Don Pedros

See Gone, But Not Forgotten

Real Estate Information and Pictures as of April 2010
Vacant Property Available for Sale or Lease

Don Pedros was a Mexican restaurant on Buffalo Road in Gates. It was in the old location of San Jose Mexican Restaurant.


The owners sold the restaurant, as they were faced with an increasingly dwindling customer base.

Looks almost exactly like one of the menu problems shown on the Kitchen Nightmares TV Program.
Here is the 6 Page Menu they had (only the top 11.5 inches of 14 inches - in a letter size scanner)
Page 1 of 6
Page 2 of 6
Page 3 of 6
Page 4 of 6
Page 5 of 6
Page 6 of 6
They spent a lot of time getting a too complicated menu.
Just in different combinations and sizes, about 40 actual ingredients or so!
Hard to read, and the pictures are not of the actual foods served, not labeled what they are.
(Except for the Beer)

Comments:

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2008-09-29 17:52:48   My wife and I made our first visit on 9/26/08. We were early so it wasn't busy, but soon filled up. No drinks yet. Service confussed as to who took care of which tables. We were finally waited on and after 1/2 hour got our meal (one sent back for all of order). Food was OK, but saw lots of customers walk out due to bad service and tired of waiting for food or were full after 3rd basket of chips while waiting. It may be good once they are organized and figure out how to work a restraunt or close before it has a chance, because word will travel. I liked my meal and hope they get it together soon. Ernie —ernie

2008-10-04 11:42:07   The single most disappointing meal of my life! I was a huge fan of San Jose and they kept the same menu so when I saw that I was really excited. However, the food is nothing like what San Jose used to serve. I ended up with two tiny hard burritos that had been covered in what looked like melted Velveeta cheese, no sauce, no flavor, not even hot. If you were a fan of San Jose I would advise you to stay away, it will only lead to disapointment! Also as Ernie pointed out the service was terrible and many patrons looked extremely annoyed. —maura

2008-10-09 18:48:30   Okay, seriously, where do I start with this tragic excuse for a restaurant? Let me start with the positives. 1) We were seated immediately.
2) Chips & salsa were free.
3) They had a mariachi band.

Okay, now for the negatives. Our server barely checked on us. In fact she told us (and I quote) "Let me tell you something....I got 3 tables over there and I don't know if I can be here a lot." I asked her what the "special sauce" on a particular dish was and she shrugged and said "I don't know what go in it [sic]. The kitchen don't know. I don't know." This is when we should have left(especially since other people were leaving) but none of us knew of another Mexican restaurant close by.So, we place our orders. 40 minutes passed. The server stopped and asked "Do you guys want Hispanic food?!" Uhh...I thought..that..was..what we ordered. Confused, we said yes. She brought out plates of shredded pork and rice. I passed as I do not eat pork but my friends said the pork was okay.

45 minutes, 50 minutes......65 minutes. Our meals came out. I didn't get my beans...or any kind of sauce on my chicken. I guess the reason no one knew what was in the special sauce was because it was invisible. My friend's chimichanga had American cheese. I asked for hot sauce and got Frank's Red Hot. My other friend's burrito was swimming in the fake, luminous yellow nacho cheese used in movie theatre concession stands. We all hated our food but not wanting to prolong this painful experience, we asked for the check. She delivered the check another 15 minutes later and (surprise, surprise), she had rung up the wrong dish for someone and it was more expensive. When we asked her to correct it, she refused to change it and instead declared "I pay for it." We all tried to stop her but she fished out the money from her apron and put it on our table and walked away without even acknowledging us telling her we will pay for it.

We went up to the counter to pay (as the server was nowhere to be seen after she left our table) and we had decided to complain to the manager. As soon as we got up to the counter, the manager repeated "The food was good, right?!?! right??" and she sounded like we should agree with her and was kind of aggressive. It didn't help that she had a teardrop tattoo (which can stand for a lot of things.....but mostly it is bad). So, the cowards that we are (we were not ready to get beat up), we just left after paying.

If you think any of this sounds too bad to be true - well, trust me when I say I couldn't make this shit up. Never again. —OneLove

2008-10-10 21:22:32   After I took a time for reading your comments about Don Pedro’s Mexican Grill, I concerned a lot for the emotional stability of the people who wrote there, specially for Mrs/Miss/Mr or whoever “One Love “; first of all, statistically, you guys don’t reach the 0.01% of the whole costumer collection, who decide start with the new business with all that it imply ; I understand that, under our Country economical situation, this people (the owners) decide take into account the employees families concerns and hired them without experience but with all feelings for doing the best ; we know that this goal doesn’t come suddenly but it is a process .Basically your criticism is out of any good intention for growing and building inside of a positive context of good dialectics; that ‘s not a compliment but a destructive heavy weight. Let’s continue talking statistically; Don Pedro’s Mexican Grill has been congratulated for the variety and quality of its food and attention; mainly for the intention of serve us, more than take an advantage from us. Week after week they have more and more costumers and sometimes is difficult to get a sit there.
There are too much more ways for getting less stress in our quotidian business life than this, but we have faith in our effort for contributing as strong as we can with our society because we love that we do and we know about the presence of some elements who hidden in the darkness try to defeat the truth and the authenticity of the real world —BrendaRios

2008-10-11 00:58:32   We visit the new restaurant Don Pedro Mexican Grill , 10/10/08 I want to tall the food is so good and the service is great ,the make my day , this is authentic Mexican food. we come back soon. —BrendaRios

2008-10-11 04:46:57   Not to sound like a jerk but, the last "applicant" is barely legible and sounds like they tried to use the thesaurus on every other word to defend their restaurant as an intellectual person. I was hoping to try out this place soon. There aren't too many places that don't use crap as mexican (think taco bell). besides El Rincon. —NightlifeCher

2008-10-12 21:09:43   My wife and I were excited to see the restaurant opened again as a "Mexican" place. So we decided to try it out since we enjoyed San Jose a lot. Add us the the very disappointed folks. Not a lot of people in there when we went in, so the service was quick. The Chips and Salsa were OK. I feel the chips were a little over cooked. Then comes the food. The wife ordered the chimichangas and they came COVERED in the dayglow orange carnival cheese. Even after scraping, they were barely edible. And they had ground beef not the shredded beef San Jose used. The flavor was bland aside from the cheese. I ordered the burritos (beef, bean, chicken) and the flavor was weak. And again with the ground beef. We will not be going there again. —WilliamBorrelli

2008-10-17 20:57:19   We loved the San Jose and went there at least once a week.... and were sad to see it go.... but one day we noticed life around the place and were thrilled to see that Don Pedro's was coming soon... One day we went and were OVERJOYED that they had San Jose's menu.... once we ordered the happiness came to a screeching halt... the salsa was terrible, i'm fairly certain my chicken chimichanga wasn't chicken, my husband's carnitas (tender pork chunks) came out crispy and over microwaved.... We won't go back. —JcPop

2008-10-18 12:35:03   When my wife and I saw that a Mexican Restaurant was opening up in the old San Jose location, we were excited—we loved San Jose. So, my wife and I called our friends from our jobs and put together a 12 person dinner party to go to Don Pedros and enjoy Mexican food in Gates again!

When we sat down and saw the old San Jose menu, we thought that we would be visiting Don Pedros often in the future. I even saw one of my personal favorites on the menu: A Little Bit of Everything.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed with every aspect of our visit.

First, the chip were overbaked—probably to cover up the fact that they were stale! The salsa was gross.

Second, they ran out of cups, so we had to wait a thirty minutes for our drinks.

Third, our entrees were horrible. Our rice wasn't even Mexican; it looked like Chinese pork-fried rice, without the pork! My friends who ordered the fajitas, were disgusted with their dish when they were brought out cold and definitely without the trademark sizzle. My wife's burrito seemed to be smothered with Velveeta. My enchilada was smothered in what appeared to be tomato paste. Their Tabasco sauce was revolting. My chile relleno was shriveled and filled with God-knows-what.

Fourth, they were unfriendly. Even though they were slow, with small groups sporadically dining all over the rest of the restaurant, and they were supposed to be open for another few hours, they looked at us as though they wanted us to leave. The whole time we were talking, the staff gave us dirty looks. At one point, one walked over and shut off the television directly in front of our tables. Even when my wife and I stood outside in the parking lot talking with a friend, the staff stared at us as though we were in some way trespassing!

Nevertheless, I told my wife later that, if they were still open in a few months, I would give them one more chance to hopefully work through the opening-month bugs. But, if we go back and we go through a similar experience, we will never go back. —CarlGo

2008-10-20 22:59:04   What a terrible experience! I don't even know where to begin. Our chips and salsa were terrible. The salsa tasted like prego and the chips were burned. I ordered "a little bit of everything" and it was awful. THe refried beans had absolutely no taste. The mexican rise was more like chinese fried rice because there were lima beans in it and it tasted a lot like sesame oil. The taco meat wasn't fully cooked and had an off smell. I asked my server to take it back but she said that the meat hould look like that. I couldn't believe it!My enchilada had a red sauce that tasted like perfume. The chile relleno I got wasn't a traditional chile relleno by any means because there was mozzarella on it. I was so disappointed in the restaurant because I liked San Jose and thought Don Pedros could be on the same level. Save your money and go else where!!!! —ShannonLane

2008-10-21 01:23:15   Brenda - I strongly suggest you take these constructive comments to the owners. We hope to see this restaurant overcome these issues and parallel San Jose at some point. Good luck. —OneLove

2008-11-14 20:48:53   I wish I had come here to read the reviews on this DISGUSTING restaurant before we wasted our time and money!!! Even though San Jose had not been my favorite Mexican restaurant, it was one of the better in the Rochester area. However, Don Pedro's is completely the opposite! I pretty much agree with OneLove on the positives, except they didn't even have a Mariachi band! We started with some overly peppery salsa and overcooked, stale, but warm chips. I too ordered the Little Bit of Everything and was extremely disgusted and hoping I didn't end up with food poisoning! The beans, which were on almost everything, had the same weird peppery spice as the salsa. The rice did have green/lima beans!?!?! The meat (hamburger) tasted like it was old. They didn't bring the salad. And even after waiting 50 minutes on a non-busy night, my food was cold!!! If it had not have been for needing to eat and get my kids to bed, we would have sent back the food and left! My husband's "salsa" consisted of pink tomatoes mixed with HOT jarred jalapenos - absolutely disgusting! To top it off the service was horrible; we waited with no checkbacks for 50 minutes until we had to flag down another waitress to find out what was going on. And when we told her about our bad experience we got no response! Finally, I have no idea what was going on in the kitchen, but it was SOOOO loud that it sounded like they were moving the large metal kitchen cabinets! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!!!! Take your money elsewhere! —RochesterMom

2008-11-16 10:09:08   I screwed up. I should have read the comments here before eating there. I ate at this place when it was San Jose, and found it to just absolutely suck. HORRIBLE food and service. I figured that it closed due to this, and was excited when the place reopened. They HAD to have fixed the gross food and incompetent service, right? WRONG! They took one one of the worst restaurants I have ever eaten at, and MADE IT EVEN MORE CRAPTACULAR! If you like Alpo with Cheez Whiz and lima beans slopped all over it, then this is the place for you. I predict that this place will be shuttered again by Christmas. Well, I've gotta go sit on the commode again. Perhaps this place should be renamed "Don Pedro's Mexican Weight Loss Center". —SavageHenry

2008-11-17 10:34:52   My wife and I loves San Jose and would drive from Brighton to go there Monthly. We had not been back in a little while though, and were surprised by the name change. We kept our fingers crossed and stayed anyway. VERY DISAPPOINTING! The food was as flavorless as could possibly be - I dont think my wifes taquitos had any spice (not even salt) in the meat, and the same could be said for my chimichungas. The meals didnt come with any rice or beans either.

The salsa that comes with the chips, while free - is horrid. I am 99% sure they were using pasta sauce the night I was there, since it was the same consistency, and tasted like rosemary — without even a hint of cilantro, lime, or onions.

I can honestly say that taco bell would have been much better.

As for the service, it was nearly non-existent. People were walking out, complaining to each other, and were generally unhappy. After anxiously waiting for my food to come for so long, I took one bite and wished that it hadn't come at all. —Ian

2008-11-20 01:53:10   I visited Don Pedro's on 10/10/08 and i was not happy with anything they had to offer. I didn't like the food not the service.

The service. Well when i was done with the spagetti sauce and over baked chips i asked the waitress what was in the special sauce and she replied with " i dont know i dont be in the kitchen like that ". I mean i understand when a business tries to help our economy by giving under qualified employees jobs that they can not manage to keep because of their lack of customer service skills or the proffesionalism to work at a place like this. After 45 mins i happened to catch her because i kinda lost her for that whole time and ask her how long 'til my food was ready and the responce i got was " i told you i dont be in the kitchen like that, hold on ". proffesionalism ? Shouldn't waiters/waitresses have basic knoledge of the menu just in case someone is alergic. We finally got our food 25 mins after that and the food was the most dissapointed thing of it all.

The food. I couldn't really tell what was on my burrito but it was like i was chewing on water not because of the texture but because there was no flavor on anything. I was so upset that i waited that long and did not get to enjoy my dinner. On my way home my stomach was acting up and i didn't think anything of it but after a little while my stomach just kept aching and it wouldn't go away. I spent that night and the next day in the toilet. I finally ended up in the hospital for 2 days.

I went there today to try and speak to the owner about what i plan on doing about my situation. Luckily enough for him the restaurant was closed. I missed almost a whole week of work just for the irresponsibility and bad service of a place ad i intend on seeking legal advice on this matter. —Oralepincheguei

2008-11-29 20:57:09   I have to agree with almost everybody here. We were very disappointed that San Jose closed but were happy to give Don Pedros a chance. We won't be coming back! You need to train the entire staff before you can open a restaurant! —BelPenda41