Tuesday

COUPA CAFÉ
419 North Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA
310. 385-0420
7am – 11pm / 7days
The Scene: Attractive Café, primarily for lunch
Cuisine: Venezuelan Blah
Must Try: Another restaurant!
Star Rating: .5 (for atmosphere only)
Average Cost: Entrees $10 to $15


The Dining Duo gets enthusiastic and excited over new restaurants, especially those that tout novel concepts. Unfortunately, we are sad to report one of the worst experiences we have encountered.

Coupa Café at first glance looks promising. Located in Beverly Hills, it is inviting, yet simply decorated. With plants on the walls, and dripping fountains, the tidy restaurant puts forth its most attractive feature; unfortunately, it all devolves from there. Having visited the restaurant on our usual three occasions, the food went from mediocre to downright inedible. The salmon concoction, which they boast as being cooked on one side, proved to be gooey and fishy-tasting. The empanadas and arepas--based on recipes from the owner’s homeland, Venezuela--were dry, uneventful, and unappetizing at $4.95-$8.50.

The service was glacially slow and amateurish. When we finally got our food, Runners would ask, “Who got the…?”; when the wait staff finally reappeared, the question usually was “Are you working on the…?”, one of the Dining Duo’s pet peeves. We “work” all day, the last thing we want to do is “work on it” during a meal. On our third visit, an angry patron stormed from the restaurant, screaming, “If you don’t have all day to eat here, don’t do it.”

What proved particularly odd was Jean Paul Coupa, the owner. When delivered the wrong order, unsolicited he asked if we would be interested in trying their desserts, “Do you like chocolate”? We thought this was a nice way of remedying a wrong, but after three pretty, yet uneventful “homemade” desserts arrived, so did the check with the costs of $6.95 for each dessert. We approached Jean Paul saying that this was his offer, and we never asked for the desserts; he exploded in anger and said that there is no free food in his restaurants (we had no intention of desiring free food), and that we should never come back. Our lunch companion Cynthia was horrified at the owner’s outburst. The stress of operating a restaurant in an unacceptable manner obviously percolated forth.

From soup to nuts, we must advise you, our friends, not to waste your money at this deceptively attractive-looking new canteen that registers quite low on the Dining Duo’s scale of acceptability.

Posted by The Dining Duo | 2:28 PM | , , , | 0 comments »

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