Arepa & Co Venezuelan Restaurant - Bethnal Green — Restaurant in London

Don’t dismiss this one ⭐️review. I rate very fairly and my experience here was poor on every level - ordering system, staff, misleading options and the cooking …

We asked if we could order through the waitress - no use the App. There were dishes marked with vegan options, but it ever said how the dish was altered to make it vegan (different sauce, substituted ingredients, etc) and when ordering, there was no way on the App to inform the chef we wanted it as a vegan option. Calling the waitress back she had no idea about what the vegan option actually were and said “just order and I’ll let true chef know”. It’s one of those fingers crossed moments and as a process it would fail if someone had a severe allergy as there no evidence trial. Shocking really.

We ordered Tajadas, Toston Avo, Apero Del Campo and Yuka Fries. When it arrived it was clear that they have not grasped the concept of ‘vegan option available’. To them a vegan option is to remove anything which isn’t plant based and that’s it. That’s not and option, that’s reducing what you pay for and turning the dish into something else.

Tajadas £6.50. Plantain with parsley and no sauce at all. It was dry but to make it worse, it and had been under a hot lamp so long it had dried out complexity. It was shocking - check out the comparison pictures.

Toston Avo £6.50. I thought they couldn’t screw this up but they did. The topping were nice, but the plantain crostini was so thin and had been cooked so long it only tasted of oil and was really greasy. See image of the grease afterwards.

Apero Del Campo £9.75. Plantain, black beans, avocado and cheese. But they had no vegan cheese. Still, it should taste nice still as the avocado will provide moisture? All the plantain was at the top, the bottom was tasteless and it was full of a watery liquid (from the beans presumably). It was an unpalatable liquid mush. See image.

Yuka Fries £6.75. They were good but the sauce was not a garlic mayo. Just something they had which was vegan with no garlic in it.

The waitress plonked it all on our table and never said a word. She never returned to ask us how it was and was too busy talking when we left, so what was the service charge for 15 seconds of walking?

I never got to give them feedback and felt robbed. How a business or chef can think this is acceptable is beyond me.

Would I recommend - I’d suggest you avoid it.

Would I...

Probably the worst meal I ate in London and probably one of the most unprofessional and unpleasant dining experiences ive had the displeasure of sitting through.

Where to begin...I suppose the drinks, which were highway robbery. My Partner ordered a wine spritz cocktail for (i think) £10 and it was literally just white wine with diced mint leaves (and no ice) in a glass. My cocktail was a sickly sweet mess. As you can see in the photo, neither of us could finish our drinks. Incidentally the food arrived after about 25 minutes and the cocktails came after that...given the atrociously substandard quality of the drinks, I can't see how they took 30 minutes to prepare...it really wasn't that busy either. £10 is what an actual bar charges you for a properly prepared cocktail. I Suggest you go there (a bar) if you're in the mood for a cocktail and stick to wine, beer or water here. Although be warned, the couple on the table next to us waited 15 minutes for a can of Coke and a bottle of beer....they were not impressed (understandably).

Despite that, the drinks were not even the worst part, as somehow, the service was even more disappointing. We had to ask for water and once we did ask we were bought a jug of water and no glasses. We sat there for 5 minutes with no glasses and then had to ask for glasses and wait another 5 minutes for the glasses to be bought out - To reiterate, it really was not that busy. Once our food arrived, we had no plates, and no cutlery to eat the food with. We sat and waited 5 minutes, erronously expecting that these essential items would be brought out. We eventually asked for them to be bought out. After another five minutes we were bought cutlery and no plates..meanwhile our food was sat there getting cold and we had no way to eat it..as you can see we improvised with napkins. Waitstaff kept walking past and saw us eating off napkins and no one thought to get us plates. Eventually we did ask for plates and they were brought out. The food itself was unremarkable and vastly overpriced. I was expecting vibrant lime and cilantro flavours in the food, but it was quite bland and was perhaps not as fresh as one would hope. Even if the food had been excellent, and it most certainly was not excellent, the poor quality of the service would have ruined it completely anyway.

Honestly in a city with so many great and cheap food options, why...

Honestly I’m not one to bother leaving a bad review but after essentially it wasting £45 on virtually nothing I guess I have to. Worst part is we didn’t even order any drinks for it to get to that price.

Yes the ambience is great. Service was good too. But the food…I cannot believe how terrible it was.

Took a very good look at the menu prior to arriving since I was excited to try some authentic Venezuelan food and cure my empty stomach.

I knew exactly what I wanted. An ‘arepa polo frito’ with a portion of guacamole since it didn’t come with any. It came and it was dry as hell. The chicken was almost impossible to chew and it tasted completely off as if the chef re-fried something already deep fried. The guacamole that they brought for us was absolutely disgusting, gone completely off and was completely inedible. Don’t get me started on my arepa bread either. It tasted like burnt popcorn. I cannot believe how bad it was. Let’s hope I don’t get food poisoning.

Also, the main reason I wanted it in the first place was because it would be ‘slightly spicy’. It wasn’t in the slightest. Even my partner who is irritated by mild spice thought it was a joke. I eventually traded arepas with my partner to taste the ‘arepa mariana’ and it was definitely a whole lot better. Doesn’t excuse how tiny the portions are though. We ordered the Toston beef small plates and it was gone in two bites. Small plate.. more like micro plate mate.

The only redeeming factor for this Arepa & No was the tres leches cake. Tasted divine and was only thing worth it for the value of money. If I didn’t order a slice of one of those I would’ve given a 1 star review, zero if possible. The rest of it was either rancid or a ridiculous portion size for the value of money.

Overall, will absolutely never return unless I had a bounty on my head. Terribly inauthentic, overpriced and frankly disgusting quality of food. I hope you check the expiration dates. Do native Venezuelans actually run this place? I refuse to believe it. Gentrified East London. Expect...