La Churreria

Pocas veces en la vida se topa una con buena comida colombiana!!! He ordenado un pollo en salsa de champińones y pues déjame decirles que fue mi peor elección!!! Sin sabor, sin sazón, y encima del pollo abrieron una lata de champińones y simplemente se las tiraron encima sin ningún carińo a la buena cosina colombiana…

This review is for the Colombian bakery and restaurant duo La Churreria and Mr. Valdez. La Churreria and Mr. Valdez are essentially the same business. They share the same storefront and space, and all charges are rung up with La Churreria listed as the merchant. La Churreria is the bakery («Café-​Bakery») and Mr. Valdez is the restaurant («Latin Café»). The business is located in the same strip mall as Venezuelan restaurant Natarica Grill on Buford Highway OTP (outside the perimeter) in Norcross.
La Churreria is a grab-​and-​go bakery. The store has several cases filled with shelves upon shelves of Colombian baked goods: breads, pastries, sandwiches, cakes, and more. In addition, they sell coffee and espresso-​based drinks. They have baskets which you can use to shop around and fill with the bakery items of your choice. When you’re finished, go to the register to pay and they’ll pack everything up for you. It appears many customers come in and pick up stuff to go.
Popular and recommended items from the bakery include pan de bono (Colombian cheese bread), beef empanadas, and bunuelos (doughnuts). Other examples of foods you might find at the bakery include breads filled with ham and cheese (jamon y queso), guava and cheese pastries (guayaba y queso), and dulce de leche pastries (arequipe). The display case sitting at the front counter has more breads and pastries in addition to meats such as chorizo sausages and chicharron (fried pork rinds).
The meats in the front case are the same ones used in dishes served by the restaurant portion of the business, Mr. Valdez Latin Café. Feel free to purchase baked goods from the bakery and take them over to the restaurant side where you can sit down at one of the tables and eat. Mr. Valdez is set up similar to a fast casual restaurant. You stand in line and order/​pay upfront and the food is brought to your table when it’s ready.
Mr. Valdez serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner items. Breakfast items include arepas (griddled corn cakes), eggs, and rice. Monday through Friday, there are $ 6.90 lunch specials which include soup, meat/​fish, sides, and dessert (a good value). Regular entrees include food like steaks (bistec, carne asada), chicken, and traditional Colombian dishes like Picada, which is made with chorizo sausage, pork ribs (costilla de cerdo), yuca, potato, fried chicken, and chicharron. The picada ($ 19) is one of the pricier items on the menu. Most entrees are only in the $ 9 – 12 range.
If I could only suggest one food item here, it would be the Arepa de Choclo. It’s a sweet corn cake made with white farmer’s cheese. It’s kind of like a pancake, except sweeter and filled with savory, light cheese. The corn cake is fried and therefore a bit oily, but the result is delicious.
A unique and fun item to order is the Perro Caliente Colombiano, which is a Colombian-​style hot dog. It’s huge, nearly a foot long, and loaded with a plethora of toppings including ketchup, mustard, slaw, pineapple sauce, mayo, and crushed potato chips. One of these is $ 4.50. If you like hot dogs or want to try something authentic to Colombia, try one. It’s not bad.
If you want a filling entrée or want to sample several different Colombian foods, order the Bandeja Paisa or the Parrillada.
The Bandeja Paisa ($ 11.50) comes with beans, steak, plantains, chicharron, rice, one whole avocado, a fried egg, and an arepa. The beans are cooked in a Colombian sauce and have a smoky flavor. The steak is thinly sliced and is not the best quality. The plantains are served as one single piece/​banana. The chicharron is hard, crispy, expectedly fatty, but tasty. The avocado is fresh and ripe. The egg and arepa are plain.
The presentation for the Parrillada ($ 11.50) is neat because it is served on a wooden cutting board. It comes with chicken, steak, chorizo, maduros infused with cheese, and Latin potato salad (ensalada rusa). This entrée is definitely meat/​protein-​heavy. This is the first time I have ever seen cooked plantains (maduros) with cheese inside.
To complete your dining experience, order a Latin American soda like Inca Kola (Peru), Frescolita (Venezuela), or Pony Malta (Colmbia). Behind the counter, there are several juice machines with juices such as blueberry, mango, passion fruit, lulo/​naranjilla (citrus fruit), strawberry, and guanabana (soupsop). I like the blueberry. They also have Salpicon de Frutas, which is a fruit cocktail with fruits like watermelon, mango, papaya, and pineapple. It is refreshing.
Service is OK. I’ve had poor results trying to call these folks over the phone. Either there was no answer or they just hung up on me. It may help to speak Spanish. In-​person service is fine.

This review is specifically for the bakery aspect of the restaurant (I posted a review for their Latin food offerings on the ‘Mr.Valdez’ listing:
).
La Churreria Bakery shares their space and staff with Mr. Valdez’s Latin Café, the entire left side of the restaurant is dedicated to the bakery; there are full length pastry cases lining the wall filled with tons of various desserts.
While we were ordering our food, something listed on the menu board caught my eye immediately, it was called a «Cholaos», in the picture it looked sort of like a milkshake or ice cream topped with various fruit and a waffle cone — how could I walk away from that? Unfortunately, when I asked about it, the girl at the counter, very curtly replied that they weren’t available. I’ve since looked it up online and it’s a Colombian dessert — which again looks amazing, hopefully it’ll be available on a future visit.
After we finished our meal at Mr. Valdez, we decided to see about some churros. There is a $ 5 minimum on debit/​credit here, so the boyfriend added a cup of ‘Salpicon’ — which is another Colombian specialty made from watermelon/​fruit juice, with various diced fruits inside — their version had apples and papaya. I really quite enjoyed it, it was the perfect balance of sweetness and very refreshing.
The churro took about 7 – 10 minutes to be ready — as I mentioned in my review for Mr. Valdez, the staff was quite overwhelmed by our large group — but it was definitely worth the wait. They came fresh out of the oven, which leads me to believe they’re made to order. It was delicious, definitely the best one I’ve ever had. It was still warm, the outside was a perfect crisp and dusted with sugar, and the inside was caramel. So decadent and so, so good. I’ll be back for the churros alone. The boyfriend also proclaimed them the best he’s had, and he’s somewhat of a churro aficionado — so I’d take his word for it.

La Churreria was not one of my favorite Colombian places. First of all, the staff looked pissed off. They did not look like they were enjoying their job. The girl at the counter seemed curt and annoyed at our large group that just walked in.
I tried a bit of their foods. I tried their Bandeja Paisa, Arepa de Choclo, hotdogs, and their arepa con carne. What was my favorite? I would say their hotdog. Just kidding. But I do think their hotdogs are good.
The hot dog was huge. It looked like a real foot long. It came with a bunch of sauces on top of it like ketchup and other stuff. It almost tasted better than a Costco Hot Dog.
The Arepa de Choclo tasted nice and sweet. Although Natarica next door does them better.
The Bandeja Paisa looked authentic. It came with chicharron, beans and rice, avocado, carne asada, chorizo, an arepa, and fried plantains. It was huge. I would advise most people to get the mini version. It tasted okay. I didn’t like the beans, and I love beans and rice. I didn’t like the flavor of the beans. They cooked the rice well, and the meats tasted fine. I seemed like an okay meal to me.
I do like their arepas. They seem to make it in house. I love how they toast the bottom so you get the charred goodness. If you come here, I suggest you get something with arepas. I think the Arepa con carne is probably their best «main» dish.

La Panaderia y el restaurante son buenos en el aspecto de que siempre estan limpios y la variedad de pan y platos y bocadillos Colombianos son buenos. Peeeero la atención es pésima. Las srtas que atienden en dos veces de las 3 que eh ido siempre me han atendido mal y con actitud. Hasta el dia de hoy que hasta muecas me hicieron. El salpicon tienen que verificar que venga todas las frutas y no solo dos frutas y puro jugo como me dieron una vez. Y pregunte que dónde esta el manager o dueño y me dijeron que no sabían. A la final lo único malo es la atención de las personas que atienden.

eating here is a crapshoot — This is a review for La churreria, also known as Mr Valdez restaurant.
In the restaurant you can either order from the bakery, and eat in the bakery, or walk next door and eat at the restaurant.
I have gone in the afternoon and ordered breakfast, and was given the third degree for ordering breakfast. Mind you, it says breakfast all day on the menu!
also, on another occasion, the girl behind the counter refused to make a café con leche with espresso, maybe she was new? she was extremely rude.
On other occasions it has been pretty smooth sailing, so if you go, and you have a bad experience, don’t think it is that way all the time.
I would give this place three stars given that sometimes i get great service, and sometimes the service is horrible.
Now that the service part is out of the way,
if you are new to colombian restaurants order:
pan de bono — cheesy bread (friggin’ delicious), arepa de choclo (it is DE-​LICIOUS!!! sweet corn & cheese deliciousness!!!) almojabana (spell check?), breakfast is called calentao’ which gets you rice & beans, huevos pericos (eggs with onions, peppers, tomatoes), arepa, etc., get some empanadas, and any of hte pastries in the bakery. Just be sure that the person behind the counter is willing to make you a proper café con leche with espresso *eye roll*

Get the arepas de chocolo! These are delicious, slightly sweet corn cake type things with delicious cheese melted inside. I want some now! They also have good café con leche. I had chicharrones with rice and beans at Señor Valdez and as I remember, this was good, too. But I haven’t tried anything else because the arepas are so GOOD!
Some of the staff can have an attitude, but the arepas have me blinded to that. My boyfriend got annoyed and said he is only going to the one in Atlanta due to the attitude he got in Norcross. I think the young woman didn’t want to make an espresso for him, but instead of saying the machine had been cleaned, she said they don’t have espresso. He asked why there was a machine there if they don’t serve it. She said he would have to ask the owner. He was pissed! Then I ordered café con leche and he thought she was making espresso for me. I have to get him to forget this episode so I can still get my arepa fixes!

I spotted this bakery when I turned into the shopping center to try out a Mexican restaurant a few doors down. Inside, every wall is filled with golden brown baked goodies. I didn’t recognize any of them but I wanted to get one of everything! Lots of breads, stuffed pastries, cakes, and doughnut-​looking things, mostly covered in sugar or oozing with custard. I can’t tell you exactly what I got because I honestly still don’t know, but for 5 items and a bottled water, it cost me $ 8.85.
This bakery is connected to a restaurant next door called «Mr. Valdez». Zac and I decided to go sit in there and listen to some live music (a guy on his guitar and keyboard) while we sampled our bakery purchases. It has very nice décor and looks to be a good place to try out next time, since we had just eaten at the Mexican restaurant a few doors down.
* I tried the custard-​filled doughnut-​looking thing and it was very dry, as if it’s been sitting there a little too long.
* Also, I had to toss another thing that looked like bread with cream or custard on top, covered with sugar. It actually tasted more like plain white bread with a stick of softened unsalted butter on it.
* Other 3 pastries were tasty, especially this one flaky rectangular thing that had a layer of custard and was topped with gooey caramel!