Don Pancho Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Maryland

My first and last visit to this “Authentic Mexican Restaurant”.

The fact that they claim to be authentic is hilarious, but that’s beside the point.

When my husband and I arrived we found 2 open spots at the bar and were greeted by someone who clearly hates their job or was maybe having a bad day? Not sure, but it was very uncomfortable. We were craving Mexican, so we decided to overlook that.

I ordered a cocktail that was supposed to have tequila in it and I could barely taste it. My husband ordered a 22 oz Dos xx and said it tasted flat.

We were brought salsa and chips after ordering our drinks which is always exciting, BUT the salsa had zero heat and tasted like canned tomatoes. Too sweet.

It was a good 20 minutes before we were asked if we’d like to order actual food, and it wasn’t until another gentleman sat at the bar that we were finally approached. If he’d never sat down we probably would’ve left after finishing our drinks.

Side note: One of the bartenders kept sneezing and coughing just out in the open and without skipping a beat continued to make drinks and handle food without thinking about washing his hands or even attempting to cover his mouth. Disgusting.

We looked at the menu and were surprised at some of the food options. It seemed to have potential which was exciting because we’re from Texas and I’m a Latina… I/we know what real Mexican food is supposed to taste like, and Maryland is definitely not a place I think of when I think Mexican food. So we had hope based on the menu.

We saw that Ceviche was on the starter menu, so that’s what we decided on. We’re thinking, “Maryland has good seafood, so this should be good”

…Wrong.

Real ceviche is cured with lemon juice and salt. That’s usually what the broth consists of: Lemon juice, salt, whatever seafood, onions, cilantro, tomatoes, jalapeños, and if you want to add avocado on top, Sure!

I have NEVER seen ceviche served like a shrimp cocktail. NOT shrimp cocktail dipping sauce with horseradish…shrimp cocktail (the MEXICAN kind…for the owner since she doesn’t know). It should be advertised as “Seafood Cocktail” not Ceviche….two separate things as you should know. As well as what kind of seafood is in this so called “Ceviche” or if it was made fresh. The gentleman who sat at the bar asked what seafood was in it so we tried to decipher as much as we could as well as tell him what the broth was like because we were all confused when it came out. We asked 3 separate people, the owner included. The gentleman even asked a waiter who had waited on him and his family multiple times but no one seemed to know anything except that it had shrimp…and maybe oysters.. but they were definitely mussels.

We powered through this seafood cocktail, paid our tab, and left.

This place is a joke and if you’re looking for authentic Mexican you probably won’t find it in Maryland and DEFINITELY NOT here.

But from reading other reviews, if you like bland rice, unseasoned protein, and various things with red or green sauce and cheese… then this might be your new...

Delicious food and amazing service! My daughter had street style steak tacos with fresh cilantro and onions. I had a chicken taco- the “American style” with lettuce, cheese and pico. We also shared 2 cheese pupusas and they were even better than my usual go to place for pupusas! The salsa and curtido were homemade and fresh! It was a Tuesday night and all the tacos and pupusas were only $1.50! Crazy! I had a giant house margarita for only $5 - it was definitely made with a premade sour mix and not fresh squeezed but for $5 it was still tasty and had plenty of tequila. For dessert we had fried ice cream and churros. The churros were my favorite - finally a place with real churros! They have outstanding specials every day of the week. Our server was kind, attentive and always available for anything we needed. I took off 1 star for the atmosphere. The artwork and colors are amazing inside and out. The bar area is nice with high top tables but the dining room is very small and tables are pretty close to each other. The lighting doesn’t give off a dinner vibe and the music turned off making it a bit awkward since the tables were so close together. My advice is to blare some Mexican tunes, dim the lights and embrace the...

Just went here for my boyfriend’s birthday and let me tell you this place was awful! We were the only people there as we got in right as they opened the waitress looked miserable my boyfriend ordered a three option combo and his food came and he only had two of the three tacos he ordered the food was so bland and I ordered the fajitas with shrimp and chicken the shrimp was a joke they are like the smallest sized shrimp you can get in a bag at Walmart and the worst part is that the whole thing tasted like it was smothered in old bay they tasted nothing like a Mexican fajita I’ve had shrimp fajitas many times that didn’t taste like straight up seafood and old bay and the peppers were soggy the rice also had a weird after taste my boyfriend is not the picky type and he wasn’t happy with the food or having to pay $57 at the end of it… I hope this review saves someone a trip to this very much non authentic...