El Arepazo is All Latin All the Time!

The first time I've had experience the Venezuelan pocket was in last year's Latino Festivals. And I've always wanted to find the restaurant that carried the food because I couldn't find it anywhere else. One afternoon after my condo walk-through, I stumbled on to this small Latino cafe on Pearl Street and finally found my long waited Venezuelan pocket, and it's that moment that I knew my life was complete.

Tucked in the small alley on Pearl Street, El Arepazo had simple dishes with Latin flavors. I tried their arepah (pronounced 'a-RAY-pah'), which was the Venezuelan pocket I found in Latino Festival, and my boyfriend tried the sopas. The arepah was basically a cooked corn cake stuffed with chicken, pork, or beef, lettuce, tomato, banana pepper, and their mild garlic-yogurt-cilantro sauce. I had it stuff with chicken and the chicken was so flavorful and juicy, it was like having Cinco de Mayo right in your mouth! The corn cake was pan seared so the outside was crunch while the inside was still soft. The cilantro sauce was amazing! I could drizzle that on anything and I would be happy, as it was like the answer to life in a sauce form. The sopa was made from fried flour dough layered with beans, meat, cheese, lettuce, and some sliced avocado on top. My boyfriend had pork on the sopas and, it was so good, that it beats every other pork I've tasted in a Mexican restaurant. The sopa was equally as good as the arepah. Washed down with the orange apple flavored soda, it just made my day that much brighter!

The El Arepazo had simple menus and very friendly services. The prices for their menu items were great too, and their food ranked 4.25 out of 5 on my yummy scale. I absolutely loved the place. If you would like to enjoy Latin flavor and would like to try "the answer to life" sauce and be happy, please go to 47 N. Pearl St. Columbus, OH 43215.