Pepita's Mexican Restaurant & Cantina — Restaurant in Beaverton

Amongst a sea of great reviews, I'll give my honest one. Was the food great? No. Was it good? Depends on what you think good food is, and your knowledge of Mexican cuisine. The short version? If you want authentic, flavorful mexican food, find somewhere else (and please let me know if it was any good!). If you have bland taste buds, you may not notice. But if you do any sort of cooking or enjoy well thought out food, you'll probably be disappointed. We are back on the hunt for authentic Mexican food up to par. Now, the long story...

To begin with... The chips and salsa. Chips, great! Can't do too much wrong with them. The salsa was mediocre, very watery and very spicy, without much else going on. Occasional full bits of onion and tomato didn't add much flavor wise. I ordered the carne asada burrito, my husband the fajita-style tacos (steak, grilled onions and peppers). Mine came in okay, lacking a lot of flavor but guacamole covers a multitude of sins. The 'carne asada' was a poor excuse, flavorless tough chunks of beef (thankfully, they didn't skimp atleast). No char, no spice stood out. It served two meals for me (but I have a small stomach!). The tacos, on the other hand, had meat that looked similar, but the tacos looked, for lack of better words, depressing. Barely dressed, lacking any sort of seasoning (they hadn't even been salt and peppered, let alone marinated). We asked for a hot sauce, hoping for house-made, and thankfully that's what we got. A roasted habanero based sauce, charred bits making up most of the orange color contents that filled the bottle. It was good, but spicy-spicy, and the only descernable flavors were that of char and spice. It made the tacos edible, but nothing spectacular. The service was good, the ambiance felt like we'd stepped into Mexico, but that was it. I wish they took some time with preparing the meats, that really makes all the difference. But you can tell these chunks of beef never saw much in the way of seasoning, which is disappointing. I wish it had been better!

Price wise, you can expect a meal to be between $10-$13 for basics, $15-$18 for the more...

Never again! We went there this past Wednesday and arrived around 4:30 pm. While there were a few people there, it wasn’t busy and we sat in the bar. This was our third visit here, the first one sucked because of horrible service and mediocre food. The second time, much better overall experience. Wednesday afternoon, we were acknowledged that we walked in and would like to be in the bar area by staff. It took 20 minutes for is to get menus, drink and water. Placed our order about 15 minutes later after getting menus, even though our menus were closed and at the end of the table signaling we were ready to order. By then it started to get a little more busier, ok, fine. The waiter came and took our orders (only two of us) and he ordered the pork quesadilla and I ordered a chicken tamale and taco - easy peasy, right???? No! We sat there for another hour waiting for our meal and watching people come in, get served and leaving. Finally a gal that was primarily running chips and salsa out to customers came and asked us if we were ok and I told her we placed our order over an hour ago and still waiting, she quickly wrote down what we ordered and went into the kitchen. Our original waiter was mixing other drinks and I waived we would like two more (Cadillac Margaritas) and he nodded. About 10 minutes later the other waiter asked if we ordered drinks and said yes. He went up to the counter and grabbed two margs and gave them to us and I said we ordered Cadillac’s and he said they were - nope!!! About 15 minutes later the gal that took our second order came out with our food and it was horrible!!! We asked for a box and paid, but went home and threw the leftovers out! We didn’t even get a “gee, I’m sorry we are so busy, but we’ll comp you drinks for your waiting so patiently and not causing any additional stress on our staff.” Nothing, nada, zilch!

NEVER AGAIN AND STAY AWAY FROM THIS DUMP!!!! I’m sure if we were regulars we would have been given the golden treatment, as we saw while sitting there with our waiter schmoozing...

I came here with my one year old in hopes of having lunch. We walked in and the guy with the high top fade (day manager) immediately hands me a menu instead of asking where we’d like to sit to dine in. I felt unwelcome so I ordered 3 carne asada tacos to go with a side of beans & cheese for my little one for $20! I get alllllll the way home to realize I have 2 tacos, beans, and rice as a meal AND a side of beans. I called the restaurant to speak with the manager about my order and he told me I should’ve ordered the tacos a different way. When I was specific and clear with 3 Carne Asada tacos (as I ordered before) and 1 side of small beans and cheese in the first place. Portions for $20 are really small and not worth it at all.

He said to travel 30mins back to pick up 1 taco, when the price should have been adjusted for me as well. At that point I requested a refund, and he hung up the phone in my face. I called back to find out he blocked my number. I called from a separate number and he yelled to return the food (he’s clearly going to throw away) for my money. Which is fine but under the circumstance he could have been waaaaaay more polite all I had to do to get there and back two different times to try and support their business.

He didn’t want to give me a full refund I had to threaten to call police and the chef from the back was sooooo kind to give me $5. Definitely not what I was asking for, but all the staff were very kind, patient, and understanding. They need a new day manager asap! Night shift lady is awesome, but I won’t be back to support them unless he leaves. Horrible temper and no compassion or common courtesy for paying customers...