Los Galapagos — Restaurant in Prairie Township

It's with a heavy heart that I write a "negative" review of Los Galapagos. My husband & I have been patrons of this establishment since he first brought me in 2017. The quality & consistency of the food has not changed (except, strangely, the beef empanadas are not as good). The flavors are excellent and true to Ecuadorean and Puerto Rican food. It has always been, and still is a family-run restaurant with home-cooked meals. The problem is the prices. We don't mind paying $20-30+ for each main entree - the portions are HUGE and delicious - but $7.99 for eight frozen chicken nuggets (no side) for a child is outrageous. Another $7.99 for a side of fries. And I ordered our daughter a "strawberry with milk" beverage before looking at the price - $11.99. Absolutely unconscionable. It's milk, frozen strawberries, and sugar blended up. Tastes great, but it's nothing special. We used to buy 10-20 empanadas at a time to take home to our family of six. It was amazing when they were $1.50/piece, still good at $2.50/piece. They are now charging $4/empanada and the "beef" is... not good. I understand that the restaurant business is tough, but some of their prices are just gouging for profit. We're still undecided if we will be...

The food here is genuinely incredible. It's top 5 best restaurants in Columbus - so long as you get here on the right day, at the right time.

The restaurant is bumped down to four stars because they frequently close/change their hours without warning. Their hours are bad enough when they keep them (They close super early), but on three occasions I've made the trek out west to get there, only to find them closed for no apparent reason.

On top of that, their specials change daily, and some of their best dishes don't make it onto the daily menu.

One more struggle is the language - if you have some knowledge of Spanish, it will make communicating with the staff a lot easier. I don't mind this, but it's a good thing to know going into it.

All of that said, if you get an order of sopa de fideo, or sancocho de res, or maduros, or just rice and beans - you're going to...

It'd been a while since I'd visited this mom and pop hole in the wall. I had been slightly disappointed then, but really, really enjoyed my meal this time. Definitely will continue to come to this gem. The cheese empanada I ordered was cooked to order. Not sitting in a warmer. The meal hit the spot. I ordered the steak with rice and beans. The beans were perfectly seasoned and the rice was cooked al-dente not soft and mushy. The steak was a bit on the thin side and slightly overcooked in areas, but the seasoning was also spot on. Definitely would pay for a slightly thicker steak. Next time I'll get the fried red snapper which the next table...