El Pio Pio Cafe

Food is good here. Especially the soups. I really like their chicken soup and I’m obsessed with their fresh carrot and oj juice. Apparently so is everyone else! Its GOOD. Its a busy, fast paced place and parking is none. Watch out for the WNY cops looking to give tickets quick. Staff is friendly, but speak mostly Spanish.

So I came in just for a quick lunch. Big mistake! I had the chicken and cheese empanadas. I felt somewhat nauseous afterwards then had to cancel the rest of the afternoon of my work day. I came home vomited, diarrhea and developed a fever. I could not go to work even the next day because I was so weak. Either it was poor hygiene with food preparation or ingredients were not good. Go at your own risk.

Good food, horrible service. Walked in for a pick up order and was just asked rudely what I wanted, and when I began to tell the girl I wanted to add something to my order, she immediately brushed me off and said I had to speak to the girl who I ordered with. I kept getting stares as if I was bothering them. I definitely like their food, just there service really sucks.

Food is on point. Price is the best around. I’ve eaten at just about all Latin Restaurants around and they are up there with the elite. I def recommend!!’

Good thing I don’t live close to this place, because I’d be 500lbs.
Media Noche, Wow. Pan con Lechon, WOW!
That is all I really need to say.
Oh, and get some empanadas. they’re all delicious

This a really nice little restaurant to have a decent meal in a nice place full of happy folks, the service is top of the line I would say, the waitress are very polite and the food is very also the price, I usually go on Thursday night’s for dinner so I’m a happy customer, I really recommend all of you to give it a try.

Good food for cheap prices can’t beat that. Only bad thing is sometimes it can’t take long. Parking is terrible so you have to double park most of the time you picking up food.

The food was ok and the place was a bit small. I saw Pio Pio and thought it was the same restaurant as the one in NYC, totally disappointed. Giving it 3 stars because the food was not bad at all but the chicken was nowhere near the chicken that I had in NYC.

No surprise, I like Cuban food. This place delivers good Cuban dishes. I’ve had their Sandwiche Cubano and found it to be pretty good. Also tried their Ropa Vieja (shredded beef) and thought it was tasty along with yuca con mojo and white rice.

This review is for a DELIVERY scenario… can’t speak to the dine-​in situation!
So, it was a rainy, crappy January evening. A Friday, to be exact. I looked at the Mister and proclaimed, «I’m feeling carnivorous.»
I needed meat. Red meat. The more I pondered, the more I knew — a churrasco was in order. But, alas, as I said, the weather was craptacular, and I was NOT about to hunt for parking after going out for food. Delivery was the name of the game tonight… but from where?!
Las Palmas? No — I didn’t feel like paying the few dollars in service charges that Aguacates to Go was going to impose for the delivery, and it was a Friday, so there would likely be a wait. I could have walked to Centro Latino… but rain. So, no. Then, shining like a beacon of hope on the horizon, there was the number for the Pio Pio. Just a few blocks away, inexpensive, and free delivery? Done.
I called in the order — I placed it in Spanish, but it was clear that the person taking the call was fluent in English as well (an important nugget of information for some of you fine readers, I’m sure).
— 1 small churrasco, med rare w/​white rice & red beans
— 1 small churrasco, med well w/​white rice & black beans
— 1 camarones alajillo w/​steamed yuca and platanos maduros*
— 1 tres leches
— 1 flan
*The shrimp were a strategic maneuver — we both wanted an app, but the appetizer sized camarones was $ 7.95… whereas the entrée version was $ 11.95 and offered two sides as well… so, splitsies. Leftovers. Yay.
I put the order on my card and was told that we’d be chowing down in 30 minutes…
34 minutes later, the doorbell rings. The gentleman delivering our order even apologized for having been a few minutes late (good on him for that, though I really wasn’t going to quibble over 4 minutes on a rainy Friday night). The food was still hot, and everything was packed well — the rice separate from the beans, so that nothing would get soggy, etc.
We dug in.
The steaks were great — each was to the desired degree of done-​ness, topped with the requisite raw onions, and with some fresh cilantro (nice touch). The beans were tasty, and the rice portions more than plentiful. The yuca was good — not mushy, and not stringy, and the mojo was garlicky and delicious. The maduros were good — not greasy, and while a couple of them verged on being too charred, overall they were enjoyable.
Our only point of contention was the shrimp. Camarones alajillo, in my experience, are best when simple — I should see the diced garlic, and taste good quality olive oil. Instead, what we received were some admittedly nice looking shrimp (good sized, cooked properly) in a pretty bland reddish sauce — red as in sazon, or a little bit of tomato in the base. It wasn’t offensive or «bad» per se, but a little bland for our taste, and not at all what we had in mind.
Dessert was as expected — the tres leches was rich, and the flan tasty (although if you don’t like a heavy, eggy version of your flan, I’d stay away).
All in all, we were pleased with the meal, and the price was right. Pio Pio has officially been added to our delivery go-​to list.