El Pope Latin American Cuisine in Richmond

Best restaurant in Richmond. My fiancé and I come here all the time and always have the best time. Everything we ve tried has been phenomenal. Highly recommend.

If I could eat at El Pope everyday..lord knows I would Cant say enough good things about the food and the service. Genuinely the best tacos I ve had, both me and my fiancé exclaim this every single time we start eating. I also always have to order an extra pupusa to have as a midnight snack How this place isn t packed to the brim every second of the day baffles me. A true Richmond gem!

Great visit! Food was phenomenal, so flavorful and fresh! Highly recommend

Great Burritos and Pupusas!! Love this place. They also have El Salvadoran soup. Its also very reasonably priced.

Excellent place. Only reviewing now because the cats long been out of the bag. They absolutely know what they are doing with their meats. Support this place, keep them going.

Great taste.

Been here twice for brunch in the past six months when I ve visited from DC and the food and service and atmosphere are tens across the board! The nicest, most attentive servers work here, and the person looking after us was kind enough to give us the lore behind the big chair at the bar. The fried yuca and pupusa brunch are menu standouts. The bean and cheese pupusa has a collar of crispy cheese and beans that will heal your spirit. Vegetarian options: Classic bean and cheese veggie option for pupusas, as well as potato and cheese and zucchini and cheese. Additionally, many items aside from pupusas are veggie.

I came here two nights in a row the first night I came here I got just a torta which is 6 dollars I tipped him 2 dollars according to percentage. The next day I went the server was so rude and gave back handed comments because I tipped badly mind you when we first got there it took 10 minutes for someone to come up to us 15 minutes for us to get water and 35 minutes for a torta to come out it was just rude and unprofessional and I didn t enjoy the comments I came here a lot before because it s cheap and affordable for me being a college student but I probably won t come back after that it was just unacceptable

SO good everytime

Have been here twice and get the steak tacos. These are the best tacos I have ever had, no exaggeration. The char is perfect, the pico is delicious and everything is seasoned to perfection. They also serve chips and salsa with the meal which is also amazing. Can t say enough good things about this place. Will definitely be back!

Some of the best steak tacos I ve ever had! Pupusas are delicious too. This place seasons everything, even the sour cream. Whole menu is reasonably priced and the service is excellent. Will be coming back for sure

El Pope, my beloved!!! You knock me out every time. Amazing pupusas, super fresh salads, tasty salsa, chips that taste homemade, and fair prices that allow me to pop in wayyyy too often. The service is immaculate, I genuinely always feel like Im being waited on by a friend. The music is also top tier, there are commercials sometimes but the station is so consistently good that I dont even care. Perfect for a romantic date, dinner and drinks with friends, or a miserable solo dinner after a bad day at work. Literally just go

Chicken tacos! The best chicken tacos in Richmond and affordable! Cheap 16oz Tecate beer!

Incredible food at a ridiculously low price!! If you have never had a pupusa then this is the place to try one! The food is incredible! My favorite is the al pastor torta. It is honestly the best al pastor I have ever had anywhere! But you can get the torta with many different proteins. Also $3 PBR and $4 tall boy tecates! And some very tasty margaritas! Give it a try! I promise you will love it!

Great food and service! Reasonably priced, too.

Greatest shrimp fajitas Ive ever had in my life! Wow! Great prices too.

Great food for an incredible price. Adrian creates a welcoming, 5 star experience I dont think Ive encountered a server as enthusiastic and personable as Adrian.

Delicious food for a great value. The El Pope Rolls, pupusas, and the Chicken Torta are my favorite items, but I ve enjoyed everything I ve gotten here, including brunch.

Amazing.

Great doll!

Delicious pupusas, steak chimichanga is amazing

Awesome place and reasonable pricing. Food is delicious.

Amazing amazing amazing.

very rich and good

I love El Pope

Loved the steak chimichanga

Adrian is a blast. It s amazing that my favorite server works at the best El Salvadorian restaurant in Virginia!

Everything was DELICIOUS! All fresh and homemade. Best salsas I have ever tasted!!!

Incredible price for fantastic food! Simple, quick, delicious. Their Pupusas are my favorite.

Love this place. High quality food at a great price. And the staff are really friendly and nice. Every time we visit Richmond we try to stop here

I ve loved this restaurant for many years, and I swear they NEVER miss. The staff are super welcoming and friendly, the food is consistently amazing and amazingly consistent, and the vibes are always right! El Pope team- y all are the best restaurant in town and anyone who says otherwise is simply lying

Delicious food, food service, great prices. A total hole in the wall

Everything was very tasty, especially the pupusas. 100% recommended.

Im a little biased on this one. But, if you want to try Salvadoran food. This is the spot. Mario, the Owner is very attentive.

This place is a diamond in the rough. Their food is spectacular. Everything is very authentic. We loved their willows! The only thing is that it needs a good overall cleaning. The bathrooms, floors, walls, light switches, and etc. A diamond in the rough this place. Their food is spectacular. All very authentic. We loved their sauces! The only detail is that it needs a good general cleaning. Bathrooms, floors, walls, light switches and more.

Love the Pupusas. Steak torta is to die for. Locally owned, can t say enough good things about this place. Definitely a local gem.

The food was great, we ordered tacos, pupusa, a burrito and a torta. All were amazing with the steak torta being our favorite.

After being in Richmond for a little over a year, I can easily say this is absolutely my favorite restaurant in town. I have tried a lot of different things on their menu and I am always very happy. Fantastic service and incredible food! They also recently started doing brunch, which I went to this last weekend and it was just as great as the rest of their menu. Very reasonably priced, great service, food, drinks, and atmosphere. Vegetarian options: They have lots of vegetarian options, especially for brunch, with very similar variety to their non-vegetarian options.

im sorry to report: greasy, doughy, salty and slow service.

Enjoyed the food and atmosphere. Parking: Its downtown street parking.

fries were cold, poor presentation of food, tortilla hard and cold, Im sorry I was really looking forward to trying this place out and I had heard good things. Quite disappointed

Great pupusas. Yummy platanos. Little light on waitstaff, be patient and nice. Our waiter was the hostess, food runner, bartender, take out order person, and bus boy. He provided great service!!! Really good food.

Pupusas

Pictures look good but our meal did not live up to the hype.

The chips had a weird taste. It tasted like some type of cleaning solution/spray. Maybe they aren t covering the food when they spray the tables.

The grande burrito is one of the best burritos Ive ever had. The seasoning is perfection. The pupusas are also pretty good. The salsa and sticky floors arent so great.

Loved everything ...food was good and service was great ....

Nice atmosphere, nice staff, good food. I ahve really enjoyed my time here!

Amazing food served by a very welcoming staff. Very fresh ingredients and more than fair prices.

The food was solid, but I didnt actually get what I ordered. I never got my drink (couldnt tell you how the mixed drinks are) and wouldve said something, but when I got my pupusas and realized they were the incorrect filling, I didnt want to deal with it. My waiter only realized he forgot my drink when he came back with the bill. Maybe they should try writing the orders down as the get them? Aside from not getting the drink and not getting the kind of pupusa I ordered, the pupusas were pretty good. I just really, really wasnt in the mood to complain today. Also, they added auto gratuity to my bill, which I was NOT happy about. Felt like a real insult to injury moment. First time and probably last time I come here.

The food was great and the staff was very friendly

I went last week and it was delicious as always!

Great prices, awesome food

This place is incredible if you are reading this please go there

Great local spot! The Pupusas are so yummy and they have a pretty big variety of flavors and are vegetarian friendly! They give great service and are super nice!

I ordered a pupusa, a quesadilla with chorizo, and 3 tacos (2 adobo chicken and 1). Loved the food it was sooo delicious. The food also was cheap for for the quantity which was nice. The only reason I gave this place 4 out of 5 stars is because i ordered over the phone at 7 pm. They told me it would take 20-25 minutes, but i then ended up having to wait 35 minutes in the restaurant for them to make the food. However food was definetly worth the wait.

amazing service, amazing prices, amazing food!!

The service was slow and the meat was tough. I was not impressed with the flavor at all. Just bread, dry meat and watery sause.

Not an authentic pupuseria but food was decent, our order was cold and it took more than an hour to receive it, once i told them the food was cold the owner came out and disrespect me and my friends im salvadorean and i know how to pupusas are supposed to be and the owner was rude and kinda yell at us for telling him the food was cold, it was obvious his ego was hurt and it look like he was under the influence, over price as well only good part was the waiter he was great he is the only reason i gave 1 star, over all not recommended by a real Salvadorean and to the waiter please find a better place to work your skills are being wasted there! Good luck

I can t even begin to explain how much of a gem this place is. Everyone who works there is delightful and welcoming. Unreasonably good food, strikingly cheap prices (two pupusa s will easily fill you up for lunch- costs like $6) Go for the pupsas, stay for the tortas.

We should have taken a clue when we went in and the floors havent been clean since they built the 1900s building. Windows with spider webs. I ordered the fajitas and they came with all peppers and onions teensy bit of beef. The beef was cold inside letting me know they picked this baby out of the fridge and attempted to reheat. I know this is not Mexican but I did not expect a tomato based fajita beef offish taste. You heard of refried beans well these were blended in a way that it was the consistency of baby food. Paid way too much $13 for fajita, Not much attention by the waiter when there were not any other customers in the place. I would not recommend this place.

Food was amazing. Will definitely go back!

Authentic cuisine and vibe - the pupusas were excellent, especially the regular and potato + cheese. Will be coming back

The food is delicious and affordable. No matter what you do, GET THE YUCCA FRIES! my personal favorite pupusa is the shrimp and cheese. Food takes a little longer but it s always fresh and comes out hot. The guys who work here are also super nice! Vegetarian options: Great veg and pescatarian options - you can still make a hearty meal of bean and cheese pupusas and yucca.

The super pupusas that I loved

Some of the best meso-american food. They are El Salvadoran. The chimichanga sauce is some of the best ever. Convinced me there is more than just alright Mexican north of the river in Richmond.

Came here with family and the food was AMAZING! I highly recommend the rolls and especially the Sopapilla. Street parking was fine. Bathrooms are decent. Service was great! Will definitely return :)

My favorite lunch spot in the fan.

This is one of our favorite restaurants in Richmond. Every time weve been there (which is probably over 20 times) the food has been incredible. I could eat my weight in papusas and dont even get me started on the torta El pastor . Its a low key place, no frills, and an excellent price point.

Well made and well served

The papusas are cheap and god tier. The servers are awesome. It is my absolute favorite place in Richmond. $20 gets you tispy, full of good food, and covers the tip

Terrible food, embarrassing to put Salvadoran food so badly

I adore the staff here and of course the food! Love papusas and tortas.

I have just been working in the area three weeks and by far the best tasting dinner I have had.

Falling for something!! Yum!! Culinary trip to El Salvador. Everything we ate was excellent. THANKS!

Enjoyable. They appreciate you. Family operation. Popusas are great.

Stumbled across this place in search of brunch and I m glad I did. Really some of the best food I ve had in Richmond and all for a really good price. 100% recommend going.

Delicious food and friendly staff

Everything was outstanding

Delicious and you get a great deal no matter what in you order. Go often!

Late night after a show, place was empty but the food and service was top notch!!

Friendly place and affordable! Tasty pupusas and chips, salsa Vegetarian options: Zucchini and cheese pupusas is vegetarian! Food : 5/5 |

Food is so good! We go here a lot and the restaurant is always clean and organized and the food comes out fast! One of our favorite places to go for lunch in the Fan.

Pretty authentic!!! Im originally from sf, and there were a lot of restaurants I frequent when I want pupusas. When I came to Virginia, I thought I would find anything good until I came here! The pupusas from El Pope were of the same quality as to ones I would get in sf! The salsa roja was on point! I will be making a point to come here, specifically, when I have a craving. Vegetarian options: Maybe half of the pupusa fillings are strictly vegetarian. From what I remember, there was bean and cheese, zucchini and cheese, cheese only and one more that I cant quite remember

5 stars, every time. The papusas and curtito are the best I ve ever had. I ve eaten about 1/2 of the menu now and everything has been worth having again.

The steak chimichanga is very delicious. Dietary restrictions: The food is somewhat spicy

Had a wonderful dinner tonight!! Prices were very reasonable and everything was DELICIOUS! We had two tacos, two pupusas, and a torta. It was plenty of food for two people! They were sadly short staffed but the servers were excellent and very kind. Kid-friendliness: We brought our baby with us and the servers were so kind to her. They provided a space for the car seat. Don t think there would ve been space for a stroller

Absolutely heavenly food. Ive had both the chimichanga and steak torta sandwich. Both were excellent. Not to mention the prices for the meals are really good. Will be going back many many times.

good drinks good food

I have always been curious about pupusas and was happy they have several vegetarian options. Tasty. My partner loved her burrito. The peach jalapeno marg was delicious and $5. The hot sauce will light up your nose hairs. I only wish the guy who waited on us was wearing a mask.

I had papusas, they were amazing. There was only one person working service when I was there but he was doing an amazing job. The food was very good value.

great service at affordable prices

After a long night of clubbing, nothing beats the 6 dollar brunch dishes at El Pope on a Sunday. Very peppy staff, not to mention drinks galore. Get the buenos noches if you want a good time

One of my favorite places in richmond, the best papusas and margaritas for the best prices. Great place to go with groups and the staff is super nice and helpful. You cant go wrong with a single item on the menu and the coleslaw and sauce that comes with is the perfect touch so yummy!

The best. I ve brought practically everyone I know to this delicious spot! Affordable and filling. I hope you all contemplate adding nondairy/vegan items!

Food was fantastic. Service was perfect. Atmosphere was laid back. Will definitely be back.

Good drinks at fantastically low prices, nice service, tasty food -- but the saltiest meal I can remember in a long time! Way too much salt on the chips and the chicken burrito. I dont know if this was a one-time experience or if this their enduring idea of how to season foods.

El Pope never disappoints! The serotonin rush I get from their pupusas is no joke. The customer service is amazing as well. Friday night is pupusa night for my family and El Pope is the only place we re getting them!

The best pupusas north of the James! I ve visited El Pope a few times with friends and it s quickly become my favorite restaurant in Richmond. You can t go wrong with the bean and cheese pupusas, and the fried yucca comes with a yummy dipping sauce. Make sure you try the house-made hot sauces they really are very hot. $5 happy hour cocktails seal the deal. I d recommend the margaritas! And shout out to the efficient and friendly wait staff. If you re friendly to them, they ll remember you every time you come back!

The Chimichangas are amazing. This changed my opinion that good Mexican food can be had north of the river.

Great food. Takes a little while to come out but you understand why when you get it. Love this place!

Great. Service. Very attentive friendly . Chips are free .very good atmosphere Very busy. Burritos are very tasty get the burrito The pupusas. Have very good taste but. It s more like fried cheese very delicious very small. Way small pupusas again. They delicious. You will. Need about 8 pupusas to feed an adult. Let s work on them pupusas the size. Make them bigger to justify. $2.75 per. In the mean. Time. Visit. Tako Tako. They are making. Very authentic pupusas .

I ate soo much and everything was soo good.

Everything from the food, to the drinks, to the service was great. The prices are very reasonable as well. Deff will continue coming here!!

High expectations that did not disappoint! The egg rolls were amazing and the pupusas were great. I recommend getting the regular ones. 1 guy serving all the tables and the bar but still did a good job.

Love it!

Delicious food for a great price

Moved to rva circa 1.5 years ago. Needed a place that reminded me of my mothers cooking.

El pope is the best! The pupusas are my favorite. It is delicious and not overpriced food. They also serve breakfast.

The food is reasonably priced. And the waiter is hilarious!

Excellent service. Friendly atmosphere.

Great little Salvadorian place.

Our first time here .... cause, yes, there are plenty of other Mexican, Tex-Mex, and Latin / Central American restaurants on Cary Street and Main Street in The Fan - so it took us a while to try El Pope. What a pleasant surprise!!! From the outside, it is a very unassuming place. Once inside, the friendly staff, cleanliness, and Latin music quietly playing in the background just made us know we would enjoy our lunch. The food, most importantly, did not disappoint. I tried three different street tacos - adobo chicken, pork al pastor, and carnitas - to get a sampling of their cooking. They were all excellent. We will be back, soon.

You can tell they use high-quality, fresh ingredients because their food is superb. Everything is so reasonably priced. Great value and delicious flavor!

Coming from Chicago, my girlfriend and I were craving some popusas. They were made very good! But I do have to say their Caldo De Res is by far one of the better ones I have tried. Definitely would come again.

Worst Salvadoran food in my life!! My first and last time ever eating here! Papusas was uncooked and the yucca look like logs off a tree. I asked for a remake or refund the next day because I live far and it s late and the owner told me she wanted to see it tonight not the morning and if I didn t I couldn t get a remake or refund. Like I already drove 20 mins to and from the restaurant why would I want to drive back at 9:30 at night and risk you being closed. Owner customer service suck! I m Salvadoran so I know what papusas supposed to look and feel like. If I could give negative stars I would! ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE! Save your money!! And the food taste was tasteless! The Little I tried to eat. They should be ashamed to call themselves a Latin restaurant

The portions are generous and the food is cooked and seasoned. Well. The service is very friendly. It may be a little bit on the slow side, but theyre a small restaurant with not a whole lot of staff and a friendliness makes up for any timing. The pupusas were solid as well as the tacos and the soups. We tried the salsa was also really good. Definitely a go-to spot.

This is the restaurant that took me by surprise after a long time, cheaper compared to other dine in restaurants, a must try.

We came here on a Friday night and were impressed with our food. Definitely not your typical Latin restaurant in terms of selection and depth of flavor in the dishes. Service has room to improve, the staff were not very attentive and tables were left with dirty dishes on them. But Ill be back because the food was that good!

great drinks and great service !!! love el pope

Genuinely some of the best food I ve ever had. I found a new favorite spot! And the person working the takeout area was very nice

Im sorry, but everything was terrible, food, service and parking

This is simply the best damn food Ive ever had in my life

my card declined free food

Papusa fever. Catch it.

Absolutely amazing Latin America food, quite possibly the best in the Richmond area! Service was exceptional too!

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 weve 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. Im seeing all these 5 star reviews about great food, attentive service, and even free chips? I feel like Im 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 is delicious.

Went for lunch with a friend, this place is your stereotypical hole in the wall. Unassuming building, stellar food, they had the best salsa & chips Ive had since Pescados in Midlothian closed due to the pandemic. I couldve pigged out on those but I still had lunch to eat, so onto the main course. I ordered four Pupasas, two shrimp & cheese, and two pork, beans & cheese. These were delicious, and came with a Pupasa sauce which is pretty much standard, nothing special with the sauce. However the jalapeño slaw that came on the side was awesome, and I wound up overeating, because I wanted to finish everything.

Nothing to do with Salvadoran or Mexican food. The worst place I have ever been. Bad food Bad service Bad place Terrible especially the bathrooms

I was going in expecting authentic Salvadorian food. I walked out of there very disappointed not only w the food but w the service. What a shame!

I love el pope. God must be in that kitchen because wow wow wow.

Dude. I dont want to tell anyone about how good this place is. I want this to be my secret. A buddy of mine and I put down a table of plates for dirt cheap that were most excellent. May they live to be a thousand years old!

Excellent food, drinks and staff. A variety of authentic dishes with so many delicious flavors. Can t wait to stop back in and try something else!

my hispanic friends/families this isnt the place for you. i ordered the salvadoreño sopa de res, it was more oil than caldo. two small pieces of beef. the pupusas were small, the curtido was dry, they actually put pepper in the salsa for the pupusas. def not going back

Delicious, good portions, very good food!

One of my absolute favorite restaurants in the city and very well priced.

The proportions are massive and delicious

Hands down best pupusas in RVA! Steak tacos are delicious. Great prices. Friendly staff. 10/10 definitely recommend El Pope.

A gem of a place. Necessary presence in the Fan. Wished they had loroco pupusas but they have some unique recipes that you won t find in other RVA pupuserias

Simply one of the best Central American cuisine meals you can get for money. Great family run restaurant, always friendly service with fantastic home made cuisine.

Hard to decide between two and three. Inattentive waiter acted pretty lazy. We were the only customers and he took a while to get our order. The order was messed up on two of the meals. The used glasses and plates were never cleared off. He was too busy on his phone to worry about the customers. The food is not that great either. The queso dip was even lackluster. My sopapilla was decent but not anything to write home about.

Amazing pupusas! Will be back for more soon.

Awesome spot. Affordable and delicious and fast. One of the best deals in RVA. So yummy!

The food was good and the service was speedy.

This is my favorite place to go when i need cheering up, no matter how bad it gets it always feels a little better at el pope

Al Pastor Burrito

Great prices, great food.

Great food at very reasonable prices. My only complaint is that they don t have Central American beers. Get Imperial and Presidente!

One of my top 3 go-to spots in RVA. The kindest owners and staff with the best food of its kind in town. A clear amount of care shown in every bite, and a consistently good meal year in year out.

My favorite restaurant in Richmond, so far! Authentic pupusas. I will be back!

This place is dope. Great food, relatively inexpensive, nice cozy spot.

Food was very good. Went there on a whim based on Googles reviews and it was a pleasant surprise. Would recommend in a heartbeat. Only -ve was the wait time for the food to arrive, took about 40minutes.. Place has a small cozy atmosphere. Wheelchair accessibility: Street level entrance so will be accessable by wheel chair. However space inside is very limited, just right to walk.

Great to-go pupusas. The regular and cheese and beans are awesome. Chips and salsa are included in take out orders which is great! Super quick too!

I would no even give one star to this restaurant. Lack of professionalism since we made a reservation for several people and when we got there they said they don t have room to accommodate us. What kind of customer service is that?

Low-key but solid food for reasonable prices. Great location. Attentive servers.

Attention not good at all, but the taste of the food is definitely something else.

Good tacos. That salsa though!! They need to bottle it. Its so good. When you sit down ask for a couple of servings of it because youll run out with your chips. The salsa verde and the salsa roja that came with the tacos were just ok.

Really great food and drink prices and very friendly atmosphere!

Everything was delicious, great prices, and made in house. Best pupusas in Richmond!

Boy was this place good, and the prices are unbeatable. The pupusas were tasty and well sized. My friend got a quesadilla as well that was enormous, very well made, and even came with French fries. Very small spot too, which gives it an intimate feeling. Highly recommend for a casual dinner.

Everything was great, tacos, pupusas, salsa. Would be perfect if there was some outdoor seating

Love the food, service and authenticity of the flavors. Weve been here twice when coming into town and plan on returning. They have made adjustments for me d/t food allergies. My family really enjoys the food and service here! Please give them a try.

Excellent place to enjoy with family and friends

Regular menu is limited but good. Their brunch food is very cheap and delicious.

Great food for very fair price!