Jose Pepper's — Restaurant in Olathe

Be careful if you have a gluten allergy or celiac disease.

I have celiac disease and have gotten the shredded beef enchiladas, on numerous occasions now. Every time I go, I make certain to clarify that I have celiac so that they know to inform their cooks to handle my food properly. In the attached picture you will see that shredded beef is listed on their gluten free menu. I took the picture on 12/29/2017 so that I could more easily place orders for pick-up at lunch time.

I was informed today (2/28/2018) that the shredded beef is not, in fact, gluten free. The person taking my order, at the Olathe location, made the realization. Their manager, when I questioned it, informed me that they had changed their recipe in the last couple weeks. This was after I informed them that I had just purchased the enchiladas 2 weeks ago.

I contacted the Overland Park location to verify. The manager there did verify that the shredded beef is not gluten free. She also informed me that, to her understanding, it has never been gluten free in her 10 years with the company. She also stated that they haven't changed their recipes in at least 6 months.

This is a very bad situation for me. I should have caught it. I noticed the symptoms after eating here. I am still pretty new to all of the gluten free restrictions, however, and chalked it up to having eaten something else. I expected them to be genuine with their menu (due to the severity of not being so). Now I wonder what else they are being less than honest about.

If you do not have any problems with gluten it is a great place. The service is good, the staff professional and polite and the food is genuinely tasty.

If you do have gluten problems, however, be careful here and eat at...

Enjoyed a wonderful mid-afternoon lunch with my daughter and grandaughter on a Saturday afternoon. We arrived after the typical lunch hour, so there was no wait time, and we were seated immediately. The server was prompt and was quick to bring out our drinks and take our order. We have frequently dined at this location at the server, recognized us, and even remembered our drinks, even though it had been a few months since we had been in.

Food was prompt, prepared as requested, tasted great, and the server was awesome with refills and checking back with us often.

I would give this a full 5-star for everything. However, two things are noteworthy.

1. I have worked in resteraunts before and was surprised that since it was mid to late afternoon and as filthy as the floors were, I saw no one attempting to clean them before the evening rush and it was NOT because they did not have enough staff to do so.

2. The hostess section was caty-corner from where we were seated. The hostess (young lady) and another (young woman) were hanging out at the hostess desk, gossiping loud enough I could hear them, at certain times they would turn and point towards staff, guests and tables. The overall unprofessional of these young ladies was quite amusing.

3. We were there for at least two hours, and NOT once did I witness a manager make themselves present on the floor. If the manager had approached our table, I would have mentioned a few of these concerns but definitely was not going to embarrass my daughter by requesting to see the manager when none of these issues seemed to bother her.

Overall though, great food &...

Normally eat/order from the Jose Peppers at 143rd & Metcalf, but we were close by, so figured let’s get it and get home. Ordered the food online @ 11:12, with pickup time of 11:35. Arrived before 11:30 and parked on the back row in spot 15. Watched the carry out people go to cars up front, talk to the people and deliver their food. At 11:35 I called to tell them we were there, and our spot #. At 11:46 the carry out person finally came over to get our name. They apologized, saying they were short handed. At 11:52, after watching another row of cars in the front spots get their food ahead of us, I told them to cancel our order as I was already going to be late to work. They said our food had been sitting there and that we were next. The carry out person went in, came out and went to another car to give them their order at 11:55. I started backing out, as I had to get to work. They then ran over to the car to give us our order. We had ordered chicken fajitas, espinaca and chips and salsa. The food was cold. The onions were barely cooked, they weren’t crunchy, but they weren’t what I would consider grilled. There was one bite of salsa that tasted like something was rotten in it. Overall a horrible experience. I have ordered from our normal Jose Peppers at least 4 times in the last three months, and have never had a bad experience. In my opinion, it is a problem with their management. If an area is falling behind because they are swamped or short staffed, management should shift people around, or jump in and pick up the slack. Getting food 20 minutes late, and cold is inexcusable. I will...