Don Jose’s Mexican Restaurants

My family and I have been going to Don Jose’s since I was a kid. This place is like family to me. I can’t say enough about them. They are kind, courteous and the food, my favorite. Love Don Jose’s. They know Mexican food AND hospitality.

If you enjoy uncooked, room temperature, mexican muck, you’ll love this place. Chips from the 99cent store and watery salsa with zero flavor are complimentary. There are so many good mexican places in orange county, you must be albino white trash to enjoy this slop.

Mexican food it is. Authentic it is not. I can see why there were really no Latinos in the restaurant because they probably wanted real Mexican food and not the stuff they serve here. Service was ok but the waiter made us feel very hurried. First and last time here.

I love this place. I’ve been going here since I was 10. Over 25 years! Never a disappointment, great, friendly staff, incredible chips and salsa… guac will keep you coming back! Chimichungitas and the fajitas are my favorites! Don’t get me started on the margaritas! Love, love love. Hopefully I’ll be back for another 25! Great family restaurant. I came with my sisters and parents and now my hubby and I take our girls. It’s a family run business ho really give back to Tustin. I’m round to go here!

Pretty good food. I think the waitress was kind of rude because I dont usually drink and she didnt like helping out with the drink menu… Ehh… Ok.

Food was just wildly mediocre compared to other Mexican restaurants. Decent service + got a free margarita so that was cool.

So the food here is ok. The chips & salsa I do have to say is good. And what’s nice is that it’s not crowded & they can easily accommodate large parties. They also let us sit & chat for awhile since it wasn’t crowded on a Monday night.
I had basic chicken soft taco. It was ok.
All the other dishes friends got looked good and everything was gone. That’s all I know.
Staff was friendly & came around a bit.

Don Jose’s has declined a bit in the past couple of years. I posted a review quite a while back about it being our «go-​to» for Mexican food in Tustin, but it is more like a «gone-​from» now.
Had dinner there a couple of nights ago. It was a crowded Taco Tuesday night and we were seated in the bar area. We are not very adventurous with spicy food, but I don’t expect Mexican food to be out and out bland. I had an Ultimate Burrito, which is a wet burrito with multiple types of meat as you work your way down the dish. It is still a lot of food, but at over $ 13.00 for a burrito it should be but I thought I could do better down the street with a $ 8 burrito at Chipotle. The carnitas had no kick to them, the chicken had the taste boiled out of it and the carne asada was just OK. DW had a quesadilla that came loaded with more tomatoes (?) than cheese. Even the salsa with the chips wasn’t good that night and the chips were stale.
Service was horrible, it was busy, but not that busy. We tipped the busboy because at least he brought us chips/​salsa and a refill on our drinks. The waiter was there to find out what we wanted to drink, to take the order, to drop the food (without a word) and to drop off the bill. No personality, no thanks, nothing added.
After finishing the meal I made the comment that it wasn’t very satisfying, and DW pointed out that I had made the same comment after our last visit. Time to find a new place.

As good as I always remembered! Service was very fast and friendly. Food was really good; seasoned perfectly, tender meat, huge portions, and priced well.
You don’t stay in business for this long serving bad food with bad waiters/​waitresses. They have an excellent reputation for a reason. It’s infinitely better than Acapulco’s, Barragan’s, El Torito, etc. Don Jose’s is a hands down winner for a nice Mexican food meal.

3.5 stars. Good dinner spot and can accommodate large groups. Pretty standard Mexican chain restaurant… A little pricey for what you get. Service has always been good when I’ve been here. I usually go with chicken enchiladas – again, pretty average but it’ll get the job done.
The thing that sets Don Jose’s apart from other Mexican chain restaurants is definitely the chips & salsa! SO GOOD. The chips are warm and the salsa is delicious – it’s so easy to go through multiple baskets of chips before your meal even arrives!

I was really excited to stop here on my way home from work this morning. I got there before they opened but had no problem waiting. Got in a little after 11am and sat down quickly. Ordered the chicken tortilla soup and taco. The soup was nothing like it was in the past. It tasted like it was leftover with salsa added. There were minimal pieces of chicken, maybe 3 pieces.
I was saddened with this visit. I’ve been numerous times and it was always so yummy.

This place can be described in one word (for both, food and service). Crap.
Our waiter was nice, but it should not take 20 minutes to get beverages. It also should not take another 30 minutes to get food that is of poor quality. It is a given that food establishments should provide clean utensils and clean tea cups. Ours weren’t.
We have lived in the area for years and impulsively decided to try this place because the line at Chipotle was too long. I regret the decision. Most of the reviews on here baffle me. The only «fresh» taste we experienced, was the «fresh» out of a can taste.

Classic big margarita tex-​mex. Good nachos.

My husband & I have been coming to this place for a long time.
Today, we went to our another favorite, Cocos across the street for breakfast, but they were so crowded, so we saw Don Jose across the street not so busy, so we came. Good decision! We ordered from Sunday Brunch, my husband ordered Carnita Hush & I ordered Carne Asada Special. Carnita Hush was great! My Carne Asada (steak) was tender and perfectly cooked as I ordered. Our server, Jessie, was fantastic! Probably the best server we ever had, including other venues. The total bill was only $ 25 with all you can drink champaign and endless chips & salsa!

Pretty good place
The atmosphere is great
Food tastes like in Mexico
And the salsa is fresh and yummy
Lunch special:
Enchiladas with Tacos
and for dessert
Classic Mexican Flan

We live five minutes away and have been wanting to try this place for awhile. We came on a Saturday — $ 5 mango margaritas on Saturday nights. They are not strong and taste more like a smoothie. Pay the extra $ 0.50 and get a regular Margarita on the rocks.
Great service: We were seated immediately in a booth and were met by the water/​chips person and our server. We got chips, salsa and water right away. We ordered our drinks within minutes and took our time to order.
We settled on a chicken quesadilla for the appetizer. Great recommendation from our server. For dinner, we shared the steak, chicken and shrimp fajitas. Huge huge portion. It came with rice, pico de gallo, guac and floor tortillas. It was great!
The food is definitely better here than El Torito on 17^th Street. We recommend and will return.

Before we venture down into the dark pit which is this review, I’d like to make a few things clear: 1) The staff for the establishment in question was amiable, 2) I generally take little pleasure in writing negative reviews (except when they are warranted) and 3) if I am not a culinary expert of Mexican cuisine, I am at least a fan and devoted acolyte of the almighty avocado.
With that said, I must ask… how does one endeavor to perfect a recipe for guacamole that cannot even compete with that of the local Taco Bell? Is such folly the engineered design of a cook with no tastebuds, or a carefully concocted recipe which appeals to the race of creatures from which Oscar the Grouch was born? This guacamole was so bad that it transported me to the marketing boardroom of Don Jose’s in 1997 where I instantly beheld Ted Johaanson from accounting wildly proclaiming that he had found a way to save the company exactly $ 9,003.87 per year if only the chefs would serve this green glop in place of a food with any real nutritional value.
I digress, because I feel that I am being overly pessimistic about the whole endeavor. When we were seated by the person at the front (who politely asked if a table was alright), I had no idea that by ‘table’ what was meant was ‘front row seat to the Plasmatron 52″ big screen where highlights of yesterday’s Oklahoma Junior High Basketball playoffs were playing. Oh, we were in the cantina — right? That’s where we were? The ladyfriend had a glazed look in her eyes as a sea of salsa-​bearing servers drifted aimlessly amongst us. In 10 minutes we had no fewer that 5 salsa bowls… which is partially my fault since I kept eating them.
Again, I digress — the servers were not only competent but were friendly, and the more I think about them the more I feel bad about this whole review. But… I must persevere… for the greatest crime that a Mexican restaurant (nay, ANY restaurant) can perpetrate… is when the sacred AND SIMPLE time-​honored tradition of opening an avocado, scooping out its delectable ‘meat’, adding lime, salt and pepper… is substituted with some other kind of horrible recipe that brings to mind the gruel that was served in Oliver! This was bad, or rather… this was worse than bad — this was an affront to something holy and sacred and I still can’t get the taste out of my mouth.
Edit: So as to clear my guilty conscience of having posted this — the rice and beans were serviceable, and the cheese was alright. Also, I think the bottled beer was pretty much spot on.

Not bad, not bad. I almost wanna say this review is for the complementary salsa and chips, but I’ve had a few other things here too, before I (mostly) ceased my cheese-​gobbling habit.
Reminiscent of Acapulco, this place is infinitely less annoying. The staff are very polite and bring stuff out quickly. My friends usually order the massive nachos, and I recall that they’re quite tasty. I can definitely vouch for the appetizer size guacamole, very generous serving, very tasty too!
I was in the habit of ordering the Spanish rice with a side of black beans, until the very nice waiter explained that it was made with chicken broth (and fat) so I stopped that, but I love the black beans there, and I can make a meal of the salsa, guacamole, beans, and about a gigaton of the warm tortilla chips, so I’m not complaining.
I’ve taken family member here too, and I’ve seen that the portions are by no means small for anything they serve, and everyone seems to leave full and happy, so no complaints here, though I wish they’d carry some plain white rice, or cilantro-​lime rice a la Chipotle, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. Overall a decent place :)

I will start off by saying that the chips and salsa are probably the best thing on the entire menu & if I was in a good enough mood… I might go back just for those.
As far as the rest of the menu, I’ll pass. The only thing worth ordering are the chicken tacos. BUT, they are extremely hit & miss. One day, very flavorful & delicious; the next, bland as paper. I am not a fan of their rice at all.
My last visit to Don Jose’s resulted in my boyfriend sending back his dinner 2x. When our food first arrived, his shrimp was room temp, extremely overcooked & rubbery. He sent his plate back only to receive the same plate, just re-​heated. He asked for the manager & had his meal removed from our bill. Yes, HAD it removed from our bill. Management did not offer.
Management was not apologetic & even admitted that their shrimp is all cooked from frozen. I can’t say I expected much more from a chain restaurant. I guess it was my bad to expect them to have even a little pride when cooking their frozen food before serving it to paying guests.

We were in the area and decided to grab some dinner here. You can never go wrong with a sit down Mexican restaurant. I enjoyed my meal and it was A-​OK. Here are some highlights.
Good
–Service. Our waiter and his helper were on top of everything. They were constantly refilling chips, refilling drinks, checking in on us etc.
— 3 item combo. Crunchy shelled beef taco with lettuce, tomato and a ton of cheese on top. Chile reillano– Huge pepper stuffed with cheese and deep fried. It was good. Cheese enchilada. Tons of cheese in this thing. Good enchilada sauce.
Bad
— Chips and salsa. I love chips and salsa but unfortunately I did not love these. The chips were tasty enough but they had NO salt on them. The salsa was a little too thick too and reminded me of a Pace Picante type salsa. It wasn’t horrible but it was far from good.
— Drinks. Pepsi products and they give them to you in teeny tiny glasses. Maybe 10 – 12 ounce cups.
All 4 of us got 3 item combos and 2 of us got drinks. $ 60 for everything which isn’t bad. Would I come back? Eh maybe… I probably won’t be in the area again so doubtful. It was filling though and the food did taste pretty good. That’s fine in my book!