Bebas Restaurant

I thought the food tasted really good. My buddy and I went and picked up a couple of lunch specials to go who were very delicious. The saltenas were really good! It’s like homemade Bolivian food.

Don’t even bother visiting this place.
1. They gave a 3 – 4 page menu. Most of the menu items they dont even serve. Frustrating when you are looking forward to ordering your first choice of a meal but told they are not serving it. Same goes for my second choice. Finally had to settle for saltenas rather than going down a list of dishes to be told they are no longer serving it.
2. Its true, they dont serve water. You have to buy bottled water.
3. Customer service stinks. You have to flag down the only waitress multiple times since they dont care to check in on you. This includes the bill. We were one of two parties seated in the early afternoon.
If you are a restaurant who’s heart and enthusiasm is no longer there to provide quality food, provide a full menu, and great customer service, then it’s probably time you folks start considering closing your doors to the public.
I now understand the few patrons coming through your doors during lunch hours on an early Sunday afternoon.

Saltenas! If you like meat pies you definitely have to try this variation. It is a stuffed meat pie with spices, minced vegetables, meat broth, with an egg!

Best salteñas anywhere local. Get them to go and enjoy!

I hardly write any reviews, but I had to do it for this place which offers a GREAT authentic Bolivian experience.
1. Food excellent !!! And the right portions to enjoy them. Also a good variety to choose from.
2. Most of you may not agree with 5 stars due the slow and unresponsive service, but as I said above «authentic Bolivian experience»
Next time in in SoCal I will definitely come back to this place.

Really good food. Also had some Meat Pies (Salters Corner) and they were the best I have ever had.

There are not many places in Southern California that have Bolivian Saltenas that are super delicious!!!

Love this place. .they have authentic Bolivian food and good service. Just a bit on the costly side, but we’ll worth it.

Bebas Restaurant is only one of two restaurants that serve authentic Bolivian cuisine in the Los Angeles /​Orange County area. After extensive research, I elected to take my Bolivian girlfriend here, who had just moved to the US almost three years ago.
Upon arrival, we were quickly seated by a waitress. My girlfriend being very homesick, was drawn in by the many Bolivian cultural artifacts that were present. The Bolivian music being played the television was a great touch too. My girlfriend asked our waitress many questions about the restaurant and the menu. We found out the owners are Bolivian but the whole staff, kitchen and service, were Mexican.
Being the expert on her own country’s food, my girlfriend did all the ordering:
1. We started out with the mocochinchi.
2. Appetizers, we ordered one saltena and the cheese empanada.
3. For our entrees, we shared the sopa de mani and the silpancho.
verdict: While this was my first time trying Bolivian food, my girlfriend was disappointed by the food served here. She said it wasn’t very authentic. So the below descriptions are of her own account:
Mocochinchi drink is too sweet.
Saltena was actually decent and full of flavor.
Cheese empanada (I actually ordered this): Waste of money. It’s pretty much a very thin layer of cream cheese inside a stale empanada.
Sopa de mani (peanut soup): Authentic sopa de mani comes with fried strips of potato (kind of like french fries). This one comes with zero fried strips and the soup lacks the important peanut taste, despite there being peanuts inside the soup. For myself, Bebas’s sopa de mani tasted like a New England clam chowder.
Silpancho: carbohydrate overload. Eggs, white rice, meat and potatoes were all present. She said it tasted ok but she has had better back home.
Despite being infatuated with the interior decorations of Bebas, the food was a let-​down for my girlfriend and I. Oh yeah, no complimentary water. Only water bottles, sodas and beer are available for purchase here.

Arriba Bolivia! My sister in law’s family is from Bolivia and so my sweetie and I were very curious about this eatery. We wondered if the food would be as good as the delicious homemade dishes we had during the holidays.
We’re delighted to report that we enjoyed our scrumptious lunches at Bebas.
I had the delicious silpancho which is a schnitzel type, thinly sliced beef accompanied with thin fried potato slices and pico de gallo. It comes with eggs but I opted for no eggs. The rice is nice and buttery. Home run on the silpancho.
My sweetie had a similar beef dish. However his had this really amazing fried cheese, Bolivian corn, and fava beans. All super delish! The Bolivian corn is huge and takes minimal effort to bite off from the cobb. He also had the sopa de mani which is a peanut soup. Very good.
We tried the dehydrated peach and cinnamon drink called the mocochinchi. He found it to be refreshing. I however found it too sweet for my liking and opted for a bottled soda.
Our server was pleasant and efficient. Unfortunately they seemed to be only staffed with 2 servers. Each table in the dining area was occupied by patrons. They need to prepare for these kinds of rushes especially on Sundays.
Signage outside is a bit odd. We were not sure if we arrived at the correct place since the sign outside says «Bebas Gilmore’s Restaurant.»
Cool Bolivian décor. Check out some of the photos.
We’ll be back to try the saltenas!

First and foremost, it is very hard to find Bolivian food in southern California. With that being said, the food here is very close, if not as close as you can get to Bolivia without actually going there. That right there should be deserving of a 5-​star rating, however, I would like to point out to anyone interested in trying out their food to come in and see for yourself what Beba’s is all about. Everything I tried was very good and reminded me of when I lived in Bolivia! What you as an American may dislike is their service. The service reminded me of the first time I ate at a restaurant in Bolivia. Being from the U.S., the idea of customer service is worlds apart from what customer service is like in Bolivia, and in Bolivia there is no such thing as customer service. That is my opinion. Generally when you come in you won’t be greeted with a smile or a hello. It’s a very weird layout at the restaurant. You aren’t sure if you are walking in to another restaurant or in to Beba’s because there is some sign outside that seems to have never been taken down. You are almost unsure if you are supposed to seat yourself or if the female who works up front is supposed to seat you. She generally has more to handle than she is capable of doing and zero personality throughout the process. Don’t expect to have someone come up and educate you on the menu or explain any of the dishes or walk you through a typical Bolivian meal. Expect someone to just walk up to the table and ask you if you are ready to order. Getting your bill is also a little complicated as well and may take forever. I really enjoy their food and hope they are successful as Beba’s because they might have a hard time attracting newer customers due to their style — or lack thereof — of customer service. 2 stars for service, 5 stars for food.

Beba’s is very capable of earning 5 stars, but their attitude and customer service is horrible.
1. ***Saltenas are awesome… this is why they get 3 stars
2. Customer Service is ridiculously terrible
A. They don’t serve water because they want you to get thirsty enough to buy a drink.
B. If you order saltenas to go, it doesn’t matter if you buy 2 or 2 dozen, they will only give you enough salsa for 2 saltenas. Their reasoning for this makes no sense at all.
C. They recycle uneaten bread.
D. They are overpriced
E. Owners are just flat out weird.

Although finding a Bolivian restaurant is beyond rare to find, this restaurant is just flat ridiculous and I sadly will not come here again. Their Saltenas are delicious, but the simple fact that they refuse to serve you water just blows my mind. I mean really?! Who does not serve water and makes you pay for bottled water?! Well this place does. I am 8 ½ months pregnant and to be denied water and not allowed to bring in my own water bottle is ridiculous. Especially being that we were in a party of 4, so they are already making well over $ 80 just on our table. Customer service is crucial and although an extra $ 2 or so may not seem like a big deal, their plates are already over $ 12 and I shouldn’t have to deal with drama over water that is free to everyone! I will not be returning.

Over priced, the food is ok, and the customer service sucks!

Destination: Bolivia
Spent some time in the landlocked South American country when I was a lad, and was searching out some nostalgia when I made the trek up to Anaheim.
The restaurant has a private lot and the dining area is brightly lit and clean. The service was reserved but friendly.
I ordered Saltenas (empanada like, filled with beef, potato, egg, raisins, peas and a delectable broth), Silpancho (thin schnitzel style beef served with fried eggs & potatoes on top of rice) and Falso Conejo (breaded steak covered in a spicy savory gravy with a touch of sweetness). All were bouquets of flavor and were authentic to the standards I enjoyed in Cochabamba and La Paz.
Bolivian food has a subtle uniqueness from the more easily found Peruvian Eateries and is worth a trip. You gotta experience all the colors of the Latin America rainbow and this place is technicolor.

Just left this place it completly change for the worse food sucks they brought me the wrong order they try to charged me for it after it was the waitress fault for not writting if down and they charge me for water. Ridiculous. This place is a joke never going back. Beaware they give left over bread again to other people. Im a witness eww. Take my word dont waste your money or time.

When I rate a restaurant, one of the criteria I think of is «can I recommend this place to anybody?» The answer for Bebas is no. Let’s put aside the food, which is very good and the reason why it gets a ³⁄₅. What Bebas is unfortunately notorious for is poor service. The wait for any service often runs long. It’s hard to get the waitress’ attention. No one does any follow up to see how the food is or if anyone needs anything additional such as water or coffee. If you come to Bebas, come to enjoy the food only. Order a salteña as an appetizer and any of the classic dishes. ¡Buen provecho!

Excellent food, they ran out of sopa de mani (peanut soup) but the plato paceno was great. Fried cheese and large bolivian corn was interesting and new. The décor was great, tv was playing a video of bolivian folk song performances (with half naked women dancing) for carnivale. Understaffed tho (on a sun afternoon).

We stopped in here for a bite after an informative but exhausting walk around the Fullerton Arboretum. I was starving: it was 2PM and I hadn’t eaten since the night before, because apparently I am an idiot who doesn’t bring sustenance when she takes long garden walks.
I ordered salteñas for an appetizer and a small bowl of sopa de mani (the daily special: peanut soup), accurately surmising that my stomach may THINK it can eat a horse right NOW, but as soon as it sees bread, it shrivels up and fizzles like a drop of water on a frying pan.
The salteñas did fill me up, with their thick, sweet pastry crust and a juicy bursting filling (reminiscent of hamburgery XLB) of beef, raisins, eggs, and olives, but they weren’t really my thing, being way too sweet for a main course. I’d probably eat them for dessert.
The peanut soup was oddly and comfortingly delicious, with very tender bits of beef and a pervasive peanut flavor that somehow never become overwhelming. It looked like cream of mushroom soup but thankfully did not taste like it.
We also got a peanut juice and a dehydrated peach drink. The peanut juice had all the overwhelming that the soup lacked — it was like literally drinking a bunch of peanuts someone put in an immersion blender’s path. The peach juice, which I got only because they were out of chicha morada, tasted flat and strange compared with the vivacity of chicha morada, despite having pretty much the same spices. On the plus side, the peach looked like the preserved heart of a baby animal.

— Locale Destination —
It’s on E. Lincoln Ave and N. State College Blvd in Anaheim. It’s a pop & mom shop. They got a counter and seating. Décor is mmm… kinda funky and latin America (for sure) — just check out my pics! Friendly service.
— Gluttony Expedition —
Lomo montado: I guess you shouldn’t expect a quality meat at latin American establishments. Steak didn’t have a good quality, but was seasoned so well. I don’t know their main seasonings but do taste those flavors at latin American places. Eating with a tender fried egg… Oh, I like it ;)
Trucha fish: It’s a market price. The fish was deep fried so well. Not greasy at all. It lacked in seasonings, so I dipped it into the sauce of Lomo montado ;) Good dish.
Saltenas: It looks like an empanada. The dough is very thick to hold the soup inside. It’s very very hot, so watch out when you eat it. The soup will come out at you ;p The stuffing is kinda sweet. Interesting but just OK. I tried both beef and chicken. I guess chicken is slightly better for me.
Inka kola: It tasted like «mellow yellow» or Japanese shaved ice syrup (melon). Not bad.
Peanut water: I forgot the name. It tasted like «peanut butter» diluted with water… It’s interesting. It might be good with desserts, but not so much with foods. i have the best friend a girl can ask for…
— Conqueror’s Deduction —
3.5 stars. Good homie foods with great flavors. It might be a bit expensive as homie foods. Lots of items on menu are not available depending on the date. Foods are not bad. I’ll come back.