Don Jose Taco Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Grayson

Lets start with the good. The chorizo sopes were the best sopes I've had in Georgia (25 years). I grew up in a town that had GREAT mexican food, restaurants that were passed down from generation to generation to generation. So experiencing Mexican food here in Georgia has been a struggle.

Now with the bad. As you can see from my photo, I purchased beef tacos for my kids. Every single one shells were wet and split completely. I've never had this experience in my life. The ground beef was the worst I've ever tasted. It was extremely bland but then had some funky taste due to the meat. So that was odd. One of my kids were literally crying in tears because they didn't want to eat the 2nd taco. I did get them to eat it and told them that's not proper behavior. My kid has never cried over not wanting to eat some food.

The fajitas were a big mess. The portion size is GREAT for the protein, but having a tablespoon of sour cream and no guacamole is wild. The beans were extremely runny. The steak was the worst I've had at a mexican restaurant. The cut itself was cheap, the meat was overcooked, no flavor and the steak pieces were all stuck together in a ball...weird huh? The chicken was dry. The shrimp were decent.

I hate to leave negative reviews, especially locally. But as a restaurant owner when it's past 6 pm and there's not a single person dining in your restaurant...you may want to consider your food isn't good enough.

Purchase a higher quality steak. Actually marinate it. Cook it to medium rare/medium. I would do togo steak med rare because it'll cook up to medium by the time the customer gets home, and that's coming from someone who wouldn't go down to medium temp for steak ever. This steak I had was well done, thin, tough, etc.

Tortillas are cheap. We stuffed our tortillas and had so much food left (good portion size on meat). Just make it 6 tortillas instead of 4, you're talking about the difference of pennies to make customer happy.

Restaurant owner reading this. You need to check your cooks in the kitchen. Don't let them close your business down. You have a competitor directly across the street from you in Kroger plaza. Then another competitor less than a mile down the road. Those other two restaurants are never empty. Scope out your competition and do better than them or equally as good. And the fact you can't beat San Lucas food is very telling because San Lucas has some bad food themselves. Now that I am writing this I just seen that they shut...

We found this Don Jose’s in Grayson not too long ago and went in when it was not busy. The service was good. The food was great and we were laughing a joking with the staff as we left. The next time we came in it was a little busier and the service not so good but the food still very good. Then there was today. I went with my wife for lunch and when we arrived it was not busy. I did notice the people that were there seemed to be regulars and latino or at least Spanish speakers and were getting served promptly.

We waited and waited finally a server came over and asked what we wanted to drink She then disappears only to emerge and go to another table. She finally brings our water after another long wait and starts to walk off. We had to stop her and tell her we were hungry and ready to order and ask for chips. She seemed annoyed but took our order. Then the wait began again. Another person brought us chips.

We watched as she had long conversations in Spanish with other people who came in after us, yet still no food. A couple were served before us. After about another 10 mins our food came out but my order was missing a key component, the tortillas so I had to ask for them. So then I waited as my meal got cold as she again went to other tables, chatted in Spanish and generally ignored us. Finally I got my tortillas and enjoyed the food as usual if not a little cold, but then the wait began to get our check.

They new we were done because they literally were clearing our plates as we finished but they could not bring a check. I was literally about to walk out without paying when my wife went and got the server and told her we were leaving and if she wanted us to pay to bring the check.

The difference between the service we received and the other Spanish speakers was very obvious. We are always vey nice to servers as we both have worked as a server in the past so it was nothing we did.

Perhaps it has something to do with politics and my being an older white male but they should not make assumptions as they are creating what they may be assuming. It turned what was one of our newer favorite restaurants into a now not sure I will ever go...

First and last time here. We so wanted the experience to be outstanding but it fell terribly short. Waitress was so very slow. We had chips and salsa with no water. She finally came to take our order and we asked for water. Wife ate half of her carnitas and not much else. The avocado slices were browning in some places like they had been cut hours ago. I had beef, rice and beans. My tortillas had been in the aluminum foil so long that each of them broke in half when I tried to get them out of the wrapper and unfold them. We waited and waited for the check and a to go box (I will eat the left overs regardless). I finally walked up and asked for both and seemed to inconvenience the employees who were all chatting in the kitchen.

One waitress took care of tables around us, but never gave us the time of day while our waitress was in the bathroom.

Each staff member should help at any table and the employees should really interact with the customers - not each other. Sure their English is about as good as my Spanish, but, get out and talk with the customers. Kill’em with kindness. Seemed like nobody much cared about our experience. Sad.

So wish I could have provided a fantastic review but just can’t. I hope they can turn things around before it...