San Diego Mexican Food Reviews

9683 Campo Rd
Spring Valley, CA 91977 (map)
(619) 589-1792
Official website

Bottomline - Authentic Mexican restaurant cooking. Great menu and service. Something for everyone with some truly delicious food.

A little story - In the Movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico there is a character who has an obsession with a certain dish. For some reason he feels compelled to murder any cook who makes the dish too well. In the movie the dish is called puerco pibil, although it might more commonly be called cochinita pibil. How does this relate to Ranas restaurant? Because Ranas is where we had the cochinita pibil that is "to die for".

Neither my wife or I had an urge to kill the cook, but it was indeed delicious. In fact everything was very good - Food, service, prices, decor, menu. All first rate.

But..... there is a problem. When I started this site I made an informal rule that I was only going to review places actually in San Diego. And Ranas isn't. But here I am reviewing it, because I think it's good enough. So maybe you don't want to drive out to Spring Valley for lunch, and I can understand that. Let me just say the food and menu are worth trying.

Okay, enough babbling.

Ranas is tucked back in a larger strip mall right off the 94. It's a bit hard to see from the street, but it's the strip mall right at the Conrad Dr intersection. Plenty of parking, outside tables, inviting interior.

The restaurant is known for it's authentic Mexico City dishes, with many reviews confirming that this is indeed the real thing. Not so much "home style", but rather restaurant style. And the menu is huge with alambres (fajitas), sopes, huaraches, tacos, various stews, etc. Even pulque, an ancient Aztec beer-like beverage. Some non-authentic options such as California burritos are also offered, so there really is something for everyone.

My advice would be to try some of the non taco/burrito options and go for one of the main entries. The sauces here are really quite good.

Just so I'd have a common measure I tried their fish taco and al pastor taco. The fish taco was good, but not great. The al pastor taco was absolutely first rate. Ranas is one of the few places that properly puts pineapple on their al pastor. We also tried the nopales (cactus) taco, which my wife said was delicious. Not being a fan of nopales I found it to be tasty but not my thing. The carne asada sopes was good, but I'm not sure I like sopes so I'm likely not the best judge.

Back to the cochinita pibil. This was delicious. If you are wondering why someone might become so obsessed with stewed pork that they'd kill people over it (in a movie at least), try the cochinita pibil at Ranas.

I've seen this place listed as "Ranas Com" on a few sites, including Yelp. It's not Ranas Com, just Ranas.