Don Pablo’s

I’ve been living in perry Hall for six years and this used to be the favorite restraunt of my husband and I. The margaritas are good, the staff is friendly, the bar area is comfy and the free chips and salsa are yummy. Now though, we hardly ever go– the food sits under a heat lamp forever before it gets to you and I just got tired of eating old warmed up food, even with everything else we like about the place

The staff were very attentive and helpful, the food came pretty fast. The margaritas were good, nice and strong. We ordered nachos, it was more like a plate of quesadillas.

Disappointed with my dinner last night. Ordered the shrimp tacos. Asked for no tomatoes to be placed on the tacos. The waiter asked me if I still wanted the poco de gayo, I said yes. The tacos came and it was just lettuce and shrimp, no sauce. I was with a large table, so I wasn’t going to send back or even ask for sauce, so I just asked for sour cream. The waiter brought it and I couldn’t believe they charged me for the sour cream! How crazy! The shrimp tasted like it was just cooked in pepper, so the flavoring was pretty dull. Don’t plan to return.

I recently decided to try this place again after being away for several years. I couldn’t remember why but I previously didn’t care for this place or their salsa offering. However, this experience was quite different. After looking through the other reviews, it appears management has changed. Make no mistake, this is a good thing.
From the first bite of salsa, I knew this place changed more than hands. The salsa is mild but delicious. The menu isn’t anything too exciting or fancy but it is your run-​of-​the-​mill Mexican offerings. Burritos, fajitas, you name it and it’s on there.
I decided to order the chicken fajitas as I feel they are relatively easy to gauge the level of a Mexican restaurant. The fajitas were overall good but still a step below On the Border. For three reasons: seasoning, rice, and black beans. The chicken needed more seasoning. The rice wasn’t special and wasn’t spicy enough. The black beans looked like cream of black bean and were floating in a sort of soup. This was pitiful but not enough to ruin my day.
The wait staff was helpful and attentive once they realized we were there after 10 – 15 minutes of waiting for the initial waiter greeting.
Overall, this place was better than I expected and I would go back… someday.

Disappointing! Was really in the mood for some tex mex, and this was mediocre at best. Not much flavor & lukewarm.

So my boyfriend and I went here last night for dinner and this is one of our top 3 restaurants in the Perry Hall area. We walked in and it was very bright, its never been like that before. As soon as i saw that, i just told him «they got new management» and when we were seated our waiter confirmed that! I knew it. (Business major woops lol) the new manager was walking around checking on everything. It was good at first even those it was sooo freakin bright. We both ordered the chicken taco trio which is what we usually get. When our food arrived we looked at each other and said, «they changed their chicken». We had to send it back so they could cook it more and they did but it was still awful.
As a Mexican restaurant chicken is an important part of it. We choose this place over Chilli’s because Chilli’s chicken is processed, and we always loved how nice Don Pablos chicken was grilled and fresh and tasted good. After last night we will never be going back to this place sadly.
I give this 2 stars because our waiter was absolutely great!
Dont order anything with chicken, it was sooo nasty. We didnt even eat it but we still paid. Apparently the new people who bought Don Pablos have Outback steak house.

Great family atmosphere with awesome MexAmerican food. Servers were right on point with no issues at all. The open space of the restaurant made it better to breath and hang out.

The tortilla soup was so blah, seemed like some old chicken, carrots, and hot water.

I like the food here. They serve you chips and salsa when you were seated. The salsa is very good you can also ask for the spicy salsa which is hotter than the salsa that they serve you when you’re seated. I usually always get their chicken fajitas or steak fajitas. They are very good I am addicted to this corn spoon cakes that they have there so I always swap out the rice or refried beans to get that with my fajitas. In general we’ve never had to wait for a seat as it usually not overly too crowded and the service is very good. Drinks are good and if you sign up for their rewards program habaneros, you can accrue and they send you coupons to your email. This is definitely one of my go-​to restaurants in White Marsh

Got a tall glass of DosX and the fajita burrito… delicious. The service was spot on. My girlfriend got the trio of Buffalo soft tacos and said it was too spicy to eat.

Pros:
*Food was delicious!
*Waitress was friendly and considerate.
*Place was quiet.
Cons:
*Corn tortillas were extremely tough, almost ruined the goodness of the meal. (We replaced our flour tortillas with corn, for gluten intolerance reasons – can’t vouch for their flour tortillas)
*The complimentary tortilla chips were soaked with oil and were stuck together, some not even fried.

I really like this place. We found it one day after inspecting the new house. The food was good and the service was attentive. We went back (since we live so close now) and the experience was the same. Good food, many options for my little one, great location, and always seating either immediately or within 15 minutes. Big place, has a bar (don’t drink so I can’t speak to the quality of the beverages served there), and the service is usually good — I say usually because when it gets busy (dinner time) then things get a little slow, but they never forget about you. I’m a fan.

I’m not surprised at all that this restaurant got a crappy review from others. The service is atrocious !
I walked in to the place a couple of weeks ago to grab lunch on my break. I sat at the bar where no one else was sitting but there were several waitstaff. N o one greeted or acknowledge me, which I can live with, but after 12 minutes of waiting I couldn’t take it anymore. While I was waiting, the manager came out from the back part of the restaurant to greet a young lady who was there for an interview. Still he never greeted me or asked me if I was being served or at least ask the waitstaff to make sure I was being waited on! After 15 minutes of no interaction, I decided that was enough and went across the street to a grill where I was served immediately (by friendly people) a delicious meal. Again you never have a second chance to make a first impression and although the waitstaff is abhorrent in Don Pablo’s, The management is the real problem!
I would give it zero stars except that Unilocal doesn’t allow you to leave a review if you do that.

This only gets a three because of the drink quality. It would be no more than a two otherwise.
I’ve been to this location several times with friends who really like it. Normally, we eat dinner here before going to the bars on the Avenue, like Tilted Kilt. It’s normally pretty busy on a Friday or Saturday night at Don Pablo’s, but I don’t know how they stay in business otherwise.
Pros: Cheap beer, pretty awesome margaritas, the food is allegedly fresh made and the fajitas show it, not super expensive.
Cons: I’ve never had exceptional service here, the only food I will eat here is the fajitas (note: I usually leave hungry even though the fajitas are very good-it’s just a really small portion for my taste), virtually all of the other food just isn’t all that great in my opinion (I had ribs here that caused my teeth to bleed they were so tough –and I have exceptional dental health).
Good place to pre-​game before going downtown or to the other local bars, but not a good place for a sit-​down meal IMO.

My first time there and it was nice. It was packed but nice. The service and food was great!

My coworkers and I went here for a farewell happy hour. There were a lot of us, but we were all ordering drinks and many of us food. The server was rude and apparently was avoiding us because it was almost impossible to order. I thought it was because he was swamped but apparently he was mean from the start when people went to set up and the restaurant was empty.
I ordered the fajitas and so did a few people next to me. They made us share the tortillas and gave us less than a normal order would have. I asked for me and was basically yelled at by the server who stomped off (I did not get any more tortillas). I don’t know how I was supposed to eat the rest of my meal without tortillas so I made it into a salad the next day. Overall, it was a discounted weekday price and I still feel like I overpaid for the food which was very mediocre at best.
We had to chase after him to get the bill and he made a rude comment about us probably wanting to split it, which we weren’t even going to do. Who makes condescending comment to the paying customers?
It was frustrating that after a fun night the consensus was that the service was beyond terrible, it was offensive. I hope they turn the place around but I will not be returning.

As far as Americanized Mexican food/​chain restaurants go Don Pablo’s is the best in the area and this particular location in White Marsh exceeds the quality of other Don Pablo’s stores. Full disclosure I worked here over 10 years ago while in college and I can say it was by far THE CLEANEST kitchen I ever worked in during my service career. Unlike a lot of other Tex-​Mex spots I worked at they actually make the food on-​site (boil the beans, crush the avocados for the guac etc.) I worked at several places that just got that type of stuff frozen off a truck and microwaved everything.
They have great margaritas and happy hour specials but you have to get there early — the bar isn’t very big and it’s always packed on the weekends. Service isn’t as great as it used to be but I set the bar incredibly high in my day.

The service has always been excellent when I go to this location. The food is slightly above average compared with similar chain restaurants. They have some nice daily specials like all you can eat fajitas night. I find the ingredients to be fresh and well prepared most of the time. Be sure to try the Cornmeal Spoon Bread as one of your sides!
The atmosphere is fun and inviting and it is an easy location to get to and park.

Came here with my girlfriend on a Monday night at about 7pm. There was no wait and we were seated quickly. The drinks and appetizer came quickly and were good. Problem came with the entrees… took way too long! We’d been finished with our appetizers for about 20min before our entrees came out!
Ribeye steak w/​mashed potatoes and spoon corn bread: The cornbread was the only good thing about this entrée! Ordered the steak medium, came out completely well-​done and dry! Mashed potatoes came out completely cold; sent it back and you could tell they just microwaved it. They didn’t even pretend to make a new batch. To top it off, it came back cold AGAIN!
The Presidente (beef and chicken enchiladas and a chile relleno): The cheese in the chile relleno wasn’t even melted. Didn’t even bother trying the enchiladas… By this time we were just ready to leave. But of course we had to wait a while for the check since our waitress was busy chatting with a friend, who was seated in her section.
If we didn’t have somewhere to be by 8:30pm, I would have stayed to speak to the manager. The service and food was subpar. We definitely will not be visiting this establishment again!

After a good, hard workout, Sweet Husband Mine and I decided to take a trip up this way for some shopping and food. I let him pick the place to eat, and he decided on Tex-​Mex… so Don Pablo’s it was.
We only had to wait for a few minutes, even though the place was pretty full. Once seated, we were attended to quickly — our server was nice and very polite. (I can’t remember for sure who it was — I think it sounded like Morgan, though.) Mindful of dietary restrictions, I decided on Mama’s Skinny Enchiladas with a side of Mexican rice and chile mashed potatoes (my one indulgence), while SHM had The Don’s Enchiladas with rice and refried beans, and a margarita that he could have filled a swimming pool with.
I appreciated the fact that there were calorie counts right on the menu, clear and bold for everyone to see. It made a real difference for me in what I ordered.
Mama’s «skinny» enchiladas did not taste at ALL skinny! They were really, really good and filling — plenty of chicken, spicy sauce and tender tortillas. The Mexican rice was good, though it could have used some more veggies and a little bit of spice. The chile mashed potatoes were just, eh, okay — I did expect a little more punch out of them, but overall they weren’t bad. The enchiladas were definitely the highlight of my meal, as they should have been. SHM liked his platter as well.
I tried his margarita — not impressed. I don’t think I like them with salt on the rim, it was a big shock to me (my first time) and it ruined the overall taste.
The chips and salsa at the beginning of the meal was a nice touch. I wish their salsa was a bit spicier, but it’s easily remedied with the hot sauce they leave on your table.
Total price for two was 30 dollars, about on par with what we expected.
I actually didn’t know this was a chain, as it’s the only one I’ve ever seen. But it’s pretty good — nothing surprising here, and everything we expected. If you’re looking for «genuine, authentic Mexican» — it’s not here. If you’re looking for good Tex-​Mex flavors, though, that IS here.
We’d return.
Tip for Diabetics:
A quick glance at the nutritional menu online should tell you all you need to know. My platter (the enchiladas, Mexican rice and potatoes) was surprisingly not that carb-​heavy, considering what it is — only 62 carbs total. Still, if you’re not in control, that spells disaster, so be careful. Avoid the desserts completely — the only thing here that isn’t over 90+ carbs is the one scoop of vanilla ice cream (NOT FRIED) and if you’re going to have that, you’d do better to get it elsewhere.
As always…
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. YMMV. Seek medical advice and tailor my review to your situation. I simply provide opinion.