Papelón Venezuelan Arepa Bar

I loved this new arepa place. I prefer thinner arepas and these held together nicely. The plantains, avocado, queso fresco and beans were a fantastic combination. It came with a small side of green sauce. You can customize your orders since they make them in front of you. I also enjoyed the sugar cane and lemon juice. No chairs, only tables, this is definitely a takeout place. Very clean and friendly staff.

Ordered the Arepa Pabellon Chicken from Door Dash. I'm glad they moved in and added even more delicious diversity in cuisine. Seasoned perfectly. Tender and juicy chicken. Perfect. Slightly messy

10/10. All day. 10/10. I must have walked by this place at least 50 times since they've opened, and never went in. I had no idea what a Pabellón was, so I never chose to eat there. Well, about an hour ago, I decided to give them a shot. Holy moly, it was outstanding. Perfectly seasoned, Perfectly cooked. The black beans covered in cheese, the very juicy marinated shredded chicken, rice, all came together quite nicely. Also two sauces on the side. Oh, and the plantains, which was another thing I never ate before... so freaking good.
Now, I must admit, another reason why I didn't eat there before today was because I didn't feel like spending 12 bucks on something that might be a small portion. So often I'll try something new, and it'll be like 7 bites of food. Well, that's not the case here. It was one heavy take out order. I wanted to know the exact bang for buck ratio, soooooo I actually weighed it. It's well over 1lb. Minus the weight of the container I'm guessing it's at around 530ish grams, 572.5grams wth the container. So if you want to try a new place, support a local business, and be fed well... try Papelon.

New spot for Venezuelan food. I was a little disappointed but it's just one of their first few months in business, so I may give them a shot again later. I tried the 'one of each' empanada combination: one chicken empanada, one shredded beef empanada, and one cheese empanada.

My favorite out of the three was definitely the beef empanada. The meat was tender and had the perfect texture. It was flavorful and juicy, crispy, and overall great. I would recommend probably just getting 3 beef empanadas rather than a sampling since it was far better than the others.

The chicken was still pretty good. It wasn't as flavorful and juicy as the beef but still not bad. The chicken was milder, and it went really well with the side sauce.

Now, my least favorite and the one I would almost definitely recommend skipping is the cheese empanada. I'm usually a huge fan of cheese, but this was just extremely underwhelming. It was way, way too greasy and had almost no flavor at all. No spice, no garlic, no anything. Not worth it.

The empanadas themselves are all made from corn. So, they are a bit crunchy and hard. I'm not the biggest fan of the corn, and would prefer a softer empanada like at Mi Empanada. The sauce they served these with was awesome. A tad creamy and super tasty.

All in all, maybe this place needs some more time to establish themselves. They do have some cool items like golfeados and arepas, but the empanadas were underwhelming. If you do come here, try the beef empanada.

I went here for lunch. The food was fantastic and the portions generous. We asked lots of questions which they answered readily. There are plenty of gluten-free friendly options, as well as vegetarian. We also asked about dairy-free options and most things can be made without dairy.