Taqueria Don Pedro

I guess standards are pretty low for Mexican Food in Effingham. Your basic low quality ingredients Mexican food. They really gotta step up their rice and bean game. The beans were like gray watery slop. And if you know what gray water is, you don’t want to think about that while you’re eating. Neither rice or beans had any flavor whatsoever. The meat tacos were seasoned ok I guess, nothing special (chile verde and al pastor) but you could just tell the meat was budget bin to begin with. Two stars for the corn tortillas which were the only thing that had decent flavor.

This is a good place to stop if you’re staying in/​traveling through the area, especially if you don’t feel like chain restaurant or bar food. Nothing special about the tacos, but still tasty. Shredded chicken was honestly pretty bland, but fairly solid tacos nonetheless. Good dinner.

Stopped by on the way to Indianapolis. I had the carne asada, which I almost always order at Mexican restaurants. It was very very good. Friend had the chicken torta, which he also liked. Chips were good, salsa nice and tomato-​y and fresh.

Just as good as others have said. It’s rare, if ever, to find good MX food in this wide Midwest area but this is the exception. Homemade flour tortillas worth the price & were piping hot. Green enchiladas were tasty made with corn tortillas, spicy but not too much. Good customer service as well. The cheese dip came room temperature & one of the owners brought the replacement back with an apology and didn’t charge us for it. We travel through Effingham 2 – 3 times a year & will try to make it a time of day we can stop for lunch or dinner. It’s great to see an independent local restaurant do well.

Best mexican food i have had in a really long time and my hubby said the same thing! Prices are great. The kids devoured their food too. Clean place and nice people. You can even watch them make the food. If we lived closer it would be a regular spot we would be eating at!

Really good, fresh tasting food. I ordered the shredded beef tacos — nice tender beef, not greasy, lots of fresh cilantro — yum! Loved the house Margarita … not too sweet, and a very nice presentation (it was so cute!), nice fresh taste (not mixey to me) — could have totally had another!
Service was great, very friendly …
We’d eat there all the time if we lived closer.

Great little mexican restaurant. Only missed the Tequila in my Margarita… homemade tortillas were excellent!

Based on all the rave reviews we stopped for tacos with homemade tortillas. They were ok — maybe I’m just lucky enough to have been spoiled in the taco department. They weren’t bad, just, you know, ok. The beans and rice didn’t help matters, they were just fillers. However service was good and friendly, food was cheap, and we were out the door in a reasonable amount of time.

I ordered the chili verde platter and 2 steak tacos. DELICIOUS!!! This place is in my top 2 favorite Mexican restaurants EVER. The homemade tortillas are worth paying the extra $ 1 and their homemade green sauce is fantastic. The green sauce has great flavor with a little heat, perfect. Don’t expect a fancy place on the inside, but the food makes up for it. I’m coming back tomorrow night for dinner because I’m leaving Friday. An awesome find in Effingham, Illinois.

Awesome little place for some very authentic Mexican food. I had the carnitas plate that included perfectly braised pork pieces, a roasted jalapeño, grilled onions, beans, rice, and hand made tortillas, all for less than 12 bucks. Since moving to the Midwest 3 years ago, I’ve only found two Mexican places worth eating at, and this is one of them. If you’re passing through, skip the boring chains by the freeway, and try something different. I think you’ll be happy you did.

I absolutely love eating lunch here when I’m in town. The food is as authentic as it gets.

So, I ordered the barbacoa soft tacos thinking I was getting beef cheek, but it’s really just shredded beef. It was tender and good, but not fatty at all. My partner got the carnitas done crispy and that was much better. Overall it was decent Mexican/​American food, but definitely more on the American side. And they have a picture of poncho villa, but no Ramona :-(

Amazing.
Fresh ingredients, great variety of Mexican food and homely feel.
It was an oasis on my cross country trip. I highly recommend it to anyone in the area. Try meat, super juicy.

A good place to stop when driving the through Illinois, especially the North-​South corridor. We started with the queso dip which was very good, the salsa was average and nothing to write home about. We had the taco and quesdilla platters. Both plates were good and you can’t go wrong ordering either one of the. We will likely return here on our trips from Nashville to Chicago.
The service was excellent.

We stop by this restaurant on our long trip from Nyc to Arizona. For us is difficult to find a place that serves vegan food. But this place was perfect. The lady at the cash register was extremely helpful and nice. She let us know what was vegan and what wasn’t and she also let us substitute things from our order to vegan stuff. And with all the great customer service the food was fresh and delicious. Thank you so much for your service and great delicious food.

I came here for lunch just after noon time and there was no trouble getting a seat. The dinning area is somewhat small and has around 20 tables with each accommodating around four people. The tables are not packed in, so there is elbow room, even if every seat was taken.
The staff was friendly, accommodating, helpful with questions and cheery. The overall cleanliness of the dinning area, and what I could see in the kitchen was clean.
With this being my first time here, I usually keep it to my Mexican bench mark of taco’s, which helps me gage one Mexican restaurant with another. It does not get any more basic than a taco, but you would be surprised on how many places goof it up. So I ordered the three taco platter, which comes with rice, refried beans, a little sour cream, guacamole, and some chopped tomatoes and lettuce. I also elected to get the white cheese sauce for the corn chips. For the three taco’s, there is a selection of meats to choose from and for this round I picked the sausage, pork and steak.
While waiting for the main meal, the customary corn chips, a small bowl of salsa and the white cheese sauce was delivered. The chips were ordinary, and a bit bland so I salted them. The salsa was also ordinary. A few fellow Unilocalers mentioned the salsa had some kick to it, but I did not detect any, although I generally like a good amount of spice. The cheese sauce was really good. They also gave me two bottles of sauce, a green and red variety. The red tasted okay, but had no heat to it. The wait staff said to be careful with the green sauce as it was spicy. It too was good and had only a little bit of kick to it. I also noticed it was not the typical green sauce, and it was more of a creamy texture.
I didn’t have to wait long for my meal and when it came out I was a bit surprised as there was what looked liked a small burrito wrapped up in aluminum foil, and at first I thought they gave me the wrong order, but they confirmed it was the three tacos. Sure enough, as I opened up the foil, I could see some steam escaping, a pleasant aroma emerged and three nice looking taco’s beckoned to me. I first tried the sausage taco, and it was good, 3 stars (out of 5). The pork taco was a bit dry, so it got 2 stars. The steak taco however was outstanding and gets four stars. The guacamole was also very good and deserves four stars as well. The refried beans and rice were also good.
In conclusion, I enjoyed Taqueria Don Pedro, and glad to see there is at least one good Mexican restaurant in Effingham. If your traveling through, this is a good bet as it is close to the interstate and it will not break your wallet, or take too much time. I’ll certainly be coming here again.

We were first timers. We came in from New Jersey. The food had a great flavor. Happy we gave it a try. We would come back.

Quaint Mexican food restaurant. Food was a little bland. Clean bathrooms and friendly service. Many meat choices and lunch specials.

Well, I walked in with my wife to an empty place at 9pm on Friday the 13^th I went to the men’s room and exiting the stall was someone from the kitchen. Not sure if the cook or an assistant (but he went directly into the kitchen). He went right past the sink and didn’t stop to wash his hands. I was shocked! He obviously had the opportunity to use the sink and realizing he was coming from a stall I can assume what he was doing. I walked out, grabbed my wife and left. This is inexcusable and I will NEVER go in there again
Deserves negative stars and a visit from the health department. No I’m not a local competitor I am a disgusted, forever lost customer!

Support a local business! Based on the limited number of restaurants here in Effingham, we were happy to find a places that was locally owned.
Inside, there is a large open window to view the kitchen/​owners preparing the food. The family who owns and operates this restaurant, I was told by our server who is a relative, is from Acapulco.
The food has fresh ingredients! The salsa ranked among the best I have had, containing a lot of cilantro. I had beans, rice, veggie chimichanga with guacamole. All very tasty and prepared ideally. Homemade chips were slightly over salted but airy. My friend had the chimichanga with carnitas. The carnitas was seasoned to perfection and moist. The verde was different than the verde I have tried previously. It was creamy, a family secret, and the server would not tell me how it was made.
Note: They staff is extremely friendly however they are slow. Be patient, don’t come starving or when your time is limited.