Delicious crispy pastelitos. I ordered three mix-n-match pastelitos with shredded chicken, ground…read morebeef & potatoes, and sweet plantains & cheese. Shredded chicken was all right (a bit dry, in my opinion), but ground beef and sweet plaintains were great. The beef one is my favorite by far -- very juicy and flavorful! The sweet plaintains one was pretty unique, both sweet and savory. The texture of the pastry was crispy, and the accompanying cilantro lime sauce complemented the pastelitos well. Only con is that they take a pretty long time to make (maybe 20 minutes?), but the vendor makes everything, including the pastry dough, from scratch, so I can't complain about the fresh quality. Next time, I'll try their empanadas, which look delicious. Great friendly service.

Great addition to the relocated Southwest DC Farmers Market (now at the southern end of the wharf)…read more Arepas were made to order and even after walking home they were hot, fresh, and DELICIOUS!! These are probably the best Arepas I've had in the DMV!

I wish this place was open when I went to UMD!…read more This was my first time having arepas (and Venezuelan food in general), and I loved it. Even though they're known for arepas, the pabellón bowl ended up being my favorite it tasted like a comforting, home-cooked meal in the best way. The staff were also super helpful and took the time to explain their options. The space itself is so modern and clean and there's a cute little market area on the side with things for sale. Would absolutely go back!

Idc what anyone says...I LOVEEE Arepa Zone! I will TREK on a lunch break to eat here hunny, in 4…read moreinch heels and all! My go-to-order here is the Pabellón Arepa. While it may 'look' small in size, it packs enough of a punch to fill you up completely. It's stuffed with flavorful, moist shredded beef, chunky queso fresco, savory plantains and black beans. It comes with a side of garlic cilantro sauce to seal all the flavors together, though you lowkey end up wishing you paid for another one by the time you finish ;) What's more, they offer a free arepa of any choice when you tell them your birthday, which is an awesome customer loyalty perk. When I'm feeling extra spicy, I order an empanada or two (usually carne molida), and I'm beyond satisfied. I will make the journey here every time!

Love this business and the ladies that run it!…read more I stumbled across Round Pocket Arepas at the Southwest Farmer's Market. There was always a line coming from their stand, so I used to just pass by with mild intrigue. Then one morning, I decided to wait in the line. As I waited, I took note of all the choices I was going to have to make. You can have your arepa filled with so many different combos and I didn't want to get to the front of the line with order fright. You can choose between different types of dough (chia, beet, yellow corn, white corn and spinach) and then choose your fillings. This is when things can get a little crazy, but it's okay to go wild. They have eggs, sausage, plantain, chicken, cheese, beans, corn (and maybe a few other fillings that I'm forgetting.) Typically, I opt for a breakfast style arepa filled with eggs, sausage and cheese. Oh, and you've got to add some of their fresh sauces to top them off. They have a parsley-cilantro, a tomato-onion and a spicy sauce. The combination of all three is where the magic happens, so do be scared to really sauce it up. The eggs are freshly scrambled on the stove and I love that the sausages are almost more like hot dogs. This combo is so addictive and comforting in a way. It's also very filling. If I eat one at noon I'm usually not hungry again at all until dinner. I also always order the raw cane sugar juice. It's served in a cup with lots of ice and it's really simple, fresh and not too sweet. It's the perfect summer drink to sip on while you listen to live music at the farmer's market and wait for your arepa to be made. Since every arepa is custom to each order, you may have to wait 5-10 mins, but it's worth it because everything is being made freshly right in front of you. Additionally, the owners Mila and Maria are awesome! Repping Venezuela and Colombia, they're so willing to share and educate. They're passionate about what they do, upbeat, warm, fun and you can tell they truly care about their customers and service. They only launched the business 6 months ago and for now you can only find them at the SW Farmer's Market. But they have plans to eventually expand and this girl right here (yup, me) is rooting for them. Wishing Round Pocket Arepas nothing but continued success!!

I will start with, Arepa Zone...be on the lookout for these two! Straight forward, authentic…read morecombination of Columbia and Venezuelan cuisines with a very popular, national dish. Maria and Mila are great! If you have not been please go! The arepa selection is amazing and taste great! The beverage is great too, especially on one of those warm sunny days. I know the summer is coming to a close and they will close for the season but don't wait! Get there!

We stumbled on this place looking for a simple place to grab a meal. This has to be the best…read morechicken I have had in years. They are fast and the food is amazing. Then we found the bar in the back. Again, interesting whisky choices, you won't find those hard to find big names, but you will find a hand pick selection of some unique whisky's. The bar tender (sorry I wish I remember your name) took her time talking about so many of them and she offering me a recommendation. Great experience and chat. Don't pass this spot by!

I have to give Chicken + Whiskey credit. It takes a special kind of arrogance to serve food that…read morelooks like this while also lecturing customers through a mandatory "fair labor fee." Let's start with the obvious. If labor matters so much, build it into the price. Every other business manages to pay employees without turning the receipt into a public relations campaign. Instead, Chicken + Whiskey wants customers to admire them for charging extra after the fact. As for the food, the chicken looked less "wood fired" and more "insurance claim." One piece was so aggressively charred it appeared to have entered the atmosphere and returned. The sides were forgettable, the presentation was indistinguishable from a middle school cafeteria tray, and absolutely nothing on the table justified the premium pricing. The entire experience feels engineered by a marketing team. Keep the menu prices looking lower than reality. Add surprise fees later. Call them something noble. Hope nobody notices. We noticed. The funniest part is that the restaurant seems convinced the labor fee demonstrates transparency. Real transparency would be putting the actual price on the menu. What they're doing is the restaurant equivalent of an airline advertising a cheap ticket and then charging separately for the wings. For a place so concerned with fairness, they seem remarkably comfortable being unfair about pricing. I left feeling like I'd paid admission to watch a TED Talk about compensation practices while eating chicken that looked like it had been recovered from a structure fire. The food wasn't good enough to justify the price. The price wasn't honest enough to justify the policy. The policy wasn't clever enough to justify the attitude. One star. Raise your prices. Pay your staff. Stop expecting applause for it.

We had a dinner party of 20. the service was outstanding. Our Catering manager Susan kept us up to…read moredate with menu options. The wait staff was great, drinks and food came in shifts no waiting for anything we needed. Food was delicious, and having never been there before we were a bit nervous. A wide variety of options for the vegetarian folks, and those who love meat. And the restaurants ambience was lovely. Can't wait to to back.

First time in but it won't be our last!…read more Service was amazing. Our server, Spence, was great! Very knowledgeable about the menu and always there making sure we had what we needed. Do not sleep on the cocktails! The Lessons In Alliteration will bring me back here, it is so well balanced and goes down a little too easy. The food was incredible. We started with the Tequeños and Patacón Salvaje (the best bite of the night for me!). Then came the Caribe Atómico (a little too salty) and Caribbean Surf & Turf Salpicón. For our entrees we tried the Duck Atollado (the rice in this dish was amazing and so flavorful) and the Pelao Guayanés. Everything was well prepared and so tasty. Dessert was the Vanilla Quesillo and Cacao+, would skip, dessert was our least favorite course.

The food is good but they were out of half the menu in the 3rd inning and the lady wouldn't let me…read morecustomize my arepa at all (I wanted plantains but they were out of the other parts of that arepa and even though they still had plantains, I couldn't add them to my arepa even with extra $$).

Entirely gluten free stand! Had gluten free hot dogs as well. Queso fritters were very good.read more

I got to try Arepateca at National Night Out. I have seen them at the local farmer's markets and it…read morewas great to finally give them a try. They have two arepas marked as vegetarian. They let me know the Sweet Domino arepa can be made vegan with no cheese. I ordered this and really appreciated how kind and accommodating the woman at the register was. The arepa came out quickly and HOT. I had to wait a little for it to cool before taking a bite. The black beans were so flavorful!! I love how well seasoned they were. The sweetness of the plantains added a nice contrast to the savoriness of the black beans. Additionally this arepa was PACKED with filling. I was shocked how small yet satiating this meal was. Overall I would definitely order this arepa again and am very thankful they were able to make a vegan option for me.

I finally got to check out their brick and mortar location! It is a cute, dimly lit cafe that has…read moregames, beer, wine, coffee, tea, and very cozy seats. I didn't count the tables, but maybe you can seat about 20, and there's a table in the middle that I saw a bunch of folks standing around. Connect Four and some other games were on there. It has been a long time since I last had them, and I was excited for my friend to try them. We each got an arepa, and we split tequenos and chicken empanadas... Yes, we were hungry lol. The chicken salad arepa I was as good as I remembered, and I got a glass of white wine that complimented it perfectly. It was my first time having their tequenos, and they were nice and cheesy. I'd take those over mozzarella sticks for real. There was only one woman working, and she was efficient in handling orders. I would come back just to hang out... But if they got music, that would really set the vibe.

From the owner: We are a Venezuelan cuisine restaurant, focusing on Arepa's with a concept of fresh off the grill…read moreoptions.

Went here to grab lunch with a larger group and was very thankful for the patience of the woman…read moretaking our order. Very friendly and was helpful with recommendations. It's a small seating area, but we managed to find a spot that worked. We ordered three arepas, a cachapa, tequeyoyo, and a pastelito. To drink we got a tamarind beverage. The arepas were all very tasty and just what we were looking for. They had a good texture, were a decent size, and were stuffed with filling. The cachapa was something new for us. It was full of cheese and generously topped with chicken. The picture on the menu is very accurate. The sweetness of the cachapa provided a nice contrast to the savoryness of the chicken and chimichurri. The tequeyoyo was a great option to have for the kids as was the pastelito. All of the sauces paired well and we ended up mixing and matching. The tamarind drink was a real star and was a great tart contrast to all the food. I'm realizing more and more that I just want tamarind drinks. Overall, great experience and will definitely come back when I'm in the area!

Truly wonderful! Warmly greeted on entering both in Spanish…read moreand then English, probably because I looked at the Spanish. I do get mistaken for a Spanish speaker an awful lot. Freshly prepared food that the lady serving apologized for taking up to twenty minutes to make. Better fresh than buying off the shelf! Delicious! I got the cheese Arepo, and the tropical. For the same price as a subway, you got a whole lot more flavor and texture. The wife got the chicken and cheese, she declared then worthy of being on our rotation of places we go to.

I found this place just before closing, and my takeout was ready on time. I wondered if I'd sold…read morethem short by not getting the tequenos (a fried cheese stick), but the combination I settled on was just right. Yucca fries are kind of like potatoes, but they always seem a little drier to me, which is why I was glad I went for a fresh blackberry juice, an unusual find which was as tart as you could hope for, a nice contrast to my salty fries. Venezuelan generally is great for special diets, and their vegan arepa offers a mix of beans, avocado, and plantains, that is a satisfying whole food kind of sandwich. They gave me salsa but I didn't even use it. I immediately wished I'd gotten some empanadas or something to save for later because it was so good. Of course, I can always come back.

This was my first time visiting this place. Thanks to some photos from other reviews on Google, I…read moredecided to check it out! I got a small side of fries and the Carne Asada Bowl lunch special which, according to the website, it comes with - Arepa, Rice, Beans, Plantains, Fajita Veggies, Pico de Gallo, Corn, Lettuce, & Cheese -- I got mine with the Nata sauce (Venezuelan Sour Cream), but also no rice or plantains. The food was absolutely excellent. I loved every bite of it. The portions were great, the meat was flavorful and tender. The fries were great - though a little under-salted and quick to go cold because of how thin they were. But no worries, I can understand why for both. I'd like to have seen a bit more cheese and a bigger side of sauce. Has at least 41 options for Gluten-free menu items. Has at least 7 options for vegans. Has at least 18 options for vegetarians. Items are clearly marked on their website as such. The location is good, right between Pizza Hut and Food Lion. Plenty of parking. Happy staff and very polite. Order was easily identified and received. The food packaging was eco-friendly by being recyclable, if that matters to you! The bag had plenty of napkins, a fork, and a knife. Everything you need!