Rattle Snake Ranch Cafe

It was my kid’s 8th birthday, and he said he wanted a “fancy taco” place. We live in Morristown, and usually eat in town at “Macho Nacho”—his favorite—but I saw a TV commercial for Rattlesnake and thought we’d check it out.

While waiting for dinner, my kid came back with a fist full of skittles that he’d gotten out of the vending machine by the front door. I ate a couple before my wife said “stop!” and pointed out that they were crawling with ants. They were in fact half way eaten away by the ants.

I took this to the host, and he said sorry, and asked if I wanted my quarter back, and turned the machine around, but that was it. I know it was candy from a machine, and not the restaurant’s food, but the host seemed content to let me eat insects in his restaurant without comping anything.

During dinner, I ordered a chimichanga, and my wife a burrito (a chimi is basically a deep fried burrito). The two looked exactly the same, and the waiter tried to explain that my floppy tortilla had been deep fried. He did offer to express order a new one from the cooks, but it took over 15 minutes, and my family was already done by the time my meal came.

A picky thing, I’ll admit, but I was irritated that their chips are right out of a bag, and I had to ask for a re-fill (1 basket doesn’t go too far with a family of four); it came with no salsa and it was a ridiculous little mound of crushed up tortilla dust and salt…obviously the last of a huge industrial sized bag of blah chips.

Finally, my kid ordered ice cream, but there was nothing else for kids’ birthdays. They even charged me for this, even though it was the kid’s birthday.

Speaking of price, overall, this turned out to be horribly overpriced food…$75 after tip for a burrito, chimi, 2 kids meals, 2 beers and 3 sodas…folks, we’re talking Mexican, here. There is nothing special about the ambiance to justify this rip-off pricing. Without a special location, ambiance, music, etc. to justify, this should have cost $25-$30 tops. The aforementioned Macho Nacho in Morristown has much better/authentic food, is much quicker, makes their own chips and keeps them coming, and I haven’t had any insects in my food yet, all for a third the cost. It’s more to the point to say that Rattlesnake is horrible Mexican food, regardless of the price.

In summary, I paid triple for eating bugs, getting my food cooked wrong, and getting nothing for my kid on his birthday.