Weak Name, Strong Arepas

Sometimes, you just want to go to a nice location for some good snacks. Nothing too fulfilling, but something different, something small but very tasty. Usually ice cream joints succeed the most in this type of eatery, with the likes of Twistee Treat, Baskin Robbins, and Rita’s. But, close to The Loop is a very small place called Orlando Snack Café. From the outside, it looks like a small location to grab a quick snack, maybe a sandwich or a pastry. I am surprised that there aren’t more of these small eateries next to middle or high schools. In the Dominican Republic, there are dozens of carts that run rapid when the school hours are over to rake in some cash from hungry students. But in Central Florida, I personally have not seen much restaurant activity outside of schools----which now would be extremely profitable given the crap that is fed to students nowadays. So, I gave Orlando Snack Café a shot.

Well, apparently Orlando Snack Café is nothing like its name. Orlando Snack Café is actually a Venezuelan restaurant that has been around for a couple of years that serves up a wide variety of breakfast and lunch items----with a few snacks here and there. The foods range from hot dogs to pastas to sandwiches to salads to even steak and cheeseburgers. The food is a heavy mix of Venezuelan and American. All it takes is a name change, and it would have a much better fanbase, considering that there are a lot of Hispanics in the area, and a lot of successful Hispanic eateries.


After some thinking, I decided to go with a cheese empanada and a chicken and cheese arepa. I did this because I am judging similar small eateries in the area from Columbia and Venezuela (Senezia and Fortuna Bakery Café, which will have a competition in Season 2 of my videoblog). To add to that, I also order a banana milkshake. The meal cost around 12 bucks after taxes, a bit pricy in my tastes. The empanada wasn’t too bad, but the arepa was 5 bucks since I asked for two items instead of one—a bit high in my opinion. After some waiting I first get the banana milkshake. It was unusually warm, but its not unusual in some countries to serve these drinks warmer than you’d expect from a milkshake. After a cup of ice, the drink was very good, not too thick, not too milky.


The empanada arrives next. It was very, hot, fresh right out of the oven. It was very big, and a second one of these would have been filling enough. It was very good, not too greasy. However, the inside wasn’t full of cheese; it was half-cheese, half-air. It sounds like not much of a deal, but when across the way you can find empanadas that is full to the brim (Senezia) with flavor (and filling), it was a minor buzzkill. Nonetheless, it was very good. So much analyzing over an empanada, eh?


The arepa arrives, and this food is what separates the good places from the bad places. Senezia’s arepas are extremely greasy, extremely messy, and everytime you order it, it’s a race against time to eat it before the greasy bread falls apart and obliterates the entire meal. In other words, Senezia’s arepas would be better if it weren’t a tough battle to devour the thing. In the case of Orlando Snack Café, the arepa was phenomenal. There was twice as much shredded chicken as cheese, and the bread portion wasn’t struggling to hang on. While you can get so much more food with 5 bucks in many spots (and even this spot), it was nonetheless very filling and satisfying. In terms of Venezuela Arepas, this place is King of the Hunters Creek Mountain.


Bottom Line: The name is almost a total contradiction to how the place really is, but Orlando Snack Café is a decent joint with high prices but wonderful service and high-caliber food. The range is quite extensive, and it would require multiple visits to see just how good their American items are. In the meantime, their Venezuelan cuisine isn’t half-bad, with their arepas being some of the better ones in the Orlando area. I recommend this place if you have a craving for Venezuela food, but this isn’t a spot that would be a total travesty to miss. I will return here, but only for their arepas, nothing more.

P.S. The other difference is with the two other small local Hispanic eateries, they have a massive bakery section as well as their lunch section. In here, their dessert consists of selling ice cream from different well-known brands.



Orlando Snack Cafe
3708 Town Center Blvd.
Orlando, Florida 32837