Don Pablo’s

Staff was very friendly very good service tamales are horrible food is not authentic there must be a better Mexican restaurant in this place wish I had going to Taco Bell they’re disappointed

This place is literally the best place to go to for big family meals. It allows us to be as loud as we want due to the size of the restaraunt. I have pretty much had good service here but I do have to mention it’s a little bit dirty. There have been times where the seats weren’t clean along with the plates. It was nothing that they couldn’t clean for us so it was fine. The food here is amazing! Try their brownie dessert.

Had horrible meal experience. Started off with lousy service. Seated next to family that had screaming children. Food finally came which was cold. The screaming continues. Went to front to talk to manager to talk about situation. He did come back and didn’t say a word to the family. No apology for situation. Then immediately set another family of 1 baby and 3 children in same area. Went back out with my food to leave and talk to manager. Of course the only manager was same guy. JOHN LINDSEY. NO RESULTS. I was so disappointed with his lack of concern. He needs to try to keep his attitude in a professional manner. I will never return to establishment.

Was pleasantly surprised to find a Don Pablo’s so close to where we are staying. Came in on a Monday and it was pretty empty. Erica waited on us with very pleasant and excellent service. The cheese & onion enchilada was good. The chicken enchiladas had really good shredded chicken. The sauce was very thin and not what I expected in flavor but still really good for something so different. Signed up for the Habanero Club and received a free dip sampler for next visit. Just have to say again that Erica was a fantastic server.

When you walk in the décor is gorgeous. If only they put the same amount of thought in the food… The food is horrendous. I have worked at a Mexican restaurant before so I know good Mexican food. This is NOT quality food. The queso blanco is milky and clumpy and tastes like they just microwaved milk and cheese together. My boyfriend got the all you can eat tacos which he states was nothing to brag about. He said he would have preferred going to taco bell. I got the quesadilla and it was absolutely bland. The chicken was grilled with no seasoning and the cheese was hard and oily. It was just a big slop of grease. I shouldn’t say big though, because it was tiny for what it was. Won’t be going back. I’m surprised this Don Pablo’s has survived.

The ambience is pretty nice, there’s even a small fountain in the middle. The walls are adorned with murals and the later it gets – the prettier everything looks (I love rope-​Lights)! The staff is pretty friendly and all the chips and salsa are made in house and it is very tasty.
We both ordered the pick 3 (they got rid of the El Presidente) but you can still order all 3 – chile relleno (spelling?), beef enchilada and chicken quesadilla. For our sides we had the rice and CORN CAKE!!! The corn cake is soooooooo good – I wish it came
Out this good when I try to make them at home.
Everything we had was super flavorful – and each dish we will definitely get another meal out of. When we are in Sanford we almost always swing in for a good time. The margheritas are the size of tiny swimming pools!

Best carnitas, great food, good margaritas and friendly service, i try and go there at least twice a month.

Took my friends out for dinner. Their beer cooler was broken for days, so there was no draft beer. They also didn’t order enough bottled beer so they were out of several brands. Had to settle for Bud Light. We all had the AuCE tacos. I kept biting into the chunks of tomatoes and hitting the hard, stem end. Can’t your prep cook scoop them out before dicing? They have a little scoop just for that purpose and it’s only a couple of bucks. The manager comp’ed my beer and my friend’s margarita because of the cooler. I was surprised they had options for sides, the waitress just said «Rice & beans OK?» but my friend asked what his options were. Good thing too: I don’t care for their rice, but a salad was a great option. I think it will be a while before I go back, everything was as you’d expect it to be for a chain, Tex-​Mex place. Nothing special.

We seriously have grown to love this place! Chicken Burrito Bowl is our favorite! Along with $ 2.99 huge happy hour Margaritas! Hot tortilla chips and $ 5.49 dip sampler. Celebrate Friday on budget!

If you are reading this, good! Maybe I can save you from wasting time (and money, unless they hopefully give you a refund) by going to this place.
First off, this place used to be great.
Now, it blows.
Went out to lunch before work. Upon being seated, Im eventually greeted by a waiter with a dirty apron. He asks me what I’d like for a drink, and he sets down chips and salsa, and a paper-​wrapped straw on my table with what looked to be blood on the paper. He brings out my water, and walks away without bothering to ask if I need a few more minutes to order.
I grab my glass, and see food residue on it. Eww. That’s nasty.
I asked for a new glass, and he came back with a clean glass and /​then/​asks me what I’d like. I place my order, and he disappears to the kitchen.
I sample the chips and salsa, and sadly feel they’re bland. The chips just had 0 taste, and the salsa was mediocre-​no «bite» to it at all. Basically vegetables in a water-​solution. Kind of sad, since this is supposed to be Mexican food… Supposed to be.
In the meantime of waiting for food to be delivered, I jumped on Unilocal to read reviews to see what’s going on here. Scary enough, I ran across recent reviews of fellow Unilocalers crying out for help about the horrifying service and food they received themselves… At that very moment, alongside my already abysmal experience, I accepted that my fate here may be the same as theirs. And it was.
The food came out. It looked beautiful. Though let us not forget that looks can deceive, for this food did.
I asked for the chile mashed potatoes as a side as one of the choices. When it came out, it literally looked like a pancake. And not just a pancake, there was barely enough food there to be considered a side dish. I actually laughed when the waiter set it on the table… It was cold on the outside but scorching on the inside. (Seriously, I hate text-​talk but «WTF?») The rice was dry, the little burrito rolls tasted like microwaved Delimex, the taco was blander than dirt, and the hair (yes, the human hair that did not resemble that of my own due to the color of it!!!) on the enchilada became the icing on the cake.
Called over the waiter, who took the food away, and had the manager come over. I explained all that happened, only to have him say «Very sorry, Ill take care of it».
While he went to the register, I got up, and waited behind him. When he turned around, he said he took care of it, and I told him I was leaving, to which he apologized once again.
This was not only an absolutely out-​right bad experience, but a sad reminder even great restaurants can fall, for whatever reasons. Never returning again. You have been warned!

Hubby and I have been coming here for awhile, often to enjoy the queso blanco appetizer, which was recommended on an early visit. However, on our last 2 visits, it became obvious that the recipe had changed, and not for the better. (The blanco is now way more orange-​ish in color, to the point where I had to ask if they gave us the right cheese.) My husband also raves over their chips and salsa, but the chips look different this time and our server acknowledged that yes, they make them differently now. (They taste like everyone else’s now.) It was fajita Wednesday, so we split the fajita combo… but the steak came nearly raw and chicken wasn’t flavored as well as in the past. My grandson wanted to try the fajitas and he «traded» a bite of his kid’s menu burger, which he loved (but I thought was awful.) Quality has definitely gone down here.

We usually enjoy eating at this location as there is really no Tex Mex alternative in the area. Today was not a good restaurant experience and it will be my last trip here.
The queso dip was cold and my batch of tortillas were not fresh like they usually are. I ordered the steak fajita burrito. I bit into it and the meat was literally cold on the inside raw. I was grossed out and was not going to tell my wife so as not to turn her stomach but the manager came by to ask how our meals were and I pointed at the raw meat. She apologized and took it off the bill but oddly did not offer to make another and the bill came shortly after that and the waitress was ticked off and did not offer more food or an apology. She had been attentive up to the raw food episode but must have been agitated at the smaller tab? Who knows? Just a really bad experience.

I am down in the florida area quite often to visit family. During past visits we have all went out to Don Pablo’s for a nice dinner and generally enjoy the food. Unfortunately this occasion we had a bad experience.
While deciding what to order (and sncaking on complimentary chips and salsa), I noticed a new appetiser item on the menu, stuffed Jalapeño wrapped with bacon! Well when my eyes lifted from the menu, my sister scooped up a ½ eaten version of that appetiser from the salsa bowl! To me that notes they re-​use the salsa at each table. We were disgusted and left. The staff did not seem to alarmed by this discovery. But what shocked me more was that we did have anyone to stop us and offer a sincer apology as we left. It seemed they were not concerned with a party of 12 leaving.
I am not sure if next time we will want to give this place another try, but I hope customer service and food preperation/​disposal processes improve due to this review.

Came in for taco Tuesday’s. Great deal! $ 6.99 for all you can eat tacos with rice and beans. I enjoyed the food– it was nothing extraordinary but it was decent; especially for the price.
However, our Server was having a bad day. She was very awkward with us; almost like she wasn’t paying attention. We asked for something and she stared at us. She never gave her name or really smiled. Then in the middle of our meal we noticed she hadn’t come back in a while. We waited and waited. A new server came over and informed us that our server left. So we finished the meal off with a server. Not sure what happened.

After many years not going here because the place was bad i decided on a dessert «to-​go» order at 920pm. The gentleman who answered the phone was rude and said «we close at 10 are you going to be here before then?» When we arrived our order was at the bar and I checked it to make sure everything was in order and noticed the rum sauce (which I always request on the side) was less than ¼th full. I asked the bartender who was also the extremely well mannered individual who took my call if he could please fill it up for me and he said it was going to be an additional fee of 2 dollars (which is half the price of the dessert itself.) The manager overheard our convo and pretended like she didn’t and kept going about her business until a different server came by and said it should def have been full all the way. Upon asking the manager how much it should be filled she repied «3ounces». I assured her it wasnt 3oz as I am experienced in counting my foods she got me more and they STILL charged me extra. Horrendous customer service and support. Will NEVER be going back.

Wait time on food was ridiculous for take out over an hour. Service when we eat there was bad as well. Would not recommend

The restaurant is beautifully decorated.
Spacious and open. There is a beautiful fountain in the middle of the restaurant.
You get free chips and salsa to start — for a Mexican restaurant– their chips were really boring. Thick and nothing special. Chili’s or cheddar’s could easily win over them in a tortilla chip contest. The salsa as well was just «meh». They are supposed to be a MEXICAN restaurant. Shouldn’t they have really good salsa??? Chili’s still in my opinion has the best (restaurant chain style salsa). I ordered two hard chicken tacos with rice and black beans. The chicken was so bland. :(±— I’ll just leave that there. The rice also … Absolutely no flavor. The black beans were an atrocity. (I was brought refried beans first — which I had to send back). All in all — would not go back — would not recommend.

Visited on Thursday, 03/​05/​2015 at 1:30 PM Female waitress, didn’t let us know her name, but Management knows exactly who this was.
Before I begin. I just want to say that I grew up going to Don Pablos, and I loved this place dearly. Not anymore.
My boyfriend and I came in looking for a quick lunch before we had to go to work. We were greeted by a less than enthused waitress, but hey, being a waitress can be hard, so we decided to cut her a little slack.
I ordered a water without lemon, and the water tasted like cleaner, actually bleach, and I was instantly nauseous. I asked for the manager to make him aware, and he came back with a super clean glass of water for us. It was much better, but then the waitress came back to talk to us, and her sarcastic remarks made me a little less trusting of the water, so we both asked for Sprite.
By this point, I was convinced I was the one to blame, and I’d felt terrible for making them go through all this work. So I apologized because I felt like I was making it harder on them, and we placed our order, Shrimp Tacos and a Steak Burrito.
They come out a little bit later, and I noticed I’d gotten Fish Tacos. My boyfriend and I let the server know that wasn’t what I’d ordered, and they sent it back.
Enter sarcastic waitress. «Are you sure you didn’t order fish tacos?»
Me: «No, I ordered Shrimp Tacos.»
Waitress: «I’m pretty sure you ordered Fish Tacos.»
Me:“I don’t even like Fish Tacos, I didn’t order them“
Waitress: *checks order* «Oh, my bad, you did order Shrimp Tacos. We’ll have those right out.»
By the time I’d received my food, my waitress let me know that my order was messed up a few more times, but they finally got it right. Halfway through eating, my boyfriend leans over and tells me, «Hey, I didn’ t want to make things worse, but I ordered Steak, not chicken.»
At this point, I was done. Absolutely done. I called the waitress over, and she checked the order and realized that he in fact ordered steak. I ask her to bring over the manager again. She goes to the back and comes back to give us the check. She assures me she’s solved everything and gives me the check.
We were charged for fish tacos.
I was so mad that my hands were shaking. I told her I was done talking to her and I needed to see a manager. I knew I wouldn’t be able to be rational about everything at this point, so I excused myself to go to the car and let my boyfriend take care of it. The manager ripped up the receipt and told us that the meal was on them and apologized.
Hopefully she was put in check. She’s the main reason I’m not coming back. Plus, the shrimp tacos were awful. The only positive thing about our visit was the chips and salsa, which will always hold a special place in my heart.
tl;dr Don Pablos really needs to step their game up, I miss my chips and salsa.

Popped in at lunch time for the all-​you-​can-​eat Taco Tuesday. And while our waitress was great, I’d say that you should skip the tacos on Tuesday. The beef or chicken, soft or crunchy, did not have enough protein but did have lots of lettuce and tomato. The flavor was bland and thankfully there are an assortment of hot sauces on the table to try to rescue it.
I had to have a second portion and confirmed that, yep, they’re boring. And so I say «Meh. I’ve experienced better.»

If Unilocal would allow me to leave a zero star review, I would. We waited for more than an hour (while munching on chips that tasted like they were cooked in old oil) for our food. Our waitress was less than attentive. The food was horrendous. Maybe the worst I’ve ever had in a restaurant setting. I ordered a bean and cheese burrito which I thought was a safe bet in a restaurant that was new to us. I was wrong. It was absolutely disgusting. I took one bite and sit it into my napkin. My 3 year old said the quesadilla was disgusting and my oldest daughters «nachos» were chips with a handful of half melted shredded cheese on top. The manager was kind enough to comp most of our bill when he saw that none of us are any of the food. I would NOT recommend this restaurant to ANYONE.