Getting Your Order Right at a Busy Mexican Restaurant
The hardest part of getting good food from a chain restaurant like Los Charros isn't the food itself. It's the phone call. You sit there, your stomach is growling, and you can't remember if you should order the burrito or the enchilada. And by the time you call, they've already run out of chicken. I've been doing this for years. Here's how it actually works. Start with Google Maps. Type "Los Charros Rushville IL" into the search bar. The listing will show the address, hours, and phone number. But here's what most people miss: the phone number listed on Google isn't always the direct line to the kitchen or the person who can actually take a special order. Sometimes it's a VoIP forwarding service that plays a recorded message. I learned this the hard way during a family gathering where we needed three large orders placed an hour before pickup. The actual phone number for the Rushville location is (217) 526-4600. That's the one you want to dial. If you call and get an automated prompt, wait it out. Don't hang up. Those systems usually route you to a live person after two or three options. Pick the one that says "order" or "current location" and stay on the line. Average hold time between 11 AM and 1 PM on weekdays is about four minutes. On weekends, it jumps to twelve or fifteen.
Once you reach a human, don't just say "I'd like to order." Lead with the specifics. Tell them the number of people, the items, and any modifications. "Three burritos, no sour cream, extra guac on two of them, pick-up at 6 PM" takes less than ten seconds to say and gets you far fewer mistakes than "Uh, I want some burritos." I once ordered for a group of eight and forgot to specify that two people were allergic to onions. The server heard me order them regular. I had to go back and explain that I needed two replaced. That cost me twenty extra minutes and a slightly tense interaction with someone who was already stressed from a lunch rush.
What You Should Actually Order
Los Charros does a few things well. Their burritos are thick, not the thin flatbread wraps you get at some places. The tortillas are handmade daily, which means they hold together better when you're actually eating them instead of falling apart in your lap. The mole is consistent across locations, which is rare for a chain. Most Mexican chains change recipes depending on the franchise owner. Los Charros keeps it tight. The thing people underestimate is the salsa bar. When you walk in, you'll see the self-serve station. Don't ignore it. The green salsa is mild enough for kids. The red one has real heat. There's usually a jar of jalapeños and a container of pico de gallo too. I've seen people sit down, build a bowl of chips and beans, and then spend six minutes at the salsa bar trying to find the right balance. That's fine. Just do it quickly during peak hours or you'll hold up the line. Here's a practical tip: call ahead on Wednesday and Thursday evenings if you can. Those are typically slower nights. Friday and Saturday between 6 and 8 PM, the kitchen falls behind. Orders that should take twenty minutes take forty. I've tracked this over multiple visits. The difference isn't the food quality. It's the staffing. Most locations run with two cooks on a Friday night instead of three. So the line moves slower, and by the time your food comes out, your salad has wilted.
Get the Full Details
Pitfalls to Avoid
One common mistake people make is assuming the phone number on the front page of a directory site is correct. I spent five minutes navigating a third-party listing in 2019 that had a number from 2016 already disconnected. The website still showed the old number because nobody updates those pages. Always verify against Google Maps or the official Los Charros locator. The official site lists the Rushville number as I mentioned above, but if that changes, Google Maps tends to update faster than corporate sites do for individual franchise numbers. Another issue: calling right after 2 PM on a Tuesday. A lot of these locations do their meat prep between 1 and 3 PM. The kitchen is pulling things, prepping, and sometimes they won't take phone orders during that window. You'll get put on hold or told to call back. I started calling at 12:30 or after 3:30 PM to avoid this. It's a small detail but it cuts your wait time significantly. If you're ordering for a large group—more than six people—call at least an hour ahead. Not thirty minutes. An hour. The kitchen needs time to coordinate multiple large items. A single burrito takes maybe five minutes. Six or seven of them plus sides and drinks means the kitchen is working through a batch. If you show up without calling, you're looking at a forty-five minute wait on a slow day and potentially an hour and a half on a busy one. I've been that person. It's not fun.
Payment and Pickup
They take cards and cash. No mobile payment terminals at the Rushville location specifically, based on what I've seen. If you call ahead and give them your card info over the phone, you can sometimes skip the payment step entirely and just pick up. Ask when you place the order. Some locations allow this. Others don't due to their POS system. Don't argue about it. Just be prepared to pay when you arrive. When you pick up, check your bag before you leave the counter. I've caught missing utensils, sauces, and napkins at this place before. It only takes five seconds to look inside and confirm everything's there. If something's missing, they'll replace it immediately. If you drive home and realize it, you're stuck deciding whether to go back or just make do. It's a minor inconvenience but it happens often enough that I've made it a habit to do a quick inventory check every time. The dining experience itself is casual. It's not fancy. The tables are vinyl, the floors get sticky around 7 PM on a Friday, and the music is usually playing too loud for conversation. But the food is solid for what it is. And knowing how to place your order, when to call, and what to expect from a phone order makes the difference between a meal that arrives in twenty minutes with everything correct and one that arrives an hour late with two wrong items and no salsa on the side.
