not too high, I enjoy everything from Chipotle to Rosa Mexicana. If it comes with salsa, guacamole and cheese, I’ll eat it. However, we were pretty disappointed with this place.
The first thing I noticed was that the prices seemed kind of steep for this kind of restaurant in this kind of area. I don’t have a problem paying extra for really delicious food, so I remained hopeful that it must have meant it would be really good.
Unfortunately, the food was average, the service was slow, and the prices did not reflect the quality of food. The salsa was watery with only a few chunks of onion. For $ 8.50 we ordered the queso dip with chorizo. The portion was smaller than we’ve ever received at any other restaurant and the cheese hardened before we finished it and we were left scraping hard chunks of cheese out of the bottom of the pan.
The entrees were forgettable, my carne asada tacos served with only steak and a few very small sides of pico, «spicy» salsa verde and guac in some disposable plastic to go ramekins. Service was very slow. No lunch menu. All together lunch for 2 cost us $ 44 pre-​tip. That seems a little steep for a sub-​par Mexican joint in culpeper. Wish we had gone to the Thai place across the street which has great reviews. Please don’t waste your money.

Poncho Villa in Culpeper deserves a little higher rating than you see here. I pretty much agree with the other reviewers. Good strong drinks, table side guacamole so yummy, entrees standard small town mexican fair. It would be nice to taste something like it came off the streets of Mexico, but then the Culpeper clientele would probably fall off. Maybe the biggest short coming is the salsa. How hard could it be to have 2 kinds of salsa for different tastes. We ask for a hot sauce and that helps a lot.

Ah, how time flies. At first it was difficult to believe that it had been 3 years since we’d visited Pancho Villa. And now we remember not only why, but why this would definitely be the last time. We had a couple of reasons for ending up here yesterday evening — one, that Culpeper for some foolish reason scheduled their «Downtown Open House & Tree Lighting» on a Sunday, when most non-​chain restaurants are closed; & second, we’d just heard (& frankly couldn’t believe) that Pancho Villa was opening a SECOND location right here in Culpeper in a couple of months. In fact, the additional location isn’t much more than a stone’s throw from the original. We foolishly thought that surely there must’ve been some drastic change to elicit the sort of business that would merit TWO Pancho Villa restaurants in our little town. Alas, no such luck, & the success of the place (as well as the palates of supporting patrons) will have to remain a mystery.
Arrived a little before 6 p.m. & were seated immediately in one of the same ancient decrepit booths as before. Our very gracious server «Jose» took our drink order for «Gold Margaritas» ($ 8.50 ea.), purportedly made with 100% Agave tequila & Grand Marnier orange liqueur. Well-​made, & with an appropriate kick, but garnished with lemon (???) wedges instead of lime. A while later, after a manager passed our empty table, Jose returned with a basket of chips & salsa. Chips were the thin restaurant type, but cold, & the salsa was depressingly the exact same watery, flavorless, bland concoction as before. No change there.
For entrees, I ordered the same item as last time — «Enchiladas Verdes» ($ 10.99) — which is supposed to consist of 3 chicken enchiladas with onions & green sauce. Since this is a favorite dish of mine, I was hoping it would be better, but this time it was even worse than 3 years ago. There was a little spicy kick, but it didn’t come so much from the sparse supposed Mexican «green sauce», but more from the liberal use of chopped pickled Jalapenos (???). As for the enchiladas themselves, one not only had to send out a search party for any chicken, but only one of the 3 enchiladas on the plate was actually warm; the other 2 were so tepid that the main ingredient of cheese was cold hard globs. The accompanying rice was improved from our last visit, but the same watery puddle of refried beans still filled the plate, & this time the beans had a decidedly unpleasant chlorine aftertaste. Hubby’s «Enchiladas Monterey» ($ 10.99), also chicken, & which looked even sparser than mine did, were even colder than mine were, & hubby said the chicken was bone dry as well. He managed to choke down only one. (What made this disaster more than a little ironic was Jose’s warning as he set down our plates to «be VERY careful — the plates are VERY hot». That may very well have been true, but I think the goal is to have the FOOD hot, isn’t it?)
Bill after tax but before tip (& we did tip Jose well — the awful food wasn’t his fault) came to $ 43.38. One of the saddest $ 43.38 + tip we’ve ever spent.
Bottom line: A huge ADIOS Pancho Villa. We will not be returning. Will let the mystery of why you continue to be so successful remain a mystery. We’ll also continue to be stymied by those who continue to be in love with this place. I realize that food is very much a personal preference, but honestly folks — please start trying out other restaurants, especially if you currently think Pancho’s is top notch.
(Oh, & we both enjoyed dessert at home a bit later in the evening. In the form of generous helpings of Pepto Bismol. Thanks again Pancho!)

My wife and I were just passing through Culpeper, and I had a hankering for Mexican so we stopped in. The staff were very friendly and professional, service was fast. We ordered off the menu. The food was high quality, with very nicely spiced carnitas. I’m a bit of a Mexican food snob, and was not disappointed by anything. Not the most authentic Mexican I’ve ever had, but definitely several steps above the normal tex-​mex order-​by-​number fare. Funny enough, we’ve never been through Culpeper before this trip, but plan to pass through again on our next trip north. One of the main reasons is to eat again at Pancho Villa. There’s just something about the combination of atmosphere (though definitely not posh) and food that makes it a place we want to go back to. Oh, and the Flan is as good as I’ve ever had.

My husband and I enjoy Pancho Villa. We eat there at least every other month, but usually once a month. My husband always gets the Carnitas and I typically get the Carne Asada. The portions are large (we always have to take some home with us) and we LOVE the table side margaritas. Keep up the good work and we’ll keep coming back!

My wife and I enjoy Pancho Villa. The service is always friendly and quick. The food is very good. typically we split the fajita’s which a regular order is enough for both of us.
the real only Con I can think of is, if you get the buffet at times some of the food seems cold. I am not sure if they have it set right for temperature.

Pancho’s is our go-​to Mexican restaurant. We live closer to Warrenton and make the drive to Pancho’s when we want *good* Mexican.
Yes, it’s true that the prices are a little high, but the portions are ample, enough even for two to share if you’re not famished. Some have complained that it’s not «authentic» but I can tell you it’s GOOD. Free fried ice cream dessert for anyone on their birthday.
Recommended menu items:
Mar y Tierra
Carne Asada Tacos
Paella
Carnitas
CHEESE DIP!!!
Can get crowded and noisy on Fri/​Sat nights.

I was referred by a friend to this restaurant due to the fact that my family loves Mexican. She told me that kids eat free on Tuesdays. So one Tuesday afternoon when we had friends in town we decided to try this place out. The very first thing I asked when we arrived was do kids eat free? The hostess said yes they do. I ordered Steak Fajitas and our friends ordered enchiladas. The food was terrible. The steak was burnt. Then we received our check. The kids meals were on the check so I asked the waitress for clarification. I said don’t kids eat free on Tuesdays? She then stated no not until after 5. I told her the hostess at the front never mentioned that minor detail when I arrived and asked her. She argued with me and gave me an attitude. Did not even offer to fix it. Needless to say we will never be returning and will point people in the other direction.

The prices here are much higher than you find in other «Mexican» restaurants in the surrounding areas. If the food were of correspondingly higher quality I wouldn’t complain at all. However the food is pretty much standard as far as these joints go. The margaritas are also more than double what I’m used to paying. I don’t have any serious complaints about the food in general, being what my expectations for a faux mexican joint are, but I don’t eat here often based on the prices.

not what i’d call authentic, but it got the job done.
Pros:
–massive drinks
–Negra Modelo Drafts
–pretty cheap
–allows open carry
Cons:
–cramped
–hot

It’s not the best Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to, but not the worst either. The queso is good & the margaritas are huge. The menu selection is good, but I haven’t had anything there that I’d order again. I guess I’m still looking for the right entrée. :) The service is great & they do take out as well.