Ay Papa Que Rico — Restaurant in Los Angeles

On a whim, I Googled searched, "Nearest Cuban Restaurant to me" and Ay Papa Que Rico popped up. So I went. To be honest I have never had Cuban or Peruvian Food in my life, but the one thing I do know is "Good Food" when I taste it. I'm glad I did. At the recommendation of Vincente, my waiter, I had a Peruvian dish called Lomo Saltado. It is a beef, tomato and onion stir fry served over seasoned steak potato's with a light soy based sauce with rice on the side. Delicious. The atmosphere is distinctively Latin American casual dining, it was clean, and it was fun watching the other guests enjoy their meals. The staff was helpful, courteous and fun to talk too. I was truly fortunate on my visit to have had the pleasure of meeting the owners son Chris, who took me by the hand and explained many of the dishes that they offer. I have to say that I was a bit spoiled when he and "Chef" let me try a tasted of some other dishes they serve. As a complete stranger to the LA Area they were very open and inviting and a delight to talk to; Both are great ambassadors for the cuisine they served. To say I learned a lot about Cuban and Peruvian cooking would be an understatement. My impression overall, was that they enjoy talking about the food they love to eat and serve their guests. I was make welcome and left with a deeper appreciation of a cuisine. Chef is a true master of seafood and the other dishes he prepared; Even Chris's mom, who made the wonderful fruit pastry I had for dessert was a great finishing touch. I don't give 5-stars lightly, but my entire experience at Ay Papa Que Rico was one to remember. I plan on coming back again and soon. ...

This place is ridiculous. Bad neighborhood but okay, maybe the food is good based on the reviews. I would have thought it was good but they completely ignored my special order. First, I called it in to be ready for.pick up. The lady took my order for 4 Cuban sandwiches and repeated back to me that I said "NO Mayo and NO mustard" and she said give me 20 minutes. Okay. My husband shows up 45 minutes later and it's not ready. They make him wait an additional 15 minutes. He gets home and the sandwich wrapper actually has hand written "no mayo, no mustard" but guess what was inside all four sandwiches? Mayo and mustard on all of them! We (my husband, myself and my 2 kids) can't eat mayo - makes all of us very sick and I am allergic to mustard seed and my kids hate mustard. So, they took our $40 and left us all without dinner. It was too far away to go back and ask them to fix it and I'm too paranoid they might spit in my food if I ask them to fix it. I would never eat here if you have a special order. Expect them to get it wrong. I don't understand why they wrote it on the sandwich but still put mayo and mustard on it? Why did it take them an hour to make a couple sandwiches? There was also barely any meat on it. Not like the picture you see here on...

If I was rating the food alone, this place would get 5 stars, but we don't rate just the food anymore. Now we rate everything from the service to the look on the server's face. So if you are looking for a place with great food, then this is it. Just don't expect to be helped right away or to be charged fairly. I ordered a chicken sandwich and was charged $8.50 instead of $7.99. I ordered the tostones and they forgot to give me the garlic dip that everyone else includes. Now the sandwich is really big (12in). So it didn't hurt so much, but your menu says $7.99 not $8.50. I called in my order and their phone kept breaking up and I had to call back 3x. When I got there to pick up the food, no one was there to help. Someone finally walked in from outside after 10 min of waiting. When you have a lunch time and you have to drive there to pick up and then have to wait for someone to show up to help, its a bit much. But like I said before, the food itself was...