Don Pepe's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina — Restaurant in McAllen

IF I COULD GIVE THIS PLACE A 0 I WOULD!!! I placed an order through drive through and i had work in 20 minutes i repeated my order to the MANAGER over the phone 3 times and she still got it wrong! When she repeated the order to me when i got there it was supposed to be 2 tacos of egg chorizo beans and cheese and she had repeated it correctly so so I took her word for it and drove myself to work I get to work and I open my tacos and it is only beans, cheese and chorizo. Absolutely no egg so I called thinking that I’m gonna go ahead and get a credit because I’ve gotten credits before when they’ve messed up not that they mess up often but Jesus Christ when they do they can’t take accountability because when I call, I speak to another regular workers and then they pass me to their manager, which is a lady that originally took my order and she sits there and tries to tell me the person who ordered the food that I ordered it wrong when it was the kitchen that messed it up and she was saying how on her note that it doesn’t mention egg and I explained to her that that’s not my mistake that’s yours so are you gonna give me a credit or not because I’m already at work and she hangs up on me so I called back again and I get the regular worker again and she tells me that if I bring back the tacos that they’ll give me a credit and or they’ll give me the correct tacos. At this point after arguing with a GROWN OLD WOMAN, I WANT A REFUND, i no longer want the correct order after literal years of giving my business to this company i no longer feel welcome here nor do i wish to return it is absolutely ridiculous and inconvenient that i have to bring back the mistake of an order they made in order to get my credit when that hasn’t been the case in the past at all! NOW IM GOING TO HAVE TO GO OUT OF MY WAY, USE MY OWN DAMN GAS AND GO WITHOUT EATING THIS MORNING BECAUSE OF THEIR MISTAKE THEY WONT TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR! Don’t order take out from here seriously you’ll get into an argument with a mexican karen. (i’m mexican too) Oh and PS i kept asking for the owner and none of them would provide his/her information or anything like that at all so when i show up today after work i’m going to make SURE i walk out of there with...

As soon as we walked in no one paid attention to us so basically we almost sat ourselves. One waiter greeted us and then left. About 8 minutes later a bald waiter attended to us and finally took our drink order. Once he came with our drinks he stood on one side of the table and placed the drinks on the table and the person whom was farthest side of the table shuved the drink towards that person by sliding the drink a few inches on the table, luckily non of the drinks tipped over and made a mess. We all ordered our dinner and I also ordered some appetizers to which they came out at the same time as our dinner. The place was good but the atmosphere was tense. Then to top it all off they automatically charge you an 18% gratiuarity on parties of 5 or more. So you don't have a say so on the tip already. Don't get me wrong I do it well but for great service. At that point I feel that an 18% gratiuarity was not well diserved especially on a bill of over $110. So I then had to ask so I can pay my bill and then the establishment charged and almost $3.00 for using my debit card. I seriously don't know why the consumer has to be stuck paying for a service that the establishment is going to get compensated for. I mean why is it the responsibility of the consumer in paying for the machine that secures the payilment. It is outrageous. Now a days it just feels that ppl are just trying to rack up the prices and charge for everything to compensate for the lack of sales that were missed during the pandemic. I think it will be 10 years from now and businesses are going to make you feel as if that is...

So this was for a big family feast...we wanted to take my parents out to eat so we decided at this place because of their parrilladas.

Honestly the place feels dated ...the chairs, the tables. They have this large private area that is usually reserved for parties however most of the time it's empty, so it feels like wasted space.

The service was actually quite good. But we were a party of about 10, which meant a 15% automatic tip for that waiter so who can blame him, right?

We ordered the parrillada del Patron....fajita, sausage, tripas, mollejas, and godorniz (quail).

They brought out the chips and a small cup of soup as appetizers. The chips and salsa were great starters...really no spice in the salsa but enough flavor. The soup was good...except for the small piece of chicken bone I had in mine. But that is usually my luck....

The quality of the meat in the parrillada was quite good...cooked perfectly. The corn and flour tortillas have the taste like fresh out of your grandma's kitchen. I just felt like there wasn't enough sides for the size of the parrillada. The parrillada is quite large so you'd imagine large sides however we had to portion control the rice and beans so that everyone could get some.

Plus the place just FELT pricey. It's not a cheap place, I get that...and the parrillada was near $80 on it's own...but then with the automatic tip and each drink individually charged, it basically almost doubled the tab.

This place is good...we've gone several times...but I'll give it a few months before...