Raise the Flag

Pancho’s Mexican Buffet, 2434 Jacksboro Hwy, Fort Worth. 817-625-1529. 11am-9pm Sun-Thu, 11am-9:30pm Fri-Sat.

In 1958, one year before Marty Robbins crooned about a young senorita in “Rose’s Cantina,” Jesse Arrambide Jr. created his first restaurant concept out in the West Texas town of El Paso. After cooking large quantities of food for service members on a U.S. Naval warship during World War II, he took his mother’s recipes to form the basis of the menu for his family’s bar, Pancho’s. Arrambide Jr. was an innovator of the All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) business model, becoming one of the pioneer restaurateurs to introduce Tex-Mex cuisine to the masses.

An early staple of Pancho’s was the table flag that customers would raise to signal the need for more food from servers. This transformed into the buffet concept that caught fire, trailed by moving headquarters to Fort Worth in 1966. By 1988, Pancho’s Mexican Buffet was a Tex-Mex juggernaut, operating more than 70 locations in 1994 at peak performance with locations across multiple states. Arrambide Jr. died in 1993 but not before witnessing this achievement.

Struggles began before moving headquarters to Dallas in 2007, which propelled corporate to disband only five years later. (Thanks, Big D.) A slow descent of numerous closings occurred along the way, and as of 2026, only four locations endure, with two as family-owned franchises in Tarrant County: Fort Worth and Arlington.

It’s been roughly two decades between visits for me. Having driven past the Fort Worth location on Jacksboro Highway for years, I finally caved to my childlike curiosity not too long ago, reckoning a $13 lunch buffet would be a cheap ticket down Memory Lane.

As a kid, I was naturally drawn to the colorful hacienda-style atmosphere of floral tiles and murals; strung papel picado (tissue paper cut in elaborate designs); hand-chiseled, wood-framed portraits; and a caricature of the infamous Pancho Villa as the mascot. Blinking arcades and buzzing vending games offered families a fun night out when phones weren’t glued to hands.

As an adult, I was happy to see this type of décor still present at the North Fort Worth location when our group waltzed in. I was flooded with cheery memories as excitement built upon approaching a buffet line of food that I always likened to the Tex-Mex frozen section of Walmart but glorious nonetheless.

This is when a sad reality set in. Visually, the food didn’t exude that fresh appearance as remembered. All the items had been suffering in stainless steel chafers collecting moisture under heat lamps while awaiting customers.

Staff proceeded to load us up with fried flautas, fried taquitos, fried burritos, fried rice, refried beans, and enchiladas with tortillas that were mushy from condensation in the warming containers. The red sauce covering the soggy things provided a mouth mystery that we likened to an odd tomato jelly none of us had ever tasted before, and the sour cream sauce was gelatin-based and void of any flavors like sour or cream. The world may never know what ingredients these recipes hold. That’s probably for the best.

Flavorless, yellow, oozy dressing is the best description for Pancho’s queso that showed no signs of life, but a bright spot was the ground beef enchiladas smothered in chile con carne, which seemed on par with other Tex-Mex joints. Admittingly, seconds were had of these.

Other high notes were the flautas and taquitos as their tortillas retained crisp integrity wrapped around meaty ingredients.

Sadly, the current state of sopapillas bore zero resemblance to the soft, fried ones of our youth. Gone is the puffy, squared bread that cradled honey like a mother and her newborn, replaced as hardened chips dusted with sugar and cinnamon. The sopapilla station once manned by staff working nonstop to keep up with the demand now sits empty, and lonely baskets of chips grow stale under heat lamps. This brought a tear to my glass eye.

Keeping in mind these Pancho’s locations still provide financial livelihood for someone’s family, I’d return and encourage you to revisit as well because once they’re gone, that’s it. Empires aren’t built in a day, and some don’t fall in a day. Others refuse to give up even when the throne has crumbled. These franchises remain nostalgic shells of their former selves, and they don’t need to be anything more. For me, Pancho’s isn’t just about the food. It’s an experience that recaptures a time of innocence for us all.

I left the notorious flag stationed at half-staff in honor of my childhood memories, but I was glad to have made a new one.

Pancho’s Mexican Buffet

Lunch buffet $13

Dinner buffet $15

Weekend buffet $18