Empanada Mama

This place is delicious! I’m from Venezuela and the food here always takes me close to home. The empanadas are great and you have the option for fry or baked. The service is also pretty good. Overall good food, good service, nice environment… highly recommended place.

Vegetarians beware — I found a piece of meat in my vegetarian lentil soup today, towards the end of the bowl. Just a head’s up!

Had an inexpensive meal– waiter helped us select something as we had never sampled this kind of cuisine. Food was great, atmosphere was fun and convenient for anyone visiting Tenement Museum (restaurant honors 10% discount with museum ticket).

The food is awesome here. Service sucked.
I’ve never had a chance to dine in until last night. It was always take out for me.
Three of us went in. Was seated by the hostess. The other side was full so she put us by the front door, which was fine.
We waited for at least 20 minutes for a server. Sorry we have to get up and get the server. He proceed to ask why we were sitting there no one told him… blah blah blah w that face. Sorry we were seated by your wait staff.
Ate. Food’s amazing.
Got our bill with a 18% gratuity attached to it. For 3 people really? That’s not right. We are capable of tipping for service, which there was none. We say the busboy more than we say our waiter. Oh. That would be when he too our order w that «face».

O just love this place I used to go to the one in Queens but it’s way too far for me I’m so glad it’s in the Lower East Side now great food

I recommend the empanadas with cheese. I had the cheesesteak and wished I had ordered the Cuban. The viagra was good since the seafood was fresh. I would like to try the Brasil as well. I didn’t particularly like the shredded chicken or beef since it was a bit plain.

Good Lord what an Enpanada! I just had 2 Spicy chicken Empanadas and 1 Beef with the green and red sauce. WOW! BANGIN! I will definitely come again. Staff is very friendly and helpful. 10 bucks for 3 empanadas.

I just ate here today for lunch. I had a corn empanada with shredded chicken, and a shredded beef arepa with cheddar cheese. I am Venezuelan and don’t get to eat this type of food a lot here in New York so I was glad to have run into this place. The arepa was pretty perfect. The empanada was a little different than expected (kind of an odd shape and texture) but still super tasty. I will come back here most definitely. The prices are also totally reasonable. Arepas start at like 7 bucks, empanadas around 3. They also have Malta which made me happy :) Stop by!

Always consistent! Ordered delivery late night from the Allen st. Location and it came in a timely manner and best of all, was just as good as when I used to drop by. I’ve mostly only experienced their 9^th Ave location but to my surprise, the empanadas were everything I remembered and more! The viagra empanada may just be the holy grail! Crispy on the outside, super savory and satisfying! Speedy delivery and it’s free!

Listen I love this place. I was very disappointed when they closed their E. Houston location. I was very happy when I Unilocaled and discovered they opened another one not too far.
Love love love empanada mama!

I raved abt their food from their old location on 9^th ave. I am not disappointed. The food is delicious and they haven’t raised their prices. I love their spicy chicken arepa. Its very huge and filling. My husband loves their empanandas and enjoys a good variety when we eat in or take out. The new location is clean, bigger. Parking is also convenient. I was and is very happy with this place.

Food ⁴⁄₅
It was my first time having an empanada and my friend was craving empanadas so we figured, why not come here and give it a try. We ordered 2 beef empanadas to go and we waited for about 10 minutes. At first, I didn’t get why it would take them 10 minutes for 2 empanadas, until I got it and realized how fresh and hot it was. It definitely came straight out of the oven because it was very hot. The crust was nice and crunchy and the beef inside was well seasoned and packed. I honestly don’t know what the difference is between an empanada and a beef patty because it was so similar to me. Base on reviews, the Viagra seems to be a popular one. That’ll be the one I order for next time!

The basic chicken empanada & the banana and chocolate empanada are really good here. I also liked that they were open later hours on a Friday night. Limited seating here but we found no issues finding a spot to sit. I’d come back if I were in the area late & night and a craving hit for empanadas.

I do not know how this is not a 5 star. This place is amazing. The food is sooooooo good. Drinks are great as well. The staff is very nice and the food comes fast as well. The vibe is very comfortable. Good for a group or even a date. Tonight we double dated and had a great time. I will deff go there again.

I’m writing this place a five-​star review based off one empanada– the Viagra– but what a great one it is! Very juicy and well-​seasoned seafood in a tasty shell, freshly made. And cheap! Like $ 3.80.
The place has ample seating, friendly staff, is open 24 hours, and their menu looks fantastic. I was really sorry I didn’t have more stomachs handy, because there was such great variety and interesting combinations. Highly recommended!

Great late night snack spot!
Always packed full of people. I was new to the food so it was all good for me. Loved the plantain chips.
Perfect beer food.

Empanadas are good but not worth more than $ 1.5-$ 2… They all cost over $ 3.30 and since you will mostly like eat 3+ (it will b around $ 15-​$ 20 per person), they should definitely lower the price. Staff is super friendly and I like the vibe

Nice place, pretty chilled. The food was great. Nothing special. The cheese empanada was good, didn’t really like the chicken one, maybe it was because it was baked. But def going back to give it another shot. Although the price is reasonable. ish… around $ 3.55 per… but with tax and tips, felt like it wasn’t worth it.

i came here a couple of times when i craved their empanadas. The Viagra empanadas is my favorite, an absolute must try! They have a large range of varieties, ranging from breakfast empanadas to savory to sweet. The viagra is a seafood empanadas with shrimp and crab meat, which at first i was doubting but my friend sworn it’s the best so i had to try. I also tried the breakfast empanadas and the steak one which were all pretty good, but the viagra is hands down the best. They also have a bunch of drinks and shakes, i ordered the avocado shake which was just okay nothing amazing about it. The place is very spacious and every time that i’ve been there it was never packed. The service for food can get slow, like the last time i went because they get alot of delivery orders from seamless.
I also recently found out that they are open ²⁴⁄₇ so you can order anytime and get your food delivered, which is a plus!

I went here for lunch today just because I was in the area. The place was pretty empty and I suspected that it was like that because it was 3 in the afternoon. I ordered the Tutti Fruitti as a drink I truly enjoyed it. We also had an order of the plantain chips with guacamole it was good nice and fresh. I ordered the grilled chicken which came with beans, salad and rice. I can’t eat rice so I opted for more salad and the beans.
The chicken was grilled to perfection nice and juicy, The only problem was that it was extremely salty I could barely eat it. When I told my server that the chicken was salty she said she would tell the kitchen. I’m not sure if she did but I had to let her know. Overall service was okay, I gave three stars because the service was decent and food was good but salty.

I like empanadas~ they’re more or less meat pies, but who cares. Good is good. Bad is bad. In-​between is in-​between. And this is in-​between. They have such a large menu, and with a large menu, there’s a greater degree of hit-​or-​miss:
POLISH (miss)~ i like kielbasa and sauerkraut and so even though I had a feeling a polish-​style empanada might be a letdown, I still ordered it. And yeah, it wasn’t that great~ was kind of bland, plus the pastry just kind of clashed with the overall taste of the filling. I dunno, that was definitely a shame on me for ordering it, but maybe they don’t need to make it in the first place.
REGGAETON (hit)~ the flavors of everything meshed quite nicely. I definitely recommend this one.

Dayum. They didn’t deliver to me when they were at their old location but now they do, which is awesome because I’m pretty far from LES. I ordered the cheese, huevos pericos, and viagera empanadas. All three where really good. Green and hot sauce also both good. I was a bit suspicious of ordering the viagera because seafood and empanadas don’t really make sense to me, but I’m so glad I did because it was amazing. Believe the hype about it and order two. In terms of price I thought the empanadas were a bit pricy when I was placing my order, but in terms of the amount of stuffing in the empanadas I think it’s worth the price. Avoid the salad as it’s just lettuce and not very good.