Don Pablos - American Mexican Food Good & Cheap

This is my friend Amy. She treated me to Don Pablo's a few nights ago and I told her I was going to blog about it. I forgot my camera so she took pictures with her phone. She is also a stylist and cuts my hair for me. It's why I look so fabulously sexy and young for such an old, gay man. (Humor me, please!)

One thing I'd like to say about Don Pablo's: It's a restaurant chain. To steal a line from Sienfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." But after 8 years of waitering part-time at Chi Chi's, I have become very familiar with chain Mexican food. As Don Pablo's goes, it's pretty standard Americanized Mexican chain restaurant food, but the food is tasty and you get a whole lotta of it for just a little cashola. And the drinks are BANGING!

We started out with the most expensive appetizer on the menu which included a selection of goodies including beef nachos, carnitas, quesidillas, guacamole, and white queso sauce. Very filling but very similar in tastes.

I ordered the taco, tamale, and chile relleno platter. The last two are my absolute favorites and Don Pablo's does a nice job with them. And at under $9.00, how could I resist?

Amy's meal consisted of a taco, carnitas, and a variety of enchiladas. Again a boatload of food for about $10.00.

We also decided to have a couple of drinks. Amy opted for the strawberry fruit smoothie margarita while I went for the 26 ouncer on the rocks for just a buck more! The do a great job with the margaritas and the price for both of these drinks was around $7.00ish. They give you these homemade chips and salsa before dinner (no pic) and I could have just eaten those and drank the big margaritas all night long!

After we finished dinner, Amy ordered the sizzling apple pie alamode. It comes on a small fajita skillet all warm and sizzling, with caramel sauce and melty vanilla ice cream. The whole meal came to about $55.oo which is extremely reasonable considering we had an appetizer, two meals, two big drinks, and a dessert.

So if you are looking for authentic and original Mexican food, start looking elsewhere cause you won't find it here. But if you're looking for good Mexican food at reasonable prices that doesn't taste like it came from Taco Bell, I suggest you give Don Pablo's a try. You'll leave full and so will your wallet!

Food for Thought

• In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. -- George Orwell
• It is not that some people have will power and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and some are not. -- James Gordon, MD
• The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. -- Ralph W. Sockman
• I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits then strict justice. -- Abraham Lincoln (speech in Washington, DC, 1865)
• Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him. -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices--just recognize them. -- Edward R. Murrow (television broadcast, Dec 31, 1955)
• Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die. -- Anne Lemott (from Traveling Mercies)
• Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? -- Abraham Lincoln
• To the soul, there is hardly anything more healing than friendship. -- Thomas Moore
• All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. -- Lucy Van Pelt (in Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz)

And last but definitely not profoundly least:

• The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize. -- Clairee Belcher (from the movie Steel Magnolias)