Arepon Venezuelan Restaurant
This morning, I had a doctor's appointment in Orem and on the way home I saw a Venezuelan restaurant. @perceval and @therealflaws have been telling me that I need to try food from Venezuela, so I have been keeping an eye out for a good place to eat.
I wasn't too hungry, but I knew that I wouldn't be coming back to this area for a while and this was my chance to try some food from Venezuela. The inside of the restaurant was really clean and had a pretty cool vibe to it. I had no clue what was good when I was trying to order, but the two ladies recommended the Arepa. They also recommended some cheese stick type things as an appetizer, but I knew I wouldnt be able to eat it all if I got that as well.
I ordered my arepa with beef, which ended up being more like a steak and not ground beef like I thought it would be. So that was a nice surprise to have some higher quality meat in there, especially for the price I paid for it. Inside of it was beef, cheese and some friend plantains.
I had never had plantains before and I thought they were pretty good. There were too many of them on there though and I ended up not eating all of them. The meat had a really nice flavor and I added a green sauce that they recommended. It tasted a bit like mayonnaise with a hint of ranch. It was really good, but it made the arepa pretty messy to eat with my hands. I ended up using almost all the napkins on the table trying to keep myself clean before I just decided to eat it with a knife and fork.
They had Venezuelan drinks and I ended up getting one of the sodas. It was a strawberry flavor and it was pretty good. I could tell that the sugar was different than the sodas that we normally have in the US. It tasted more natural, which was nice.
The arepa and drink ended up being $19, which seems pretty expensive. I wonder how much this meal would have cost in Venezuela, but here in the US, everything is expensive.
The restaurant was decent. It wasn't the greatest and I am sure that there are better Venezuelan places to eat here. Only one other person came in to eat while I was there, so I could tell they don't get too much business. The staff was really nice though and one of them wanted to take a picture of me with my food.
I don't think I will return to this place though as it was quite expensive for what I got. I will have to keep an eye out for another Venezuelan place and compare them. But overall, my first experience of Venezuelan food was pretty good. It was a bit messy, but good.
I know I'm very, VERY late to commenting this...but it is awesome that you were able to taste some of the classic dishes from my home country (perceval and therealflaws did you a good one with the recommendation lol).
I guess that they wanted to charge extra for serving something different there, but...$19 for an arepa and a drink??? I'm assuming that the arepa had a well cooked meat, but that still sounds pretty ridiculous, even for what I'd guess that would go here. Though I haven't gone out to a special restaurant here that serves arepas with meat in years lol
That said, as perceval commented in another comment, it is pretty easy to do your own arepas and fill with whatever you want (at home it often used to simply fill them up with cheese or eggs...probably sounds like the same way you'd do a sandwich, but if you can fill it with meat then that's also pretty tasty), and that green sauce gotta be Guasacaca. Oh, and if you do happen to find a less expensive place to try these kind of dishes, try ordering an Empanada next time 😎
(Same flour like arepas, but prepared in a different way, the meat or whatever filler you ask for will be contained inside the shape rather than a visibly-sliced-in-two arepa; now those I did eat a lot on a handful of restaurants here always served with optional guasacaca, even a few weeks ago at my university's cafeteria).
Cheers 😄
I didnt mind the $19 price tag that much considering that just about anywhere you go eat here in the US, you are going to be paying similar prices. The meat in the arepa was really good and seemed to be a higher quality steak than most places. I will have to try and find another place one day to eat at.
I think it was not the best place to try for the first time the gastronomy of my country, most Venezuelan restaurants usually emphasize the arepa more than the rest of the dishes. I also find it hard to eat an arepa of those dimensions, just like with hamburgers I always make a mess on the table.
From what I see in your photo, you ate an arepa de pabellón. Pabellon is another typical Venezuelan dish, I'm sure you would have liked it better if you didn't eat it inside the arepa. 😁
Our gastronomy is just becoming known in the world due to the current Venezuelan migration, for sure you are going to find often this kind of restaurants. And yes, the prices are higher, the flour with which arepa is made is more expensive outside Venezuela.
I hope your next experience will surpass this one. 👍
I am looking forward to finding a better place to get some Venezuelan food one day. It was definitely tasty. I liked how the different flavors meshed together to create something special. This one was just too big and messy for my tastes.
Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty, soldier. The green sauce was probably Guasacaca, which many prepare in different ways, I hope your sauce was quite tasty. For that reason, I prefer the empanadas, as they are more closed and everything is not messy, much simpler and more comfortable to eat. I'm glad you tried the arepas and especially my favorite drink: Frescolita. Since making arepas is no big deal, you could try making them at home with your own ingredients, I'm sure it will be much tastier and cheaper. I hope you get a better restaurant with much more variety and better prices.
The Frescolita was delicious and I am glad that I got it. I have had empanadas many times before and I wanted to try the arepas since they are something I have never had. It was pretty good, but too messy to eat. I think it was overstuffed with stuff to make it more appealing to Americans.
Hi! I'm glad you tried some Venezuelan food, and of course, you started with the most emblematic: the arepa hehe.
But wow, super expensive, here in Venezuela you can eat a good arepa for $3 or 4 depending on the filling, and including a drink, the bill doesn't go over $5. I hope you try more dishes. Greetings!
It was pretty tasty. I am hoping to try more Venezuelan dishes soon.
Interesting, the arepa looks very nice! In latin america, they use sugar from the sugar cane instead of sugar from corn syrup at north American pops. You can find some coke made in Mexico around and you will see that it tastes better. Interesting place! You travelled to Venezuela without spending a air ticker :)
Ya, drinks outside of the US usually taste a lot better because they are made with higher quality ingredients.
Finally, you try Venezuelan food, it must have been almost 2 years since I told you that arepas are something you should try sometime :P
For $19 yeah, it's really expensive for what you ate, that's why it's infinitely better to make this kind of food at home. Here in Venezuela eating arepas in the street is not that expensive, but it is ALWAYS better to prepare them at home and you can make whatever mess you want without anyone judging you lol.
I've never experienced eating at a Venezuelan restaurant, it looks good and comfortable if we visit the restaurant with the family.
It was pretty tasty.
It will be so good to taste yhe food other countries.. I'm looking forward to doing that someday...
I'm glad that you enjoyed it
The food is my favorite thing about traveling. I love to eat and I love to try new foods from all over the world.
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
The food and the setting of the restaurant which they have done is very beautiful and attracts the customer a lot. Food looks so yummy. I wants to eat this yummy food.
I hope you can one day
Hope so
Why you couldn't return to that place? Thanks for sharing.
I never said I couldnt return. It just wasnt good enough for me to want to spend my money there again.
A Venezuelan sees you eating arepa with cutlery and is sure to be offended, hahaha. I think they recommended something very heavy to start with, I'm sure there were better options than an arepa of pabellón. And yes, the price is expensive, hahaha, here an arepa of that size would cost around 5$.