Pepitos After Hours

My wife and i were looking for some late night grub last nite. She heard about Pepitos from some friends, so we decided to check them out. The menu isnt terribly big, which isnt a bad thing. Sometimes, its best to have a limited menu with quality items… My wife ordered a pork arepa and i ordered a chicken arepon. Hers was fully loaded with lettuce, tomato, onions and a few other typical fixins. Mine was just shredded chicken and cheese, but it was still good. Both of ours were good but i do prefer my wifes over mine slightly. We also ordered tequenos which are kind of like mozzarella sticks without the breading. Pepitos is in a very unassuming location. Very easy to miss if youre not paying attention. The dining area seemed new and was very well kept. The crew working there was very polite. The guy that took our order gave us recommendations also. Give them a shot if youre in looking for something off the beaten path!

Came in here late directly from the airport, the owner must have sensed that I was from out of town — he asked if it was my first time, and took very good care of us, explaining the menu, making recommendations, and gave us a couple samples on the house. The food was amazing and the passion fruit smoothie is insane. GO HERE! These people deserve the business.

This is a great late night place to eat. Their menu items aren’t the tradition Tampa latin stuff. I have the arepon. The garlic and cilantro sauce was great. Everyone was very friendly too.

My new favorite go-​to for Latin food. Tried it for the first time tonight after having read the Unilocal reviews several times. I’m so very, VERY glad I finally went. The churrasco was perfection and the plantains (both savory and sweet) made me want to sing. My only complaint was having to wait for my food while the restaurant’s smells made my stomach even grumblier. (In their defense, I arrived starving…) I’ll be back and probably soon.

Love this place… stumbled on it rather late. The service and food is delicious! Highly recommend! Cheap and flavorful!

Today was my first time here and my first time having Arepas, and they were excellent. Everything was made fresh and very quickly too. The staff were very nice and provided a good product. I ordered Tequenos and Pastelitos as well which were also delicious. The sauces were definitely as good as other reviews are saying. I will definitely come here again.

Came here for the Parrillada Argentina and it was indeed enough to share with my girlfriend. Came with a shit load of quality cooked meats with 2 sides of fries and beans (you can choose your sides). I slathered the beans over the fries. I asked for 3 small to-​go sauce containers and got the green sauce and the spicy looking sauce. The green sauce while mild packs on the flavor! The spicier red sauce is not overwhelming and it’s tasty as well as having a balanced amount of spice. They’re opened later than the city of Tampa itself, so you can go anytime lol. Tampa really needs more places like this and Zeko’s that are opened late for us night owls. Tampa restaurants seem to shut down at 9−10pm, so having something that isn’t a bar or pub that is opened late is just a breath of fresh air.
I will have no problem taking the 17 min drive here for my late night hunger attacks. The food is good and the price is right! That dinner was $ 16 something with tax and it fed two big girls. Go Pepitos!

Pepito’s After Dark is a terrific little late-​night Latin eatery located along Waters Avenue near Armenia in a small non-​descript shopping center. The restaurant opens before Noon each day, and stays open until the wee hours for late-​night diners. It’s easy to spot Pepito’s, as the place is all lit up with multi-​colored lights in a section of Waters which is generally dark in the evenings.
Most people stroll up to the counter and chat with the cooks as they place their orders, though some will sit at one of the tables and wait for someone to bring over a menu. I followed behind another couple and walked up to the counter to place my order. You can either point to the picture of a dish that you like, or muddle your way through some broken Spanish to place your order. Either way the guys behind the counter will smile and recite your order back in English.
The menu has a wide variety of Argentinian and Venezuelan favorites, from appetizers like tequenos and patacones, to the well-​known arepas and pabellon. If this is your first time trying the cuisine you might want to invite a friend who’s had some experience with the food.
Tonight I ordered the Parrillada Argentina which translates into «Giant platter of Argentinian grilled yumminess» (or something like that). The platter includes thinly-​sliced and grilled churrasco steak, beef rib, pork cutlet, sausage, and chicken cutlet. All of that grilled meat is combined with two sides, including your choice of a salad, rice, beans, tostones, and plantains. Pick two.
When your food is ready, one of the guys from the kitchen will bring it to your table. From there you’re encouraged to walk up to the counter and grab one of many different homemade sauces to use with your dinner. This might be their delicious creamy garlic sauce or their chimichurri sauce, made with parsley, oregano, garlic, oil and vinegar and a little bit of chili pepper. YUM!!!
Dinner was very tasty, and quite a bit more than I could eat in one sitting, but thankfully the guys were there with a carryout box, and I brought home about half of my dinner. The cost for my Parradilla Argentina with 2 Diet Cokes was under $ 20, and I have enough leftovers for a whole second meal.
#elfreakingyummo and a great big score!

Nearly 25 minutes to get my food. You can’t claim to be a fast food restaurant if it takes that long to put together a simple order and others waited just as long. All I got was an arepon and guanabana juice. While both were good, it wasn’t worth the wait nor the $ 10.70 for it. It didn’t even come with fries and the juice was rather small.
When a customer is waiting that long for food, they should at least acknowledge it by saying «Sorry for the wait» and maybe an explanation. I’m not sure I’ll go back. There are plenty of other places that offer similar food. I could only imagine how long it would take if I ordered the churrasco dinner plate with two sides.

This is definitely is a good place for late night food. It takes a little while to get your food, but once its out it is very tasty.

A fantastic option for late night dining or anytime dining. I guess me saying dining, is a bit subjective. I should just say eating.
After several visits at various times, overall the food is the boss! I don’t have to rave about it, as it defiantly speaks very loud and clear for itself. The churrasco is absolutely devine, could eat it daily. All of the offerings we have tried here have been awesome & on point.
Communication can get a bit dicey at times, but they go out of their way to assist & insure you know what you are ordering. Great spot for anytime!
What’s a girl to do? Remember the option it is open late & stop in at all hors to enjoy a great feast.

Solid option if in the area, I tried a little bit of everything really. I enjoyed the Beef Arepon (though I found the Mayo a bit overpowering). The Beef pastelitos was good, much better than the Ham and Cheese.
The Parillada Argentina was pretty good but not worth the price imo. Asked them to substitute the pork for chicken, still ended up with pork, that was disappointing. The Tostones were ok.
Guess I just expected something more besides all the greasy food. It was nice to see they offered a salad as a side, though it’s nothing special, dry with no dressing.
I liked the service overall, they seemed like cool guys. They explained the menu well and offered suggestions. Love the late hours of operation. That’s a major plus.
Pepitos failed to blow me away, it’s not a bad option, just not my first option. I’ll try them again in the distant future. It’s not in a class by itself, but worth checking out.

Pepito’s After Dark. It sounds like this restaurant in the dark side of the Venezuelan. It plenty of light in the restaurant, don’t be afraid of the name call.
The restaurant is set up like fast food restaurant with service. The food can be order in the counter and deliver to you on the table. We have group of Unilocaliest people decide to try this restaurant. We have started with Tequenos — cheese wrap dough. This is not bad. We have order the Pepito Basket (grill beef, lettuce and sour cream at corn shape basket), Patacon (pork, lettuce, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella on top on plantain), chicharon de pollo (deep fried chicken), Arepon (chicken at arepa). The one I like the most is the the basket. The beef is well seared to cook and make the taste more desirable.
Overall the restaurant is good. They do have big screen TV here for any soccer game in South America. It is a community restaurant with affordable price. I enjoy my time here when we have a group to enjoy the conversation.

I met up with a few Unilocalers for dinner last night to try out Pepitos. I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t be able to find something I’d like since I’m so picky, but I was confident that my companions would assist me. We were helped by Gus, who was great at explaining anything we had questions about. I am completely unfamiliar with ethnic foods, so between Gus and Nick I felt more than comfortable ordering. Our table ordered a few things to share and we were also given a basket of tequenos to sample. They were delicious cheese sticks and managed to hold us over while the rest of our food was being prepared.
I’m more of a Plain Jane when it comes to food, so my favorite dish was the pollo arepa. It is lightly fried and comes with chicken and cheese. I loved it! We also ordered the Pepitos basket, arepon, arepazo, chicharron de pollo with plantano maduro (fried chicken with sweet plantains), and one other new dish that I can’t remember the name of. Everyone also tried their fruit juices, which you can mix in water or milk for a different base. I had a mango juice in water and thought it was delicious.
The food was great, the wait was short, and the prices were more than reasonable. Now that I know they’re open so late on weekends, I will certainly be visiting all the time!

Found this place through Unilocal & I can’t believe more people arn’t talking about it.
Pepito’s is fast comfort food, nothing fancy and complicated, just straight up good! Everything was fresh & hot, meat was juicy and there is a great soda selection (Ironbeer, Kola Champagne, Jupiña, etc.)
The prices are great for the amount of food you get. The portions are generous and the guys working are super friendly and fast. Definitely worth revisiting!

So, excuse my laziness on this review as it’s going to be pretty short. Plain and simple, this place is great. Fast and hot, with so many menu items. I love their pollo arepazo is super good (first time
I’ve tried it with egg!) and sachipaps are by far my favorite from any place. Their portions are huge and prices are reasonably inexpensive.

I’m so sorry that I waited a bit before absolutely RAVING about this here place! We were headed to Yummy House for a grotesque feeding session the likes as have never been seen on that side of Dale Mabry before. We didn’t however, count on being there too early for the joint to be opened so we took our frenzied appetites here instead, and SO unspeakably glad that we did. Holy sauces, holy deep fried arepas, holy delectable pork meat, where do I begin? I loved the attentive service. They are authentic Spanish speaking Mexicans, who admit that cooking mainly Colombian foods was a surprise to them, and they love it. And for that, I love them. Do not read the reviews about this place. Feed and judge for yourself! You’ll be so glad you did!

This is the kind of unusual specialty ethnic food find that I enjoy. It’s nothing fancy. It’s a little challenging if you aren’t familiar with this kind of South American food, but it’s fun to try. The arepon is one of my favorite food finds in Tampa!!! There are a variety of very flavorful sauces to try. This isn’t light food and the flavors are robust. Bring your adventurous foodie side and dig in!!!

Big ups to Brett for recommending this place because I’ve been driving past it for about 2 years now and never even knew it was there. Never even looked over there. Now, it’s on my radar hardcore. A few of us were actually trying to grub at Yummy House this past Saturday, but they weren’t open yet. Not wanting to wait 45 minutes for them to open, we decided to hit Pepito’s After Dark. Best decision I made that day, for sure. Like others have stated, it’s more of a South American style eatery than Caribbean, which is good because we have plenty of that already.
I had the PABELLON CRIOLLO, which was some shredded beef (like ropa vieja), yellow rice, Amarillo (fried plantains), black beans and cheese. The flavor was all there, but the beef needed to be more tender. Perhaps they rushed that batch? The beans were wonderful, and were cooked with pork. The rice was nice and moist, and the amarillos were delightfully sweet and crunchy on the edges. I loved the queso frescho slices as well. I wouldn’t normally eat cheese with a dish like that, but it worked very well.
As good as my plate was, it was NOTHING compared to what La Chica ordered – the AREPON. I’ve eaten my fair share of apepas, but never have I had one that’s been deep fried. That crunchiness took arepas to a whole new level for me. Not sure if I can ever go back. The arepa of no return? This thing was piled high with perníl, lettuce, tomatoes and topped with a fried egg. Fock! I might head over right now to get one of these.
La Chica’s mom ordered an chicken AREPAZO. Good, but not as good as the arepon.

Why 4 stars? Because the menu has me wanting to come back for more.
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Apparently this place has been in business for a year… and I’d never even heard of it. Well, actually I’d heard of it because it was in my bookmarks for a while, but I have no idea how it got there. With no reviews, I’m not sure where I saw or heard about it, but I’m glad I did.
This is like Argentinian, Colombian, and Venezuelan all combined. So what I’m saying is that it’s heaven on Earth. Despite being in an old strip mall, the inside is actually nice and new.
The food totally rocks. For my first visit, I went with a beef arepon and a side of plantains. I guess the difference between an arepa and an arepon is that the arepon is more like a burger with «buns» and the arepa is more like a taco. Not a taco, but a distant cousin of one, in the way that the breading surrounds the contents of the inside.
Things that I want to try upon my return:
–Pepitos
–Burger
–Cachapas (I have no idea what this is)
–Choripan
–Salchipapas
–Arepazo
–Churrasco (of course)
Oh, and if you have a spanish friend, it wouldn’t hurt to bring them along. The people working here speak some pretty broken English. But if not, you’ll be alright. I successfully ordered what I wanted without a hitch. Well, my plantains were burned, but, that had little to do with the language barrier.
Burned plantains were my only complaint. Everything else was unbelievable. Definitely a 5-​star possibility after visit #2.