Caracas Arepa Bar

Before eating here, I did not know the word “arepa.”

My life since then has been a continual search for arepas, mostly in vain.

You must eat here if you are in NYC!

I went to this place because I read about it on 43places, and I knew I’d be staying in the east village and I’d never had venezuelan food before but loved the food of any south and central american country I have eaten.

I went with an irish girl staying in my dorm in the hostel.

It was pouring with rain but we got dressed up anyway, and walked till we found it.

The place was packed, and there was a queue huddled under the annex outside. Luckily the irish girl was patient, and I was too keen on it to go anywhere else, so we put our name down for a table and just talked for half an hour or so before our table was ready.

We had a little fold down table in the corner near the bar. This was actually a good thing though, because the food mostly comes in small plates one at a time, a bit like dim sum. We got a bit of everything (arepas, empanadas, plantains… and then dessert), and finished off a bottle of wine between us.

The waiter told us the name of a couple of bars to go to, and we ended up in some salsa bar on avenue C where she danced with a dude in a gold belt, and I felt too white to join in :P I have been doing salsa classes for about 6 months, but mostly the people there were born to dance. Still, I had some margaritas and caipirinhas and well, who knows what I had, but all in all it was a fantastic night.

If I went back, I would try and book a table though. I guess it was a saturday night in summer though, and there might have been outside tables had it not been raining.

SO, thanks 43 places for showing me a great place not in the lonely planet :)

sincere locals always give good recommendations, so if I am near,....

It’s close to home, inexpensive, and delicious. My fave is the De Pabellon- shredded beef, black beans, aged salty white cheese, and sweet plantains- $5. Do not order more than one arepa unless you have been doing bong hits all afternoon.

You cant go wrong with these tasty treats… plus they just opened a new spot two doors down as Caracas To Go.