Pepe’s Mexican Restaurants

I’ve always loved Pepe’s ever since I was a little kid. I’ve been to this location several times. The owner is Honduran and has made a point to stop and talk talk to my partner and I.
The food is good. It compares to most of the Pepe’s I’ve been to in the Chicagoland area. The staff is always nice and courteous.

Great food tasting home made

Seafood sopas really good with giant crab legs, shrimp, fish and yucca. Made with coconut milk. Even though it’s a chain, this particular one feels like a family owned restaurant.

I’m still glad there are some Pepe’s Mexican restaurants around. Especially in the City of Chicago, And outlying suburbs.
Let alone the one I went to at 4700 W. Grand.
Not a very special location, But not entirely unsafe.
The chicken flautas dinner was delicious.
There’s also a billiards table in the restaurant, Where apparently the regulars hang out every weekend or so. Which is quite uncommon in many Pepe’s franchise restaurants.
But not unwelcoming at all.

I enjoy Pepe’s food and I have enjoyed back in my childhood so I have a special kind of attraction to this local chain. This location did not impress me at all.
Everything tasted like it has been sitting around for a while. My beef was a bit greasy and just did not tast all that great and the corn tortillas were starting to get hard around the edges.
A big mistake we made was go here in the winter. The little space heater that they were using to warm the place was really not working.
We has a nice lady serving us but outside of that, there was nothing really good about our meal.

I sometimes work in the area and have stopped in a few times. Usually I get average tasting, slightly overpriced mexican food. The inside and outside aren’t that attractive.
This time, I had a tamale and torta which tasted okay but almost instantly gave me a stomach ache. I then literally had bad food posioning for a week. Will never go back, horrible.

30 years ago this restaurant chain appeared on the Chicago scene when the definition of Mexican food in America was Taco Bell. It was the first restaurant (not this location) that I went to by myself as a kid and it brings back fond memories. The food is mostly the same as it was back in those days and for that I am happy. It is by no means gourmet Mexican but it is consistently good food.
This location is pretty poor. 10 years ago the owners seemed to have lost interest in doing anything to upgrade the environment. Expect to be alone during lunch and you may still have to hunt down the waitress for your bill. Expect old-​style booths with vinyl upholstery which badly need to be replaced or refurbished and a generally depressing dining room. Expect the temperature to be too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.
But hey, it’s a Pepe’s and there are fewer and fewer places I can go to eat this food from my fond and distant past.

I’ve been passing by this place for 2 ½ years now and finally decided to try it out. I’m very happy I stopped in and was pleasantly surprised. The reason it surprised me is I’m not a huge fan of Mexican food generally speaking, but it was very good.
I had the Fiesta combination plate and it was a very good choice! I liked everything on the plate except for the refried beans and I don’t hold that against them since I’ve never had any refried beans that were any better than just ok. I guess that’s the gringo in me coming out. One item that really stood out as outstanding was the tamale. It was had a great flavor and just the perfect amount of heat to where this white guy could feel a little heat, but not enough to make me sweat.
My only recommendation for the management of this restaurant would be while I love hearing Mexican music when I’m in a Mexican restaurant it really was twice as loud as it needed to be since there was only me and one other customer there. Keep the music, but please lower the volume a little.
While I was waiting for my food I made a point of walking over to the open door that leads into the kitchen to check out the cleanliness of where my food was being prepared. While it was not the most modern kitchen I’ve ever seen, I’m happy to report that it looked clean and I had no hesitation about eating the food they were serving. The dining room was also nice and clean.
I will be back unlike the previous person who wrote a review. I do agree with his/​her comment though that a facelift on the outside of the building would do a lot for encouraging people to stop in.
Thanks Pepe’s for the really good meal!

Two years later in my Arnold S. Terminator voice, I HAVEN’T BEEN BACK!