Arepas at their best! Lunch and particularly dinner tend to get packed at the East Village location because the place is so tiny and has a strong following (having been around since 2003), so I’d say arrive a bit earlier or later if you don’t want to wait. The Brooklyn location is a lot more spacious.
The place is small, cute, and feels authentic. The décor is definitely a throwback to Venezuela. The servers are friendly, attentive, and efficient.
I think one of the bigger misconceptions of arepas is that they are similar to corn tacos. It’s really quite different. For one, it’s a stuffed sandwich, so the form is much more similar to a pita sandwich. The arepa is a round bread made from corn/maize flour or meal, grilled and baked, sliced in half, and stuffed with fillings. It’s around 5 inches in diameter. And a very pleasant surprise (for me) is that it really doesn’t taste much like corn at all in the way that corn tortillas do.
They have plenty of options available for pretty much any palate. We didn’t customize anything, but I don’t see why you couldn’t. Plenty of meat and vegetarian options and any arepa that isn’t vegetarian can be made vegetarian by substituting tofu for meat.
Depending on your hunger level, 1-2 will be enough food for a person. If you’re a party of two, maybe best to pick 3 and split. That should be enough. Or you can start off with an appetizer to share and then just have 1. But if you’re not that hungry, 1 will definitely be fine.
La Surena – grilled chicken (breast!), chorizo, avocado, and a slightly spicy chimichurri sauce. This one was super hearty, delicious, and filling. I didn’t love the chimichurri sauce (parsley, cilantro, oregano rub generally used with red meats), to be honest, but the sandwich as a whole was excellent.
La del Gato – fried sweet plantains, avocado, and Guayanes cheese. This was delicious too. Still somewhat heavy because the cheese and fried plantains do add substance, but not as filling as La Surena.
If you eat meat, I would absolutely go for La Surena. Or you could try De Pabellon, which is a classic shredded beef option. If you don’t eat meat, La del Gato was great, but next time I’d want to try La Mulata (grilled white cheese with jalapenos, black beans, sautéed red peppers, and fried sweet plantains). You can also always try one plain or with just butter if you’re in the mood for a small snack.
I do wish the servers were generally more knowledgeable. We asked a number of questions about how arepas are made and what is in the various sauces (like the yellow one that comes on every table), but our questions were not answered well.
Still, please do yourself a favor and go to this place. It’s been around for ages and they do arepas right. There are other good arepa places, but none better. But do make sure you’re smart about timing or be prepared to wait!
