Don Pepe Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Dunnellon

Our very first time there tonight, from the high reviews, we were very hopeful that we could find a good local restaurant to eat. Unfortunately, I can only give them 2 stars for the chips & salsa. We ordered a guacamole dip - plenty of tomato but tiny bit of avocado and no flavor. My friend ordered the chicken chimichanga and was sorely disappointed. It was basically a wet burrito with cheese on top. She pointed it out to one of the server and he said “yeah it was fried but the cheese softens it” and proceed to argue with us. We have had this at other restaurants and never had it as limp as a wet paper bag just coming out from the kitchen. I ordered the Fajitas Texanas with beef, chicken, and shrimps. No fajitas flavor, at all. The 3 flour tortillas were fairly small, the beef was tough and cut in tiny thin strips like short noodles. The waiter never come back to check up on us once he dropped off the food, we had to flag down another server to ask for more tortillas- they never came. Server bustling about but they made sure to never make eye contact with anyone. No one came by to see if we need to go boxes or anything. We finally came up to the front desk to pay for our bills and the girl there insisted that they fry their chimichangas but not deep fry it as it should - from what it was I think it was “fried” in the microwave. With this economy we rarely go out to eat, and when we do we expect the restaurant to have good food and good service. Unfortunately this restaurant just have sub par food and terrible service. Will not return and would not recommend...

We love this place, I grew up with authentic mexican food and this place does a great job.

I would like to point out the review before mine by Krystal Baldwin.

I have been coming to Don Pepe's for years and have always enjoyed their great food and service, we have transitioned to only ordering to go due to the pandemic but we still enjoy our food. Krystal complains about a long waiting time in a small, local restaurant that is operating at lower capacity and has an overwhelming amount of to go orders on top of it.

She then insults the food, which I can't figure out, my grandmother is from mexico and this food is as authentic as you can get without a live mariachi band and sombreros. Maybe Karen, er I mean Krystal prefers Taco Bell.

I was inside the restaurant while Krystal was making her complaints known, she was in the middle of the (already small) restaurant blocking me from paying for my food, demanding a manager who if I know him, was back there cooking the food trying to keep up. She then complained that they should plan ahead and hire more staff in the middle of an economic crisis and a pandemic. And when she didn't get her way she threatened a negative google review loudly and repeatedly.

As me and my friend paid for our food and left I felt I could not allow her to smear the good name of my favorite mexican restaurant.

So in conclusion Krystal, I agree, Thank God you don't live here, and will never visit my favorite mexican...

We thought being a small quaint restaurant, the food might be authentic. We have vised multiple Mexican restaurants coast to coast. Service was great but my food was horrible! I ordered cheese enchiladas (can't mess that up) and a Chile relleno, cheese only ( I love cheese!!). Our food was a bit slow coming out but was hot. The cheese enchiladas consisted of only Queso cheese dip like for chips, not cheddar or any real cheese, and no enchilada sauce, with more Queso cheese poured on top. It was 1 big pile of gooey mush. It was hard to distinguish what was cheese or corn tortilla.

Then the relleno arrived a bit later, same issue. It appeared to have been deep fried stuffed with gooey dip, not cheese. Generally, the Chile poblano pepper is battered and deep fried, not the relleno ( I hate eggs!). The pepper was so mushy, I couldn't even pick it up with a fork or even attempt to cut it. The heavy egg battered gooey mush fell off to the side.

What made me write this review is when a server picks up the plates and sees the meal has not been touched, the customer is typically asked if anything was wrong. Not the case here. My husband ordered a chicken burrito and said it was good. We only left a 22% tip versus at least 50%. which we do when the food and the service are top notch. Won't be visiting this restaurant again.

Also, you would think the staff would wear some sort of consistent attire, not concert or off...