Hola Arepa

Some of our group loved it-​some not so much. I was one of the ones who thought it was excellent. Atmosphere is a bit noisy, and part of the experience. We got there early, but shortly after the place was packed out. Definitely worth a try if you are in the area. Our party of 10 sampled probably 7 different dishes.

This place is busy for a reason!

Well, my daughter and I love love love Mexican. We are LA girls and love finding new spots here locally.
We went for Brunch and I have to say, I love the atmosphere, the music brought me back to my Brooklyn days (where I am originally from) and the place was packed. Parking was a bit difficult, lot is small so we had to find street parking.
Brunch menu is small and if you are a picky eater, this is not a place to go. The food was okay. Super crazy fast but just okay. My daughter liked her meal … She has the 1^st thing on the menu and I had a vegan black bean sandwich. The second I picked it up, everything fell out… The bread it came with was wet from the loose beans and again, there was really nothing great about it.
I would not go back from Brunch. It was like 40 bucks for us to have brunch without drinks… that was just eh…
Not sure why this place is packed and I mean packed!
Maybe dinner is better but I wouldn’t go back

I will still give this place an A+ for the food, but the service last night was a C– at best. There were three people in our party, two arrived first, and I was third — I told the host at the host stand when I arrived and met the rest of my party at the bar for a drink. Another hostess came over and rather snippily told me «you’re supposed to tell us when you’re entire party is here.» I thought we did? Was it my mistake to assume that when you have two people working the host stand they might talk to each other?
Our server also looked quite put out when I asked her to confirm that what we had ordered was gluten free. She informed us in a rather annoyed tone of voice, that everything on the menu was gluten free unless stated otherwise. I told her I saw that, but because one member of our party has celiac disease, I wanted to make extra sure. She didn’t quite roll her eyes at us, but it was clear she was annoyed. Also, they stopped refilling our water glasses after bringing our bill, even though we stayed and chatted for a bit. It was not as if the restaurant was terribly full at that point and they needed the table.
Come on, guys, it’s not that hard. If you can bring the quality of your service back on par with your food, I will gladly come back.

Get the simple chicken arepa! Just a little burst of deliciousness in your mouth! (GF) too!
Not too shabby vegan food options too like Yuca fries with chimichurri sauce :)
Go. Vamanos! Ariba!

THE place that I recommend everyone to go to when in the Minneapolis area. The service is great and the food/drinks…perfect! Those yuca fries will make you never want a traditional fry again and the arepas are drool worthy. Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. It’s a great atmosphere but it tends to be busy so plan accordingly.
One peace of advice that is kind of a trade off is that I wish food didn’t come out so fast. Most recent time I went I got my dinner before the drinks and appetizers… I always feel so rushed once I sit down!

Hola Arepa is a great, little restaurant for good quality food and drinks. The service is exceptionally good too. They serve a few vegan food options like Yuca fries with chimichurri sauce (Aioli sauce is made with eggs), Plantain Tostadas with Black Beans and Guac and a couple of Black Bean Arepas. The portion sizes look small but are very generous as you dig in. Food tastes delicious with lots of flavors.
I had a Hola Fashioned cocktail which was very well mixed. The wait staff is very attentive and knowledgeable. Parking could be a problem on busy days.

Long wait about 30 minutes but it was a Saturday at 6 PM
Chorizo sausage arepa very good. The corn bread bun was very good. And I do not like corn tortillas.
Very noisy in the back and overall but it was full with many standing at the door.
4 salsas — you get 3 with chips
1 very flavorful and somewhat sweet
2– mild spice heat on number one
4– like a medium Chinese mustard
Deserts were OK. I had the chew cake made from goat cheese. Not bad not great
Food came very quickly after ordering maybe 5 minutes
Good price for amount of food. I ate all so no leftovers.

Arepas are one of my favorite things when it comes to Latin American cuisine. I drove by this place a few times and I was immediately drawn in by the trendy colors and catchy sign.
Entrees of choice:
Chorizo sausage & egg arepas: The picked cabbage and chorizo was mmm mmm good. Definitely stick to the yuca fries for the side. It was hard to choose between both sauces because they were so good.
Fried chicken & cachapas: sweet and savory combination with pancakes and fried chicken. Portions were pretty big so one cachapa is more than enough to share.
Leave it to the hipsters to serve a mean brunch. You more than definitely had me at Hola.

Patio, full bar, late night happy hour, brunch, it doesn’t matter what time you come, they have it all! It’s so good, everything is gluten free, late night hh has $ 6 arepas and drink specials. I love this place! Food is amazing and during summer street events the pull the truck bar out in the parking lot to lessen your drink wait time. Amen!

A Sunday night dinner at this Cuban Or Venezuelan themed restaurant was a trip to flavor town (I think it is Venezuelan). Shredded beef and plantain was smokey and tasty and the yucca fries… I’ve found a interest in yucca fries with the aioli Verde dipping sauce. I tried the chimichurri sauce which wasn’t bad either. The shiitake cachapa was a different experience because the huitacoche combined with truffle oil was a raze I never had before.
I was told that arepas are made quickly and my food came out under 5 minutes. I sat at the bar and a good server that made sure to keep the drinks coming. He was attentive and gave good descriptions of food/​drinks.

Wow. How this place was open for a year literally a ½ mile away from us and we did not go once is a crime against humanity.
Cocktails-​yup. Outstanding
Food-​DAAAAAAAAAMN-​we went a while ago and I cant recall what I ate, but it was ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Atmosphere-​Sat on patio, dog friendly, fun servers.
Go

When I woke up on a Sunday morning in Minneapolis I certainly didn’t intend to spend $ 42 on brunch but I did just that. I don’t regret it. It was actually my favorite meal after eating a swath through this city. PRE: I was driving North on Nicollet Avenue with no destination in mind except for a brunch joint that wasn’t over flowing with a crowd and had high Unilocal ratings. Hola Arepa was the choice. I was able to park on a nearby side street. I saw the food truck as my girlfriend and I approached. This was a good sign.
We had no reservation but were promptly seated. The staff is cool. The space is cool. The playlist is cool. Even though we were in the back of the dining room near the restrooms I had a large mirror above me so I could see everything behind me. The «reclaimed» industrial look that color schemed in blue is awesome. The one page menu doesn’t fuck around — it says «this is what we do and we do it well». ORDERED: Mini Churro, Brunch Salad (I enjoy salad at breakfast does that make me weird?), Breakfast Arepa with added pork and guacamole, Chimichurri Chicken. Totaled $ 42.03.
I honestly didn’t know what an «arepa» was. Bobby Flay and Ricky Bayless haven’t taught me this yet. From Wikipedia: Arepa is a flatbread made of ground maize dough or cooked flour prominent in the cuisine of Colombia and Venezuela. My breakfast arepa sandwich was INCREDIBLE. Perfectly cooked pork, savory and perfect. The yuca fries will make you question ever eating the potato variety ever again. My girlfriend barely spoke during this meal but traded head shaking approvals at each other. The side salad had a nice vinaigrette and pumpkin seeds.
MINNEAPOLIS: You have a gem of a restaurant up there.
CHANCE OF RETURN: ¹⁰⁄₁₀

I went to Hola Arepa for brunch after hearing about how amazing it is for months. I was excited to check it out and was second in line when the doors opened in the morning!
Once inside, our waitress was a bit off-​color but overall she was fine. A bunch of us ordered the horchata and I can not recommend it enough! Boozy, cinnamon milk is the perfect brunch drink.
I was rushed a bit by my table and ordered the chilaquiles tostada which was definitely more tostada than chilaquiles. While great food, it didn’t meet the expectation of chilaquiles I was looking for. I recommend ordering it because it’s delicious, but don’t expect traditional chilaquiles.
One other con was the timing of food was a bit off. My table of 5 had two dishes come out, then 2 more a couple minutes later, then the last another few minutes later. They did apologize so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that it was just a mistake.
Overall good food, good drinks, good crowd. Would return soon.

Hollaaaaa Hola! I’ve been wanting to try this place out for so long and finally went last week with a friend who was visiting from San Francisco. It started out as a food truck and got so popular that they opened a location, and thank lawdy they did.
The patio is bomb, the food is bomb, the motif is bomb, everything is nom nom nom. The patio already had a wait list at 5:30 on a beautiful October Sunday evening and we didn’t want to wait so we sat inside. We immediately ordered chips and guac. The guac was über fresh and had corn in it, which I’ve never had before, and the chips came with three different dipping sauces from mild to hot. We actually liked the mild semi-​sweet creamy one the most. Great flavor.
I ordered the shredded beef and plantain arepa and my friend ordered the shitake cachapa small plate. The shredded beef was perfectly cooked and seasoned, piled on a bed of plantains smushed between a cornmeal griddle cake sandwich. I have a newfound love for arepas as well as the yucca fries and chimichurri sauce that came with it. The flavors were fresh and delicious and I can’t wait to have more. I tried my friend’s small plate and it was very good, but not quite as good as mine!

I got out of a meeting at 4:45pm in the area, and I quickly concluded I would rather give birth to Sasquatch than hop into rush hour. So I decided to hop into Hola Arepa for happy hour instead. I am a total dope and missed out on patio weather here, but inside was sunny, colorful, and cozy, so I was still happy. I bellied up at the bar and was greeted with great service that lasted through my visit. I ordered a HH red wine ($ 4), slow-​roasted pork arepa, and arepitas.
Meanwhile, a dude sat next to me at the bar and pulled a whole jar of pickles out of his pocket and it was GREAT.
My food arrived and I was impressed with how much they stuffed into that thin arepa. It was a huge meat explosion (that’s what she said?). The pork was packed with flavor, and the arepa was soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I am crazy for the arepitas too. They have a thin, crispy shell filled with pillowy goat cheese and with grassy and crunchy japapeno. They come with their house sauce, which is sweet/​tangy and I believe has guava in it. Perfectly balanced! I left full and with a little wine-​buzz, and my bill was only $ 15. Apparently I f’ed up by not getting the yucca fries too, but next time Hola Arepa, next time.

This place is delicious. Definitely a cheat-​day meal, because this place is carb heavy. Doesn’t it just suck that the food that is delicious is always the one that’s bad for you weight-​wise? Such is life, but you know what? You gotta’ live a little.
I got the chicken arepa. It’s delicious and comes with yuca fries. Five stars nommy!

I have NO fricken’ clue why it took me so long to try an arepa. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know what it was until I found out about this place on Unilocal.I really had no idea how it was going to taste. Maybe I will like it. Maybe not. Well, my doubts came to a halting stop when I munched through the first arepa. It was so YUMMEH!
The slow-​roasted pork was tender and flavorful all stashed between two corn pockets. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything quite like this before. I’ve had all kinds of Latin American food but this arepa is new to me but once I tasted it, I knew this place was a special gem.
The chicken chimichurri arepa was also top notch. The chicken meat was tender and seasoned well. The chimichurri sauce really helped elevate that chicken arepa. I am HUGE fan of red meat but this chicken was really good. I would give this arepa the tastiest chicken I’ve had and would rank this up as high as the slow-​roasted pork arepa.
Yucca fries? They come in 4 sticks. They are the yummiest 4 sticks of fries you will ever eat. Dip them in the chimichurri or aoili verde sauce and you have yourself an incredibly tasty treat. The fries are fluffy in nature because of the yucca plant. It really is off the charts. I can probably just order the fries here and still leave a 5 star rating. That’s how good these babies were! I’m actually craving them right now and I’m not even hungry!
Back to the aoili verde and chimichurri sauces. Both are delicious. I suggest you try both as they are vastly different from one another. One’s fresh and tangy and the other one is creamy spicy. Both are amazing to dip your fries or arepas in.
Man oh man, I can’t wait to try the other arepas. If you were to come up to me and ask me what an arepa was, I would have to say go try one at Hola Arepa. I really have no clue how to describe one without drooling.
P. S. They actually have a parking lot. Had no idea until I parked in the street and walked to the restaurant.

Holy expensive Arepa!
this is the most expensive arepa i have seen to date at about 12 $ with some yuca fries.
It was actually quite tasty.
It’s big enough with the side to make most people however, don’t expect to be stuffed.
The place gets busy.

I’ve been a huge fan of Hola Arepa for awhile, and my first brunch there today didn’t disappoint. I was pleased to arrive around 11 and not have to wait for a table because the patio being open doubles their capacity.
We tried the arepitas and silver dollar cachapas to start and were happy we did! There were great flavors and textures in both, though we couldn’t find the gooseberry in the arepitas.
I got the tostada chilaquiles with pork and was very impressed. Beautiful presentation and fresh ingredients. It does get soggy pretty quickly, though. The chorizo & egg and chimichurri chicken arepas were delicious as well, and I could eat that yuca & aioli combo everyday!
I usually love drinks here, and was really happy with the diablo. I love me a spicy tequila beverage and the diablo delivered. I was not into the Bloody Mary though– too chunky with an off putting taste. Stick to the mimosas if you want a brunchy beverage.
I love going to hola arepa but miss the days of the food truck. The arepas were cheaper and you had a salsa selection at your disposal. Still, I’m super happy that this is now a brunch option in addition to happy hour & dinner!