Aripo's Venezuelan Arepa House - Oak Park

Has anyone had a chance to try this place yet? Thanks!

Aripo's Venezuelan Arepa House
118 N Marion St
Oak Park, IL 60301
(708) 386-1313

Sounds like they opened on Wednesday according to their Twitter page.

In the former Moveable Gourmet space and also used a a temporary space for Khyber Pass while their main space was being redecorated.

Date night tonight and we might stop by.

I stopped by earlier today and tried two arepas with the bf. We had the La Nuestra (shredded beef, black beans, a crumbly white cheese, and fried sweet plantains) and the Conuquera (red peppers, onions, black beans, fried sweet plaintain, and a nice slab of white cheese which had been grilled). Both were delicious. I don't know much about Venezuelan food, so I can't speak to authenticity, but they appeared to be lovingly crafted from someone very familiar with the ingredients and style. The arepa bread had a fresh corn flavor, was lightly fried but not greasy. The grilled cheese in the Conuquera was my favorite - rich with a nice char. One arepa was filling for lunch, but probably too small for a dinner unless you got a side as well.

Their menu is about 20 different arepas, some empanadas, and a handful of salads and main dishes. The interior was well designed, comfortable and definitely Oak Park-ified.

We'll be back to try some different arepas. Somehow I missed Cazon ("Carribbean shark") on the menu the first time around, so I have to remedy that mistake

Pictures of their menu - sorry but too lazy to break out the scanner:

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/39/img1302kr.jpg

http://img714.yfrog.com/img714/1459/img1305th.jpg

As promised we did stop for dinner on Friday.

An Arepa is along the lines of a Gordita. A filling in a pocket.

Everything was fresh and good! The portions small for the prices. The flavors were a little light and the addition of their special sauces goes a long way.

The Guasacaca Sauce (green) was heavy on the garlic and as explained by a family at a table next to us contains peppers, avocado, cilantro amongst other things. This was a great topping for almost anything.

The Aripo's Special Sauce (light red) was a tomato and mayo style sauce.

Nata was listed as a side to our Boliqueso and looking it up it appears to be a type of custard. The only thing we saw as a side that it could be was a sour cream?





For only being open for a couple of days they were doing a brisk business! No waiting for a table but nearly all of the tables were filled. Work must of gotten around and many of the tables were filled with FFaR (friends, family and relatives) or fellow Venezuelans.


Menu Board (click for larger image)

Even though there were numbers on the menu board, the ordering system was not set up for this and the gal had to manually cross reference to the printed menu. Also the menu board and printed menu were not in sync.

Not a problem and only a short delay.

Wanting to get a taste of the full menu, for appetizers we ordered...


Boliqueso (cornmeal stuffed with cheese) which was served with sour cream and the fantastic guasacaca topping.

... and an...


Domino Empanada (black bean and cheese)

My Bride had the Reina Pepiada (Chicken and Avacado Salad) Arepa and I started off with the...


La Nuestra Arepa which was mentioned to be the National Food of Venezuela.

After working through our initial order (not counting the flan (Quesillo) I was still a bit hungry and was intrigued with the listing of Arepa Hamburger on the menu I thought I would give it a whirl...




La Musiua. Very colorful!

As mentioned on the menu this was a seasoned ground beef patty which had a taste more like meatloaf. Topped with lettuce, tomatoes, red onion and special sauce (watch out McDonald's ). The smooth 'bread' made the toppings hard to stay put and ended up eating most of them with a fork.

I did have a strong desire to head over to Ino's for a Gordita afterwards just to compare size/price ratio but then that would of just been over the top.

A good meal but a bit pricey for the novelty. A tummy filling meal would include an appetizer, 2 Arepa's and a dessert for about $20.

Looks good, Panther. Nata is one of several words for cream, and on a menu it often means sour cream (even without the "agria"). Arepas are one of the foods I fell in love with in Spain - there are lots of Venezolanos in and around Santander, and a few really good restaurants, including Taberna El Corro in nearby Sancibrian. The Reina Pepiada and the Choriarepa are very characteristic; the variety I'm missing on their current menu is the pernil, crispy roast pork, usually shoulder or shank, which is my favorite. Those salsas do sound excellent. I'll also try to give them a shot this week.

By the way... They were serving beer with Polar present at most of the tables with Venezuelans. I also did see a Corona pass by as well.

Overhear at the counter... Wind also coming soon.

The Liquor licence prominently displayed next to the register.

The Wife was making lobster bisque a few nights ago, so I didn't need a loaded arepa, but I did want something to eat with the bisque, so I bought four plain arepas, right off the grill, warm and tasty, $1.50 each (no deal, but not bad).

I heard one of the owner's say they had brought everything over from Venezuela (meaning furnishings, which are understated and tasteful). Based on slick graphics, I was kind of assuming the place was part of a chain or franchise operation, but apparently it is not (yet).

This weekend I got takeout for 6 people from Aripo's, and overall I found it a very satisfying meal. We talked with one of the owner's, and she is married to a Venezuelan (the other owner). They live in Oak Park, but decided Oak Park needed a restaurant serving Venezuelan food, so without any background in the cooking world they decided to give it a go. I think they are doing a pretty good job of it, especially so early in the process.

We had multiple items, but some of the things we ordered were:

Yuca Frita - I love yuca, and these were thick cut and fried perfectly, and quite nice when dipped in the Guasacaca (garlic) sauce, although you have to eat these before they get too cold.

Empanada's - I really liked the crust, which was almost like a Chinese Sesame Ball dough without the sesame seeds. Fillings included Ham and Cheese (good, creamy cheese and probably would be a kid favorite) and Pabellon (shredded beef, black beans, fried plantains and white cheese), which was very nice but a tad too sweet IMO.

Arepa's - These are decent sized, and have a fairly strong corn taste. Among the flavors we tried were Choriarepa (chorizo and diced potatoes), which was my favorite that I tried, and Domino (scrambled eggs with sauteed veggies and a white cheese), which I didn't get to try but was told was quite good. Everything tasted even better when the Guasacaca sauce was added (but don't plan on having any business meetings after without everyone smelling the garlic about 10 feet away).

Desserts - Quesillo (Venetian flan) was similar to most flans I have had, and although good was not much different than your average flan. Arroz con leche (Rice Pudding) was a little too thick and starchy, and Mousse de Parchita was a Passion Fruit mousse, and which although it was given to us free for having to wait a bit for our order, was more of an overly-gelatinous jello that was nowhere near what I would consider a true mousse.


Overall I think this is a great addition to Oak Park, and certainly worth stopping by if you need a bite to eat and are in the neighborhood.

A lot of this sounds similar to Taste of Brazil, though of course I hope both places are able to hump it out in this economy. Either way, now I know where to hit for lunch tomorrow!

The space has been artfully rehabbed, outfitted in good taste, and staff is great. There is also much promise from the fresh salads and juices - I had a papelon con limon, sugar cane tea, that hit the spot. However, these are not exactly the arepas I was looking for. They're quite large, heavy, pricey, and on a scale that does not encourage snacking on multiple types; you're pretty much committed to one, and the current lunch deal which brings the prices into line (any two for $7.50 before 3 PM) would work better for a party of two.

Moreover, these are essentially all plain arepas that have been griddled well-done from the same dough, then split in half, and then filled with separately cooked toppings, used more like sandwich buns than an integrated snack. I'm more familiar with a style where some specific seasoning is added to a particular ladle-full of batter, and then the pork, chicken, veggies, or cheese are slid under a half-griddled cake for a piping hot, melty composition; this is likely a regional difference, but my preference is for a bit more grease and griddle-char.

The fillings are quite flavorful; I appreciated the chorizo and potatoes, and the conuquera, with plantains, fresh sauteed peppers and onions, and black beans (though the farmer's cheese was refrigerator-cold and had not been grilled as described above). The house-made sauces are delectable as mentioned. I can picture going with a group where everyone gets a quarter of an arepa in several varieties; it's not quite scalable for my solo snacking needs, but I'll certainly be back throughout the summer for the juices, to work further into the menu, and to support a nice regional spot on Marion that I wish all success.

Had a chicken salad at Aripo's today, which consisted of potato, peas, mayo, some carrot and about two pounds of chicken. Really, it was a lot of chicken.



The salad seemed very wholesome, virtually seasoning-free, needing salt, but clean flavors...and a lot of chicken.

I had two arepas (they had a special), one with spiced ground beef, one with eggplant and some other veggies and a square of white cheese. They were reasonably flavorful, especially for South American food, but those arepas get heavy on you quickly.

Brief thoughts: Last weekend I had a dinner special: roast pork leg with mashed potatoes ($12). This was something that could have come out of an Iowa church supper.....in a good way. Potatoes were home-made and excellent.

Wife had a simple roast pork arepa. Just meat in a roll. Looked like it could have used some variety in there between the bread (?). One arepa is plenty for a light to moderate eater.

Fried plaintain fritters were fine after a healthy dose of salt. Washed it down with some sort of Bell's beer. Wife had a tasty passionfruit drink (good but kind of pricey at $3.50).

I liked the place. We'll be back in hopes of narrowing down the best menu options.