Aripo's

Cheese Empanada

We met each other for dinner in Oak Park at a place called Aripo's Venezuelan Arepa House. It was recommended to us by a friend. They serve mostly empanadas and arepas. We have had empanadas at many restaurants but we have only had arepas once or twice before.  An arepa is a dish customary to Venezuela or Columbia and consists of corn or flour dough stuffed with ingredients, like a sandwich.  We thought they were a bit similar to tortas, but smaller.

What we ordered:
White cheese empanada - good, but a little boring with just cheese in it, we put hot sauce on it to pep it up a bit.  In comparison to other places we enjoyed the empanadas at El Nandu and 90 Miles Cuban much better.

Conuquera Arepa

La Nuestra Arepa - shredded beef, black beans, fried plantain and white cheese. From the reviews we read this seemed to be their signature arepa. We felt there was too large of a ratio of beans to other ingredients and it wasn't all mixed together to get a bite of everything at once.  It was a little hard to eat because it was messy. It tasted okay but just not our favorite.
Conuquera Arepa - sauteed red peppers and onions, with plantains, black beans and white cheese.  Same comments as La Nuestra - too many black beans.

La Nuestra Arepa

We actually had ordered 2 empanadas but they messed up the ordering so we only go the one.  We liked the food but really not enough to order more.  We knew we had the option of dessert at home so we didn't order any more food at the restaurant.

Final thoughts on Aripo's:
Food - okay to try once, not sure we would go back.  Where else are there arepas?
Service - messed up the order and then were a bit slow to get our food so we didn't have the best experience
Atmosphere - a big positive; the interior of the restaurant is really cute. There are lots of nice details to make it feel you are in a space in central or south America. You order your food at a counter and it is brought to your table.