Pepe's

I have been going here every Friday & weekend evenings since it opened. After finishing a 13 hour shift, I do not cook & only go here for food. Conveniently located in a busy area of Hagley Rd almost next door to a 24 hour off-licence and multiple other shops, like a subway, chippies, pizza, shops, and other convenient stores. It is literally right on the corner of Hagley Rd / Monument Road. Although a convenient location, parking is an absolute nightmare. No matter what time of day, you’ll have to park either half on the curb & on the road on Monument, on double yellows on main Hagley, on the very first left road just after Pepe‘s or further down Monument Road where there are some free bays with time limits. There is a club called JUNGLE open late till the evening which makes parking even more difficult despite having its own little warden, controlled car park, but patrons still like to park a fancy cars on Monument Road, even double parking, them when it is open. I advise Googling the opening hours to avoid using Pepe‘s at these times as the riffraff that comes out of there will give you major headache. I personally have had many incidences with the both sexes. Pepe’s is always clean, you can see your food being cooked, extremely well decorated & there are plenty of seats if you wish to dine in or takeaway. Of course they do the standard Uber Eats/Deliveroo/Just Eat and there will be plenty of drivers/riders inside collecting food at all times. 9/10 of the time, the chicken & spicy rice is cooked to perfection, but sometimes, or depending on who is cooking - I have had chicken that is completely overcooked/dry & spicy rice that is clumpy, wet & soggy or parts of it has the flavour stuck to it & parts of it has no flavour. Even corn on the cob started to get rockhard which is why I stopped ordering it but most of the time the food is absolutely delicious based upon the items that I have ordered. I tend to pre-order over the phone so I don’t have to wait to collect. My order has never ever been incorrect & has always been ready upon my arrival. Staff are extremely friendly and if you go enough, it’s almost like you become friends. Food is packed adequately, professionally and I do believe they take personal requests for your food if reasonable. Promotional items do occur as well as discounts. Ensuring you are on the marketing email list then you also get promotions and discounts that way. They are open quite late, I believe till 2 am most days unless it’s bank holidays and Sundays which is till 1 am which is excellent if you work late like I do. There’s always a nice atmosphere in there unless there’s too many jungle club patrons, making excessive noise and irritating loud conversation. All staff wear matching uniforms and appear to work. Extremely efficient and fast. The kitchen looks to be well equipped. I’ve been to many Pepe‘s and this one seems to have it all worked out and running smoothly. Although it hasn’t been open long, at the time of writing this, I believe their one year anniversary was last week sometime so let’s hope that this efficient and professional conduct continues. The only reason I didn’t give five stars is because of the parking issue and the riffraff that comes in from jungle nightclub, causing such ruckus. There are two steps accessing the only entrance so I do not believe it is wheelchair accessible, unless they have a ramp or a separate entrance, which I believe is a fire exit for the staff into the kitchen. So I believe they must have a ramp somewhere. I also believe I have seen vegetarian options on the menu which is displayed above the front counter.

First time eating here (in the store) and the food was great it took a while to cook but all seemed fresh. Staff were friendly and it tasted good. No pics because it was late and we were hungry but I'd recommend. Minus one star as they're a bit heavy handed with the sauce but stingy with chips even though I paid for the size upgrade. He also offered me a can drink which I took and realized later that it was smaller than what I should have got with my upgrade.