Don Jose’s Mexican Restaurant, Homer, AK

Yes, this restaurant actually is in Homer; did I promise that all my reviews would be of Anchorage restaurants? I don’t think I did, but this might be relevant anyway, as this is a chain of three restaurants, one of which is in Anchorage. I believe the third is in Kenai.

Oddly enough, this is one of those Mexican restaurants that thinks Mexican just isn’t enough; they have Italian food as well. I think I’ve noticed a few places like that in Alaska. I’ve seen other Mexican restaurants offering Italian, as well as Asian places offering Italian….hmm, can just anyone do Italian up here?

The building in Homer is nice enough, the interior clean and well laid out, with typical decor that reminds you that you are in a Mexican restaurant. We had a booth, which was nice and roomy.

Service was fine, waitress was pleasant enough.

The chips and salsa were tasty. This was one of those places with both a mild and a hot salsa. I particularly enjoyed the hot, as it was not just hot in temperature, but had a good flavor. The mild was unremarkable. The chips were inconsistent; some of them were a bit too oily/greasy; those that were not were crisp, on the thin side, and tasty. A liveable chip and salsa experience overall.

The margaritas were a bit on the disappointing side. They were served in the traditional tacky margarita glasses, properly salted, with an appropriate and noticeable alcohol content. However, they really lacked any flavor or zing. Definitely, they won’t offend anyone, but I can’t recall ever having a margarita that was so….bland, for lack of a better word.

The food itself was good, some items had moments of greatness. Tim had a roasted pork dish consisting of a huge helping of remarkably tender pork; we had friends with us on this night, and everyone stole pork from Tim, it was just so good. However, one of our friends also had a pork dish, pork in a green sauce. This pork dish was good – the pork was tender (maybe too falling-apart-tender), the sauce was intriguing, but it just wasn’t in the same class as the roasted pork.

Basking from a recent delicious steak-in-a-flour-tortilla experience at Hacienda, I unfairly sampled a similar dish here. This dish consisted of chunks of steak with chopped onions and guacamole. It actually was quite good, but not outstanding; perhaps unfairly I am underrating it since, while it was good, it paled in comparison to a recent similar dish.

Our other friend had enchiladas, I believe she felt they were good, but not anything particularly noteworthy.

Most of the meals came with beans and rice, as is typical. These were pretty standard items, nothing exceptionally good (or bad) to comment on here.

No mole sauce that I noticed, no spinach enchiladas either. Primarily basic Mexican. You won’t go hungry, you shouldn’t be disappointed, but chances are you won’t be wowed either. Pretty good place.

And, no, I refuse to try Italian at a Mexican joint, so I can’t comment on those offerings!

Overall rating for Don Jose’s: 3+

(Ratings are 1-5; 1=ick, 3=average, 5=yumyumyum!)

Ambiance: 4

Waitress: 4

Chips and salsa: 3

Menu options: 3

Food tastiness: 4-

Margaritas: 2