Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen — Restaurant in San Francisco

This is the worst Arepa I have ever had around the world.

When you get into the place the odor is what we say "huele a coleto humedo" o a "trapo mojado" .....that odor when you clean a floor with the same cloth in a row without washing the cloth.

Then I ordered a "Arepa con Pernil" which is arepa filled with pulled pork ....it seems that by default PicaPica puts "hot sauce" picante with the avocado that fills the arepa ....this is not common in Venezuela...I mean the fact that the arepa comes filled with something that is "picante" .....normally you add the "picante" (hot-sauce) as an option. I asked the waitress to give me an arepa with different filling ..not picante .....and she was very kind to re-do the order for me without picante. However the next arepa was in the same dish with a salad portion that comes with the order and ended up that the arepa was totally "wet" ....as we say in Caracas estaba "enchunbada" .......converting the eating moment in a "mess".

Also the pulled pork was kind of boiled ...."blanco" ...not like the "horneado".

I also ordered "tajadas" ( ripe plantains ) ...they were "horrorosas" ....duras y quemadas.....the plantain was "verde"...not ripe. For drink I just had tap water since no Chicha de Arroz or Kolita in this venezuelan restaurant.

I live in Austin, Texas where no Areperas are around but when I visit other cities like Miami I can have excellent arepas.......is the case for The Arepazo ( famous Miami Venezuelan arepera ).

This place PicaPica seems to be a tourist-trap food court poised to grab quick vacation dollars and never expect you to return.

Expect to spend almost 10 dollars for a "Arepa de Pernil horrible" folks !

Como dicen en mi pueblo :...

If you are Venezuelan and your expectations are very high and you want to eat a good arepa, this is not the right place to remember our flavors. I did not find the Venezuelan’s flavor in any of the fillings and I ordered 3 different arepas. They do not sell “Reina Pepiada” (very rare cause this is the famous Venezuelan arepa), I ordered the "Arepa trio tester" and they served them on a plate accompanied with a chip with an excessively wet salad topping that soaked the 3 arepas, these went from being "Crispy" as it says its advertising to a arepa of watery dough, the fried chicken is quite spicy. In short, I think it's a fusion of Mexican food with Venezuelan arepas or something like that. Expensive for this quality. —— Si ud que me está leyendo es venezolano y sus expectativas son muy altas y quiere comerse una buena arepa, este no es el lugar correcto para recordar nuestros sabores. No encontré el sabor venezolano en ninguno de los rellenos y pedí 3. No venden reina pepiada (muy raro), pedí el “Arepa trio tester” y me las sirvieron en un plato acompañado con un chip con un topping de ensalada excesivamente mojada que empapó las 3 arepas, estas pasaron de ser “Crispy” como dice su publicidad a una arepa de masa aguada, el pollo mechado es bastante picante. En definitiva creo que es una fusión de comida mexicana con arepas venezolanas o algo...

I tried Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen on the recommendation of a friend who I was meeting in Mission. I’ve had arepa’s only a couple of times before so I was excited to try this place. It is located on Valencia & 15th and I was able to find parking on 15th a couple of blocks down. After going through the menu, I decided to get the Sweet Yellow Arepa with the shredded beef Pabellon filling ($11.50) to-go. After ordering it was a quick 10-minute wait and I was on my way.

I got a small desert/snack size container with the arepa. It was a decent sized corn pocket which had become soggy. It had a nice sweet tinge which balanced the taste of the shredded beef perfectly. Unfortunately, the beef was a little chewy. It also two fried plantains that were way too oily for my taste. Overall, I thought this was passable. My memories of Arepas is that they are crispy/crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Maybe the drive home messed all this up.

Price wise it was pretty high for the quality and service size. If you are a light eater a single Arepa may be enough but most would need either the combo or a side of fries for a complete meal. If I’m in the area I’ll give them another try but given what I got I’m not in a...