El Rancho Grande

Why it's on the list

This is the top of my list and has been for a long time. Everything else I eat gets quietly compared to it, which is a lot of pressure to put on a Mexican restaurant that never asked for it.

It sits on Silverado Trail, the quieter eastern road through Napa Valley. You drive past a serious quantity of tasting rooms to get here, and that is the correct decision every single time.

Getting there from Reno

Roughly three and a half hours from Reno–Sparks: I-80 west over the Sierra, then south into the valley. That is a long way to go for lunch. I have done it with no other reason to be in Napa, and I'd do it again.

Region

Napa Valley, on the eastern trail rather than Highway 29.

Format

Confirm dine-in vs. counter service on the restaurant's own page before you plan around it.

Trip fit

A destination stop, not a convenience stop. Build the day around it.

Before you go

• Check hours on the restaurant's own listing before you drive. Ours would go stale; theirs won't.
• Ask whoever takes your order what they'd get. It has never once steered me wrong.
• Bring cash. Plenty of counters prefer it and a few still require it.
• If you're eating in the car, ask for it double-wrapped and don't let it steam in the foil.

ask the counter. order that. full send.

Elsewhere on the trail