Don Pepe's - McAllen

The ambience is very nice. This is a little more of an upscale restaurant. It?s clean and pretty inside and on outside they have a cute pond with ducks and duck food you can buy to feed them. The Service was great. The food was just ok. He ordered fajitas and it didn?t come with any garnish. I ordered the tortilla soup and wasn?t really impressed. When I finally got to the table the tortillas in the soup were already pretty soggy like it had been sitting for a bit . It?s anice place though, the food wasn?t great but it wasn?t terrible. We would go back again.

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 heading back.

4 stars for the atmosphere 3 stars for the food service This is more of a dress-up restaurant, very nice exterior and interior. The chips were stale and flavorless. The salsa was OK, not at all what I expect in south TX. Nopalito salad with grilled chicken was OK. Would have been better with a few lime or lemon slices but our talkative waiter was more interested in chatting with his friends than checking on us. He forgot to bring us several things we asked for when he dropped off the entrees. He never apologized-just made an excuse. The beef fajita tacos were just OK. The carne de res was not good at all.

While the restaurant is very clean and nicely decorated, the food doesn't quite live up to expectations. I tried a chorizo and potato taco with a small amount of beans, and it was just average at best. We also ordered a barbacoa plate with another small serving of beans, but the meat lacked the traditional texture and flavor associated with barbacoa. Additionally, there was no physical menu available; instead, I had to scan a code to access the menu online. Overall, I was somewhat disappointed.

I went to the bar, but there was a party happening. I'm actually glad it was there because I probably wouldn't have tried this dish otherwise. I can't remember the name of the dish, but it features three marinated meats! It was delicious!