El Pope Latin American Cuisine — Restaurant in Richmond

Visited El Pope for the first time Thursday night around 5:30. My wife and I were the only patrons besides one other booth of people. We were seated and the waiter returned about 5 minutes later with water for the table. He set the waters down and left without asking us if we would like to order. He proceeded to go sit at the bar and get on his phone. Ten minutes pass by and no one has taken our order...not even our drink order. The staff seems to be too busy talking to their friends who have come in to pick up an order and we've made eye contact continuously with all of them and still...nothing. I figured once they get their friends order taken care of they would take our order but to no avail. They left with their order and we continued to be ignored. A few minutes later another patron came in to receive her pick-up order. The waiter went to retrieve it for her and at that point we called it and left.

I'm seeing all these 5 star reviews about great food, attentive service, and even free chips? I feel like I'm in in the twilight zone because we experienced none of this. It was especially confusing because the restaurant was empty so what was their excuse for such poor service? To be more attentive to your patrons with pick-up orders than to the people sitting in your restaurant just left a bad taste in my mouth. If you are looking for delicious pupusas I recommend Cielito Lindo on Broad St. Far better service and the food...

Normally, this place isn’t bad - decent food, good prices. On our most recent trip here, our impression of this place changed for the worse. We placed an order for pickup, got there around 40 minutes later, and our food is nowhere to be found. Turns out, they gave our order to someone else by accident. Totally understandable that can happen. El Pope’s solution? They tell us that the other customer who got our order is coming back to get their actual order, so we can just get our food when he/she brings it back. In case it’s been forgotten, we’re in a global pandemic. I’m not okay with getting food that’s already been given to someone else. And I don’t think I’d be okay with that even without a pandemic going on.

We said we weren’t comfortable with that arrangement and asked if they could remake the order. We got the impression that this was a real inconvenience and we were being a problem for asking that, even through its the solution they should’ve offered from the beginning. Another 45 minutes go by and we finally have our food. I’m thankful they remade our food, but the experience overall was really negative. I understand that mistakes can happen, but the business has to think about the customer experience in these instances. What you do to make things right can either build customer loyalty or ruin it. Overall, the experience is what ruined this...

El Pope is one of those improbable Richmond gems: a true hole-in-the-wall that looks like absolutely nothing fancy inside (the booths feel like they haven't been replaced in at least a decade) but the kitchen turns out food that's flat-out delicious.

Start with the sopapillas stuffed with seafood. The crab and shrimp are nicely seared without being overcooked, and they've never had that "held too long" odor you sometimes catch with steam-table seafood. Obviously at $13 per sopapilla the shrimp and crab aren't coming in live, but these cooks know how to work with frozen seafood and bring it back to life; the sauces and salsa are first-rate and do a lot of the heavy lifting.

El Pope also specializes in pupusas, and they do them in a bunch of combinations. As of this writing you can get three pupusas for $12, which is a great lunch deal. Ours came out fast and were perfectly crisped on both sides, with fillings that actually tasted like something instead of just melted cheese, which is exactly what you want from a Salvadoran spot.

Service is very hands-off and can be slow, but the chips and chunky fresh salsa they drop on the table soften the wait. This is a no-frills, family-run place that cares about flavor more than decor, and I'm grateful to have it not...