Don Juan’s Mexican Restaurant

Save your time and save your money. Lacking in atmosphere, flavor, and good wait staff. The old and dingy décor should have been a heads up that there is not much pride put into the business. We walked in and 3 or 4 young ladies were standing around and slightly confused as to who should seat us. The cilantro sauce tasted like marinara sauce. When I asked for the green sauce, I was curtly told they don’t do that anymore. My avocado enchiladas arrived and I realized I probably should have ordered the frozen chicken nuggets that my son did. The avocado enchilada was smothered with the horrible cilantro sauce. On a positive note, my son’s fries were good!

Super quick! Even during lunch rush! Great food and wonderful service! Salsa is tasty too! Will come back if we ever come through here again!

Don Juan’s! I’ll start by setting the scene. My lady and I walk in at 5:00pm. There are two tables of two people each. Clearly rush hour in Jefferson, TX. A waitress/​hostess? glances at us twice by the entrance. Understood. It’s slammed, folks. After a few minutes we are seated. One party leaves. Now there are 4 people, three waiters, and someone in the kitchen mixing guacamole in a paint bucket. Yeah, a paint bucket. We do get our food rather quickly, and it’s not bad. Not great, not horrendous, decent. My puff taco was as stale as Wrangler jeans and white tennies. We saw our waiter twice. Here’s your drinks, here’s your food. Eventually I got up and found out we pay up front. A lady with a walker was slowly stumping her way through the front door. I should have warned her.

Apperantly there’s some naïve people that think there’s Mexican restaurants aqui en el norte… Well hate to be the one to break it to them… there ain’t. for that, ur gonna need to get ur passports and «head for the border» in mexico there’s NO «burritos»… the only ones wake you up in the morning whith their loud hee-​haw. Apparently there’s great tex-​mex nomas in san antonio ranch. again wishfully thinking or pure ignorance? This place has Good food and although it could use a make over, I’d rather dine here than a big luxury TEX-​MEX rest. with less than average food. And while Mama Panchita y Tia Cuca are nowhere to be seen, this establishment is owned by authentic «Mexican» people. But in the hopes of diversifying the staff Cuquita y Pancha didn’t make the cut…

Excellent service, excellent food. I don’t know where these other people were eating, but this is our second visit, and it was good both visits!

If you’re put off by old fixtures, a general rundown appearance and an intermittent ventilation system, skip Don Juan’s in Jefferson. We had doubts from past reviews, the old menus and the exhausted springs in our banquette. However, what we wanted was a moderately priced, tasty Mexican lunch with prompt service. That we got. My two-​enchilada plate was quick and hot. As others have noted, the avocado enchilada is very nice. A chimichanga plate was good, too. The atmosphere lacks atmosphere, especially when smoke has nowhere to go. But if you care more about food than ambiance, it’s not going to be a disaster.

Very disappointed with the food and service at this restaurant. The queso had almost no flavor, and when we received our food, it was not hot. We were not checked on regularly and we had to ask to have drinks refilled. I would not recommend this restaurant.

Much better than some of the older reviews claim. Owned by a local Hispanic family this restaurant and one in nearby Marshall offer east Texas interpretations of tex-​mex dishes. The carne asado combo, fajitas, and avocado enchiladas are good.

My husband and I made the 14 hour drive from our home in Georgia to Jefferson, Texas to see some family. On the night of our arrival, we met some family here for dinner. This is apparently a common spot for them to dine. The service was good. Everyone was friendly, quick, alert, and everyone seemed to know one another. My husband and I split a large quesadilla and we ate it pretty fast. We both thought it was wonderful, but my husband was up all night rather sick. Luckily, I didn’t get sick, but I ate my quesadilla plain while he added a bunch of condoments. I would give this place another try. There were a few items that looked good, but I was so tired!

This was where me and my wife ate with a group of folks out in a small town in the forbidding and suspicious piney woods of East Texas off Hwy 59. HUGELY disappointed. But hey, the only Hispanics that live in that part of the state are usually migrant workers from Mexico.
The food I ordered had a cheese enchilada, beef enchilada, puffy taco, refried beans, and rice. The cheese enchilada was more like a store bought flour tortilla stuffed with process cheese spread and a canned movie theater cheese sauce poured over it, the puffy taco was like a huge chip with dried ground beef in it, the refried beans tasted like cumin, and the beef enchilada had a hot and spicy taste to it. BUT, the dessert I ordered was fried cheesecake, which was pretty good.
Even more strange, the locals who ate there seemed to be enjoying every bite of it. Whereas if many of them ate at the average restaurant in San Antonio that served fried chicken or chicken fried steak, they’d probably hate it too.

As a Mexican who was born and raised on the Southside of San Antonio, I find that there are a few tip offs to a really bad Mexican restaurant, and a really good Mexican restaurant.
First and foremost, you’re looking someone’s abuelita to be making the tortillas, cooking in the kitchen, or ordering people around. You want your old tio behind the counter, guarding the cash register and nodding happily at you while he makes change for your $ 10. You really want your cousins Juanito to bus the table, and Rosa to be your server, not because it’s the family restaurant, but because their parents are so strict and so well-​respected by their own children, that working in the restaurant is a given.
This restaurant had no such thing. There were none of my people occupying the booths. The fajitas sizzled properly, but there was no ventilation in the kitchen or the restaurant, so all the smoke collected in the main eating area, causing you to fan it away while you searched your foggy table for your weak sweet tea.
The bus boy was rude, rude, rude and at one point, even told two little girls and their grandmother to «hurry up and move… go on, get over there.» Our waitress was blonde and very, very kind, but couldn’t understand me when I ordered some guacamole. I’m so sorry that «whack — a — mole — eee» does not roll as easily off my tongue as the proper pronunciation, but I managed to get my point across when I dumbed it down a bit.
The food, Good Lord, the food was awful. The enchiladas were spicy, which they are never supposed to be. The beans had some odd crunch that preceded their atrocious aftertaste, and the puffy taco… well, that was a giant crispy cornchip with some awful tasting ground beef in it. I wound up giving 80% of my meal to my son, who is 13 and eats like a farm animal, thank GOD.
I gave the restaurant two stars for the following GOOD reasons:
1. The young girl kept my tea filled up.
2. The apple pie with ice cream was delish.
Overall, stay away from this place. It’s not real Mexican food, nor Tex Mex. You’re better off warming up a frozen burrito. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrito. So there. :P