Pio Pio Latin Cuisine — Restaurant in Orlando

Update: I am so sad that I have to change my review from 9 months ago. Something in the restaurant has definitely changed. Our food was not very good this time around. For appetizer we ordered chicken empanadas, and they were very good. I ordered the arepa with steak. The steak was chewy and had a weird red color to me, although my husband assured my it was cooked. The arepa was average. My husband ordered a mofongo with fried pork. He said it wasn’t bad. Saved it for the next day and ate it. We ordered grilled chicken with rice and maduros for our boys. Sadly, the chicken tasted like gamey chicken. It was gross and none of us wanted to eat it. The rice was yellow rice, which they did not specify on the menu, but it wasn’t like seasoned from scratch yellow rice… it was more like the yellowish/orange rice you buy from a bag. The beans were watery and flavorless. My dad ordered the chicken soup, and it tasted the same as the boys chicken… he had to ask for lime to try and make it better. The manager was walking around flaunting himself. It made us uncomfortable to see how he would not let the waitress or the bussers do their job, like he was trying very hard to earn the tip he added our bill even though we were only four adults. In all, we ended up paying way too much money for mediocre food, small portions, and service that made us feel weird and uncomfortable. I sure hope our waitress received that tip, as she was very nice and just about the only pleasant part of our experience, besides the empanadas.

We came here after waiting over an hour at Oh Que Bueno, who couldn’t handle a large party. Pío Pío was just as busy, but they gave us a decent wait time and seated us within that time. They were gracious and hard working. We really enjoyed the ambiance and the food was excellent! We only had one waiter for such a large party, yet he was able to handle all of our orders in a timely manner. I could tell he also had other tables, as they didn’t have too many workers. They are definitely the best Colombian and Peruvian restaurant in town at the moment. I highly recommend trying them out. Oh Que Bueno is not the only place in town for an amazing bandeja paisa or arepa con queso. Do yourself a favor, save yourself a headache, give you taste buds a party, and...

I had two bad experiences with this restaurant in this past month: I called for a pick up order for a bandeja paisa and I was told by Esperanza that it would take around 25-30 minutes to be ready. Once we got to the restaurant, someone that was by the entrance told me that there was no order under my name. I explained to the person I spoke with Esperanza and she came personally to talk to me. She pretended like nothing was wrong and told me I’d have to wait for 25 minutes. Luckily the manager came upfront and I explained to her what had just happened. Esperanza started to speak Spanish with the manager, assuming I didn’t speak it and told the manager I had never “confirmed” the order. I told the manager that yes, I had confirmed the order and that I told her I’d be there in 30 minutes to pick it up. I would completely understand if the waitress would have said sorry and that she forgot - it happens. But wanting to basically argue and accuse a customer of lying is just awful customer service. The manager said she was sorry but I still felt like the issue wasn’t solved.

The second situation was that the same waitress was rude to my grandma when she called complaining about the beans she had bought. My grandma nicely explained that the beans that came with her food smelled like vinegar and that if she could have it replaced and Esperanza told her that she had eaten the beans and she feels like nothing was wrong with them. I’d like to state that both my grandma and I have been a customer for a while now and the new management must be doing something wrong with this place. We won’t be coming back anymore. It is just not the same Pio...

On 4/20/22 at 8:15pm I picked up an order of 2 Lomo saltado and 1 order of papa a la huancaina. At home after serving the huancaina sauce all over potatoes, we realized the huancaina sauce was rancid, acidic because the ingredient of milk was too old. It was not safe to eat. I immediately called the restaurant, spoke to Esperanza who said that I did not have to return the food. She said she would replace the plate of Huacaina in my next visit to this restaurant.The Huancaina plate, composed of potatoes with sauce costs $9.99 so no big deal. About a month later I went back and requested the huancaina plate that Esperanza offered. The waitress told me that Esperanza will only replace the sauce and no the potatoes.. I had ordered ceviche this day. So how could I enjoy huancaina sauce with ceviche and no potatoes? The waitress apologized she could not do anything else. So I do not know if Esperanza is Peruvian or not. But I want to teach Esperanza that papa a la Huancaina is a Peruvian dish that is served with potatoes. The sauce cannot be eaten with ceviche. And that she should respect her own word. Also for being stingy with her potatoes now she lost a customer and I shared this terrible experience with many of my friends. Customer service of Esperanza is ridiculous. And the restaurant should be extra careful with the condition of her ingredients so that they do not serve rancid food. I read many other bad reviews about Esperanza and the rancid food. I hope the owner takes some action to improve the service here. The concept of Latin fusion is good. Lomo saltado...