Papa Luna’s Empanadas

There is very little in this area in terms of good home cooked food, but this place stands out. Very small restaurant, pretty small menu, but everything is delicious. The empanadas taste like home made, and are all very distinct in flavor. My favorite so far is the shrimp. Will I be back again for a third try before I leave SD? Probably.

I ordered a Nutella and banana empanada. it was not tasty at all. There was zero Nutella flavor and just tasted like over ripened banana with dry pastry.

Best empanadas in Little Italy. I have tried all of their creations but my favorites are the traditional beef, chicken and cheese.
Gem gem gem!

I normally come in during breakfast time. Besides Starbucks, they actually made great tasting coffee, lattes, etc. it’s my go-​to place for a quick grab n go breakfast. My favorite empanadais the Tocino y Camarones.

#SDCC So lucky that I happened to be walking down that street and saw @PapaLunas, I loved the El Pollo and will stop by again. I hope they’re there a good long time !

Best Empanadas. I recommend the spinach and cheese… just the right mix of both. Wednesday’s are double stamp day. Not gonna lie… I have probably gone here the past 4 out of 5 days haha

Passed by this place unexpectedly while walking around the area. Such a cute shop and so many awesome flavors. They sell for about $ 4-​$ 5 each or 6 for $ 19.95. I got a box of 6 for take out: Philly Cheesesteak, Kickin Chicken, Chocla (sweet corn), Short Rib and Camarones y Tocino. The Philly Cheesesteak and Kickin Chicken were my faves.
The cashier girl was very sweet and helpful, making recommendations, and told me of the reheating instructions, and threw in lots of extra sauce :) I got an iced coffee to sip on while waiting too. It was pretty good!
TIP:
–Try reheating these babies in a toaster or regular oven. Microwaves make them soggy. And no one likes a soggy empanada :(

Found this place while on break from jury duty. I’ve driven by the one in PB dozens of times, so thought I’d give it a try. It was a good choice.
The service was very friendly, and quick. The kicken chicken was quite tasty, and worth the $ 4 to me.
Now I’ll have to stop by the one in PB.

I love empanadas because they remind me of home and family, so I was delighted to come across Papa Luna. I was not disappointed when I finally tried it.
These are traditional Argentine style empanadas. They are baked, not fried. Many flavors are exactly what you’d get in Buenos Aires: spinach and cheese, corn, pollo, meat with egg raisins and olives. Non traditional flavors include Thai chicken, philly cheese steak, adobo pork, and goat cheese. But even when I make empanadas, I often include a less traditional empanada for fun.
I had the Thai chicken and the traditional pollo with their side salad. It was the media luna meal. They were out of their black rice salad so I had the house salad. It was very large and full of fresh vegetables. The dressing was wonderful. I also loved both my empanadas, but my favorite was the traditional pollo. I was transported back to Argentina. I’ll likely get the regular pollo again, but try another flavorful next time. Also, I ate one of my empanadas for dinner because I was very full with my salad and one empanada. The Thai empanada was spicy and tasted a bit like such Thai basil chicken.
I sat outside with a group. It was a little crowded, but pleasant.
Ooh, and for the person who complained that the empanadas are not 100 percent full: you cannot do that! Your empanadas will fall apart. You need a little space inside because when the filling heats up it will steam inside the dough causing it to expand a little. If there isn’t a little room for the dough to expand, it will seep out of the dough producing not pretty and a very messy empanadas. And you’ll still have empty space inside from the filling that seeped out.
Finally, my only complaint: why aren’t you open late!!! Empanadas make the best late night food.

Stopped by to try an empanada for lunch while on break from jury duty. I only tried the carne molida emanada and thought it was good but didn’t wow me. For the price (around $ 4 each), I guess I was just expecting more, either larger in size or knock-​your-​socks-​off flavor. For a hearty lunch, I think a typical adult would need 3 emanadas to be full, which puts this in the $ 12 – 15 range for lunch, not including a drink. Maybe the other options are more impressive to justify the price. But based on my single sample, I don’t think I can give more than 3 stars.
I will say that the service was very friendly, even though they were swamped with the lunch rush.

Got mines to go since I arrived past 3p on a Friday. Was hoping to get coffee if they had longer hours.
Tried the short rib empanada and found the filling tasty and when adding the sauce already bursting with flavor. Enjoyed this to the last morsel.
The hamon meanwhile was a little muted.
Thought that this would have a bit of savory flavor but it’s milder. No salvage done bu the sauce.
Cashier was friendly.
Facilities clean.
Glad to have this location for more city feel than the pb one!

I enjoyed the empanadas at the Pacific Beach location a while back, so I was hoping for a some great empanadas at this downtown location. I came in between breakfast and lunch and ordered the short rib at $ 4.45 and the breakfast empanada with scrambled eggs and breakfast sausages with a bit of potatoes and cheddar cheese at $ 3.95.
I enjoyed both empanadas very much. I first tackled the breakfast empanada with the house made chimichurri sauce. The scrambled eggs were soft, lightly seasoned, and came with a good amount of sausage intermingled. The sausage, although typical breakfast sausage, tasted good. The empanada came with tender chopped potatoes, but the cheddar cheese was quite minimal. More cheese in this empanada would of been great.
The short rib empanada was good, but the meat was a little dry, although it tasted very good, it just needed a little juice. The short rib was well seasoned and also came with some nice herbs. I liked that the empanada was just short rib and did not come with any filler such as potatoes. Even with the little dryness of the meat, I am still a fan of this one.
What I really liked about both empanadas, was the terrific crust they both had. The crust on both had great color, was crunchy, a little flaky, but most of all, the inside dough was soft and moist, with a mild buttery texture. The chimichurri sauce that I tried on both was good. It had a good amount of garlic and parsley with lots of extra virgin olive oil.
The young lady working the shop was very sweet and helpful. She was quite familiar with all the empanadas and very friendly.

Found this place on my lunch break while on jury duty. The service was excellent because I was offered a water cup and salsa without having to ask. I wish the red salsa was more spicy, but it’s ok since south american salsa for empanadas is not spicy. I got the carne molida empanada, which was good, but for $ 4, the size could have been bigger. Overall great place to have a lunchtime snack.
Encontré este lugar durante mi hora de almuerzo cuando fui a servir mi obligación de jurado. El servicio fue excelente especialmente porque me ofrecieron salsa y agua sin tener que pedirlos. La roja podría haber sido más picante pero entiendo que en sur América la salsa para empanadas no es picante entonces esta bien. Yo pedí la de carne molida cual estuvo bien pero a $ 4 podría haber sido más grande. Entre todo es un buen lugar para comer algo ligero durante el almuerzo.

A solid empanada. One that’s not greasy & very fresh, actually these are quite flakey and full of flavor, never soggy. Business seems to have really picked up for Papa Luna’s in the past year, and with this, I feel the amount of filling you get has shrunken, blame rising wages, inflation, too much regulation… I need more meat, PERIOD.
Whether it be logistical, timing or simply keeping up with production, the filling seems to have gotten less & less, me want MORE meat, cheese, more meat & cheese more spinach PLEASE.
One thing I’m happy to see, that most people usually wouldn’t want to see; is they run-​out. I do not like 1 – 2 day old food being re-​wrapped for the next day, and as much as a meat pie can be re-​worked or any dough-​pocket re-schlepped…it’s good to see a high turn-over…you get it turnover!!! That’s funny!
One other slight-​gripe I have… that rhymed! Is the hours… they rely heavily on a day-​time office breakfast & lunchtime crowd, which given this location in a food-​desert & at the foot of a huge Hotel and tons of offices, this makes sense/​cents. Things to look for, the fresh chimichurri is tasty and I like the light and airy spinach-​queso pocket.
For a downtown to grow and a neighborhood to flourish, I’d like to see the option to grab a cold one and a few empanadas after 7pm. For people that work away from this area, but live only blocks away… this place is muted. If doesn’t exist, because they can’t utilize it, when they get home at 6:30pm after battling traffic, it is closed. This place would be a great place to grab late-​night pockets too, that would be dreamy.

I was just here a few hours ago during my 2 hour lunch break from my jury duty service at the Hall of Justice. The walk is only about 5 minutes and I was surprised to not see more people here. That turned out the best for me as there was a modest number of tables and seats, though there are some outside should you come on a nice day. Thank goodness for SD weather in that case!
I was bummed when ordering since it was not even noon and they ran out of the delicious sounding smoking goat. Regardless, I had a fun time with the straight forward named «empanada de pollo» and the «espinaca con queso» (for those who don’t speak Spanish, these are chicken and spinach with cheese respectively). The ones I got were apparently preheated hot and were really good, so I can only imagine how good they would be completely fresh.
The most noticeable part of my experience here was the two sauces that are on the tables here. One of them is a very mild but flavorful green sauce tasting a bit like spinach, though I couldn’t pin the actual contents and the staff were a bit too occupied with others to ask. I personally suggest not mixing with the espinaca con queso as the spinach in the empanada and the sauce are a bit repetitive. The other sauce was spicier, but not noticeably so that I couldn’t separate a distinctive taste that complimented my empanadas.
A word to the wise about both sauces; they are heavily oil based and will run off the glazed outer shell of the empanada and onto your hands. Of course, that tip might be my way of hiding how disgusting my own eating habits are and may just be advice to myself. You’d have to let me know if it happens to you too *facepalm*.

Just went to Papa Luna’s for the first time today for lunch. I was a bit hesitant after reading some of the negative reviews, but the weight of positive reviews made me decide to go, and am I ever glad I did!
I had the Philly Cheese Steak and the Sunny Goat (and it was a tough choice, they had a lot of delicious sounding options), and they were fantastic. Adding some of there hot pesto to the Philly Cheese Steak really made it amazing (the Sunny Goat was pretty good with or without).
The staff was friendly, I got my food quickly, and I will DEFINITELY BE BACK!

A reasonable lunch place, though very few non meat options. There’s a choice of about 10 empanadas which are on display in their refrigerated case. You order and they are then reheated like a panini.
Flavor of the thai/​chili chicken was good, yet needed some of the sauce that is available on the counter. Quantity /​size was a tad light for $ 4 each.
Overall not a bad experience, and I’ll be going back. But really, not stellar by any stretch.

This is a cute little spot across the way from The Westin Emerald Plaza building downtown.
The Empanada selections are pretty vast. I’ve only really had my grandma’s handmade Empandas while growing up as a wee lass. The Empanadas here are a little bit different. They are encased in a flaky pastry crust and are warned when one order.
We went with the Philly Cheesesteak, Jamon Y Queso, Short Rib, and a Nutella Banana. The Philly was the best out of the four. The filling was saucy and juicy and the most flavorful. The Jamon Y Queso had more of the consistency of a eggy breakfast hot pocket and the lady that baked ‘em up admitted that the crust was slightly burnt and offered us a replacement Empanada if we didn’t like it. The Short Rib was pretty good; the consistency was a little smoother than I would expect a meat pocket to be (smooth isn’t always something I’d like to use when describing meat haha.) The Nutella Banana was interesting as it didn’t really scream Nutella, it was kind of muted by the use of either an unripe banana or a plantain – which was surprising since it wasn’t as sweet as I expected it to be as I doused it in the chocolate dipping sauce, I would’ve hoped that they used a sweet dough instead of the same one they use for the savory empanadas.
They were quite filling and satisfying nonetheless. It’s a fancier hot pocket in a nutshell.

This new local gem is fantastic! I never tasted a better empanadas! Every bite had me wanting more and asking how they made such a wonderful dough! I loved the green spice sauce.
You can enjoy savory and/​or sweet empanadas for a reasonable price! I tried the Philly Cheesesteak and it was delicious. The store is clean and the empanadas are nicely displayed behind a glass case. The chai latte is a good beverage on a cold day.

I have a mild obsession with empanadas so I was reasonably excited when I saw Papa Luna’s just across the street from the Westin I was staying at. Tragically I only got to go once but all future visits to San Diego may be centered around empanada proximity.
It’s a small place but clean and modern with a display case stuffed with empanadas. I got the Thai Butternut Squash one, which was probably the most unusual choice they offered, but I can’t resist anything that contains coconut. The guy popped it into the oven and a couple of minutes later it came out hot and fresh. It was kind of flat but once I bit into the flaky pastry and tasted that sweet filling I was sold. I’m not sure what the sauce that came with it was, but it was spicy and excellent. They also offer bottles of sriracha and honey on the counter which is cool.
The empanadas are pretty big and at around $ 3.50 a pop, 2 or 3 could make a decently filling meal. I really wanted to try more flavors but I’ll come back one day.