The Road to Yosemite, revisited

    Several months ago there was a post asking for suggested restaurants on
the route between the Bay Area and Yosemite.  That's a question I've often wondered about, but to which I had no ready answer, except perhaps a 25 mile detour to the Jamestown/Sonora area.  (Oakland and San Mateo restaurants don't count as valid answers!)
    However, on a trip a few weeks back, I discovered a candidate in "Best
Places Northern California" (a book I find valuable when in out-of-the-way corners of the state):  a Mexican restaurant called El Ranchito, in Riverbank, Stanislaus Co.  The river is the Stanislaus, and you get to this place basi- cally by taking a wrong turn while trying to get from Escalon to Oakdale (a mistake I had made on an earlier trip).  The detour adds less than 3 miles total to your travel, and you get to see what a billboard advertises as "The Action City".  El Ranchito is located pretty much at the central inter- section (highway 108 at, I think, First St.)
    This turned out to be a satisfying Mexican restaurant.  With the exception
of third-rate tortilla chips and second-rate "fresh" tortillas, I found every- thing good to very good.  (This was based on "standard" combinations - enchi- lada, tamale, and so forth; they also have a mole and some other more interes- ting items on the menu.)  I've occasionally gravitated to a Mexican place when in an "unknown" outlying area in CA or the Southwest with a local Mexican-Amer. community, and I've generally been less happy with the result.  El Ranchito served large portions at somewhat lower prices than would be expected in the Bay Area.  Service was friendly and attentive (although preparation time was not especially fast).  On the downside:  noise carried altogether too well, making it necessary to share in the party on the opposite side of the room.
    Overall:  it probably wouldn't make the top rank of Bay Area Mexican
restaurants (there aren't many!), but neither would it be disgraced.  And given the location and the break in a long drive, it makes for a satisfying stop. I don't want to reach a final conclusion based on one visit, so I'll probably have to go back to check my "facts".

                                     Al Eisner
                                     ([email removed])
                                     San Mateo County, CA