Pepe's Mexican Restaurant

Awesome authentic Mexican food right here in town! Amazing service. Everything about this lil restaurant is perfect. We've eaten here three days in a row, had something different each time, and loved every bite. And today the place was PACKED and we still had great service! So far we've had the seafood soup, guacamole, garlic shrimp dinner, wet burrito dinner, tamales, whole tilapia dinner... outstanding!

As close to authentic Mexican as one can get in NFL! I just love restaurants in the back of convenience/grocery stores. Delicious. Service can be a tad slow sometimes but if you know that going in, easy to adjust.

What a pleasant surprise. You have to walk through the small grocery store to get to the restaurant. The place is nothing to look at or write about, until you try the food. I had the wet beef burrito. The price was very responsible so I figured my burrito would be small, nope. All of our dinners were excellent. Bonus suggestion: on the way through the store they have fresh bakery items. We bought a couple items and ate them in the restaurant after we ate our meal. Trust me you'll thank me!

Pepe's is an outpost of Pepe's in Ocala and the concept--tienda and restaurant under the same roof--is the same as their Highway 40 store down there. Same menus, too. So you get a decent-sized Mexican grocery store with fresh meats, a vast variety of chili peppers, dried and otherwise, and glorious Mexican pastries, sweet breads, and donuts which are usually freshly-baked. The restaurant space isn't that large but alright and the food is pretty authentic though the menu is a bit limited--good on tacos, combination plates, and seafood though. I have never cared for Pepe's chips in Ocala--too thick, too oily as well--nor their red salsa. But their queso and their tacos pastor are pretty good. For food, four stars. However, I deducted a star due to our waitress tonight. She was both rude and quite lazy. I had to ask for the red and green salsas that normally come with an order of tacos and then she rolled her eyes and exclaimed "oh, you WANT those?". She was much more interested in her iPhone and whatever was going on on it than in her customers. I didn't complain though and tipped her decently, even, but beware if you go it seems service is slow and in her case (at least today) she seemed almost intentionally poor in her customer service. Maybe it was just a bad day for her though, I'll give her that benefit of doubt.If you want authentic Mexican in Live Oak, this isn't a bad choice but seems like they still have some things to smooth up a bit. Also I got some of the sweets and they're ok but not as good as those from La Hacienda in Ocala. Pick your Mexican sweets wisely, yo.

As much as I loved this Authentic Mexican restaurants, I do have to give it a 4. It wasn't too busy but the service was slightly slow, not that I'm complaining- I love this restaurant and store and have nothing too bad to say about it. I just figured I'd note it for anyone who is thinking about coming here, however when you do get service the service is above and beyond. The waiters/waitresses are very friendly and happy, we love to see it. The food is pretty freakin' great. The salsa isn't too spicy but it's very flavorful, probably the best salsa I've ever had at both authentic and Tex-Mex restaurants. My carnitas wet burrito was very hot, tender, and flavorful. This is a great spot for carnitas but the real deal-breaker is the barbacoa and the beef tongue tacos. Both are melt in your mouth, the barbacoa has that slight like.... grease? It's super super good and I'm wanting some right now. I highly recommend if anything in this review, try a barbacoa taco! I was not a fan of the pastor tacos here. It reminded me of chorizo and I'm not a big fan of chorizo these days. If I were to get pastor and carnitas, Pepe's wouldn't be my go-to because I know a taco truck in Lake City with amazing carnitas which is incredible to say because the carnitas at Pepe's are a solid 8 or 9/10.The bad thing I do have to mention is the vegetarian burrito, it's not very flavorful. It doesn't have cheese which is 'meh.' I think to improve the vegetarian burrito would be to add Fajita veggies into it and less avocado! That's the only thing keeping this from a 5/5 review because my girlfriend would have to eat somewhere else if I wanted this place. If you like meat though, 5/5 place. Please try it.

It's authentic. I had a wet borretto and it tasted great. I plan to stop here very often when driving along interstate I-10 as I don't live near bye

If i could give negative stars i would... Be careful and pay attention to your receiptsMy husband has come home multiple times saying he was over charged for something. We let it go, because I'm not with him to deal with it when it happens and he doesn't know how to deal with it, then today he went and got 5 tacos and 2 piña frescos, tacos are $2.50 each and piña Fresca is $4.25 after tax. Should have been $21 and some change, and he was charged $26...how much money has this store stolen from people because if it has happened to us this often I can only imagine how many other people it has happened to. Fed up with it I called the store and one of the girls said they have had issues with this girl about this same problem. Then she puts the manager on the phone and the manager acted like it was no big deal. And said if my husband came in wensday that she would return the money, He went in today and the money was not returned, this is theft and illegal. And I will be calling the policeSi pudiera dar estrellas negativas, lo haría... Tenga cuidado y preste atención a sus recibos.Mi marido ha vuelto a casa varias veces diciendo que le habían cobrado de más por algo. Lo dejamos pasar, porque no estoy con él para lidiar con eso cuando sucede y él no sabe cómo lidiar con eso, entonces hoy fue y compró 5 tacos y 2 piñas frescas, los tacos cuestan $2.50 cada uno y la piña. La fresca cuesta $4,25 después de impuestos. Debería haber sido $21 y algo de cambio, y le cobraron $26... ¿cuánto dinero le ha robado esta tienda a la gente? Porque si nos ha pasado a nosotros tan a menudo, sólo puedo imaginar a cuántas otras personas les ha pasado. Harta de eso, llamé a la tienda y una de las chicas dijo que había tenido problemas con esta chica por el mismo problema. Luego puso al gerente al teléfono y el gerente actuó como si no fuera gran cosa. Y dijo que si mi esposo venía el miércoles que le devolvería el dinero, entró hoy y no le devolvieron el dinero, esto es robo e ilegal. Y llamaré a la policía.

Just moved here. I had the taco salad. More, meat rice and beans than salad. Salsa and chips were good and plentiful.

I have been coming here for years every fall I am in Live Oak for work. Wow oh wow has this place gone down hill. Brown , wilted lettuce, rotten chicken and Blood BLOOD on the ladies toilet seat with absolutely zero SOAP or concern when telling the lady behind the counter that they were out of soap in the ladies room. In my opinion, if the bathroom is lacking the kitchen must be way way worse. So disappointed as this used to be something I so looked forward to eating at every year I come down here from New York. I would never in my wildest dreams come back here. Shame on you Pepes. You can do better.

Amazing and awesome staff! Thank you Angel. Fast service, delicious food, fabulous drinks!The food was flavorful and the service was great. Very attentive staff.