The Best Arepas You Can Find In Every State

Over the past few years, it's become increasingly easy to find great arepas in nearly every state in the U.S. These grilled or fried cornbread sandwiches come from several countries in South America and the Caribbean. However, the majority of arepas on our list are inspired by culinary traditions of Venezuela or Colombia. The main difference is that the Venezuelan arepas are stuffed with ingredients, while the Colombian ones contain stacks of ingredients.

As Venezuelans immigrated to the U.S. over the years, arepas have become more popular across the country. We've located the best arepas in every state so far – except Delaware, North Dakota, or Wyoming, which we hope to get around to eventually – featuring both authentic and fusion flavors. Most are restaurants, some are in food trucks, and one is even in a mall. You'll want to look up some of these amazing sandwiches on your next road trip.

Arepas have taken off in Alabama, which makes sense since savory cornbread is already a part of the traditional local cuisine and can easily go to the next level and become sandwiches. The place that does them best is D'Road Cafe in Montgomery.

The cafe serves Venezuelan food from morning to early afternoon, and you'll find arepas on all its menus. Sunrise arepas come with eggs, ham, and cheese; domino arepas come with black beans and cheese, and arepa la pelúa comes with brisket and cheese.

It's not easy to find arepas in Alaska. However, there's a Mexican restaurant in Juneau that offers Colombian specials on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Among the specials at Mar y Sol (Sea and Sun) are arepas. You can order an appetizer of arepas that come with a dipping salsa, or a larger platter like the calentado paisa or bandeja paisa with arepas. 

If you're accustomed to eating Venezuelan arepas, you might be perplexed that Colombian arepas are different. Rather than coming split and stuffed like a sandwich, Venezuelan-style arepas entail piling ingredients from your plate on top of the cornbread.

Food trucks are a popular place to find arepas throughout the U.S. If you're in Mesa, Arizona, you'll want to seek out Que Chevere, which is very good, as the name implies. You can get a variety of Venezuelan foods here. However, the biggest stars on the menu are the arepas.

The arepas at Que Chevere are stand-outs because of their superb texture and flavor. The crunch from the external layer of these super-stuffed arepas is perfect. The arepas on the menu range from omnivore to vegetarian and vegan delights.

You can find Arkansas' best arepas at The Boardwalk food truck court in Springdale. We've found Na'Guara's arepas to be truly wow-worthy, as the name indicates. The arepas here are among the best we've tried. They're enormous and are cut into pockets that hold all the filling without making too much of a mess. You'll likely end up taking half of your order home with you.

The filling is extremely flavorful, whether you choose a meat-based sandwich or a vegan one. The creamy sauce that comes on the side tastes like homemade ranch with freshly pulverized garlic, and it provides a crave-worthy flavor punch for your meal.

California has lots of places to get arepas, but the best is a restaurant called Venezuelan Chamo Cuisine in Pasadena, California. You know you're getting a good arepa when it's bursting with flavor, even before you apply the sauce. However, if you want to take your arepa over to the next level of magnificence, you're going to want to ask for the garlic sauce.

Be sure you have time to wait 15 or 20 minutes for the chefs to prepare your arepa fresh when you visit Venezuelan Chamo Cuisine. This isn't fast food, after all.

If you're looking for the best arepas in Colorado, you'll want to visit the Quiero Arepas restaurant in Denver. Google reviewer Kessashun Arthur said, "Their arepas by themselves are perfection — super crispy edges, soft inside, and hold up well despite how stuffed they are." It appears Quiero Arepas likes to stuff its arepas full of tasty ingredients.

You won't walk away hungry after consuming one of these bad boys. Whether you're an omnivore, vegetarian, or vegan, you'll find something at Quiero Arepas to satisfy you.

You can find the best arepas in Connecticut at La Calle Arepas Bar restaurant in Norwalk. The restaurant serves all kinds of Venezuelan food, but you need to try its arepas because they're amazing. Google reviewer Rick Pecka said, "They ruined arepas for me; I don't know how I'll be able to enjoy them elsewhere!"

You'll find the arepas full of flavor with the ingredients stuffed and stacked a mile high, so eating with a fork might be easier than your usual method for eating a sandwich.

With so many Venezuelan immigrants living in the Miami area, it's no surprise that Florida's best arepas are in the Miami suburb of Medley. The Arepa Pico e Gallo food truck serves some of the best arepas you've ever tasted. The beef comes from grass-fed cows, making an excellent accompaniment to all the other fresh ingredients in the sandwich.

You won't leave disappointed in any of these heavily loaded arepas. While Arepa Pico e Gallo is based in Medley, you might sometimes catch it in Doral or Miami.

If you're looking for the best arepas in Georgia, you'll find them in Avondale Estates. The restaurant serves a variety of foods and has an excellent covered patio to sit on during good weather. The arepas here are top-notch and come with interesting, fresh ingredients and sauces. When Google reviewer Cailin Davis visited Arepa Mia, it was her first time trying Venezuelan food, and she called them "finger licking good."

Arepa Mia is a great place for vegetarians and vegans to find several options on the menu to suit them. It also has an arepa that should appeal to fans of grilled fish.

Hawaii has several places to get arepas, but the best are at Miss Arepa in Lahaina on Maui. The anthropomorphic arepa logo for Miss Arepa celebrates Venezuela's first Miss World from 1955, Susana Duijm. Duijm has her own arepa, the reina pepiada (curvy queen) arepa, which you will find on the menu. Also on the menu are a few fusion ingredients, like kālua pork pineapple salsa and jackfruit.

Of course, there are plenty of traditional versions with meat, beans, and cheese, too. Google reviewer Gabriel Jacks calls Miss Arepa "Absolutely the best Venezuelan foods outside of Venezuela!"

If you're in Idaho, the best place you can find arepas short of making them yourself is at El Cafetal Colombian Restaurant. El Cafetal is located in Nampa in the same shopping center as the Latin market.

One of the most popular items in the restaurant is the arepa rellena (stuffed arepa), which comes with either chicken or beef. You can also order carne asada, which comes with a plain arepa, a salad, and a flavorful sauce.

While this popular Chicago cafe serves a variety of tasty Venezuelan dishes, the arepas are among the most popular menu items. When Google reviewer John Mjoseth visited the restaurant after a trip to Colombia, he said, "B & L's arepas more than held their own against their South American cousins." When you get one from Bolivar & Lincoln, you know it's going to be overflowing with delicious ingredients.

If you're looking for great arepas in Indiana, you'll want to visit Cumaco Arepa House. You'll find arepas here that are different from what you see on menus elsewhere.

Of course, there are traditional meat, cheese, and bean arepas, like the pabellon arepa. However, you'll also find arepas stuffed with shrimp, chicken and avocado salad, with or without cheese. It's a great place to find something a little different.

You'll have to visit the town of Ames to find Iowa's supreme arepas. Botanero Latino is a couple of miles from the university and has a fun, bar-like vibe and sometimes even has dancing.

The menu contains various items, including arepas rellenas, which come stuffed. You can choose ordinary options like cheese, beef, chicken, and pork, or go for something a little different, like shrimp. Since Botanero Latino serves Colombian-style cuisine, some dishes like Colombian bandeja paisa come with unstuffed arepa flatbreads on the side of a larger dish.

Another state with only one truly great place we know of to get arepas is Kansas. Santana's Sazon is in Olathe in the Kansas City suburb area. The restaurant is largely a Dominican restaurant, but the menu encompasses several Latin cuisines.

The restaurant serves Venezuelan-style stuffed sandwich arepas, like a chicken one full of veggies like tomatoes and fresh cilantro. Plus, it serves Colombian style arepas that come as an accompaniment to other items on the plate.

Louisville's Señora Arepa restaurant is the best place to go in Kentucky for Venezuelan-style arepas. No matter what type you're craving, you're likely to find it among the 15 different types of sandwiches on the menu.

Traditional versions of the Latin sandwich abound. However, some we haven't seen on menus elsewhere include one with skirt steak, caramelized onions, and chimichurri; one with cheese, tomatoes, pesto and basil, and a vegan arepa with heart of palm. Plus, it has the ubiquitous ham and cheese arepa that's popular with home cooks.

With so many amazing restaurants in New Orleans, you've got to be on point to compete. Maïs Arepas very much holds its own, and you should expect a long wait just to get in. Google reviewer Frank Saccone said, "These things were arguably the best things we ate whilst in NOLA. It was messy and flavorful and everything I'd hoped it would be."

The cornbread comes soft, fresh off the grill and includes ingredients like pulled pork, plantains, pickled onions, cheese, gulf shrimp, citrus cabbage slaw, avocado, salsa, steak, cranberry beans, and avocado. If you can't decide what you want, there's even an arepa sampler.

The best arepas in Maine come from MAIZ Colombian Street Food. This restaurant got its start in a street food booth at Portland Public Market House and grew popular enough to have five stands at farmer's markets (in Scarborough, Freeport, Bath, Boothbay, and Damariscotta) and two full restaurants (in Brunswick and Portland).

Arepas are the most talked-about items MAIZ sells. It has a typical Colombian arepa just filled with cheese. However, it also sells ones with other fillings, like chicken, pork, cheese, and chorizo. Veggie ones have inventive ingredients like cauliflower and garbanzo beans.

The nostalgically named Cafe Azul — Caracas de Ayer is a Riverdale Park restaurant that serves plenty of other Venezuelan dishes, but the most popular menu items are arepas. Google reviewer Monica L. Caudillo calls Cafe Azul "The best arepas in the area, hands down."

The cafe has 10 versions: combining beef, chicken, pork, cheese, tomatoes, and beans. This means you can visit daily for over a week without repeating a sandwich.

When you're looking for the best arepas in Massachusetts, look no further than Viva Mi Arepa in West Roxbury. It's a tiny restaurant that only has a few tables, but those are sometimes the best types. You'll want to plan to spend some time waiting for your made-to-order meal, but it's worth it.

As a restaurant that's popular for its stewed meats, it does meat arepas right. Google reviewer Ariel Cussen gushed about how crave-worthy the chicken and cheese arepa is and said, "I'm sure everything here is delicious, I just haven't been able to try anything except the arepa."

The king of arepas in Michigan is the properly named El Rey de las Arepas in Detroit, not to be confused with the New Jersey restaurant by the same name.

Google reviewer GoodbyeApathy AO3 said the arepas here are "Soft and fluffy on the inside, crispy and chewy on the outside." If you want to liven up your arepas even more, you can add one of the restaurant's three sauces, one of which appears to be a wasabi-like sauce.

When you visit Minneapolis' Arepa Bar, you can expect traditional Venezuelan food made from scratch. You won't go hungry ordering at the Arepa Bar because the portions are humongous. Google reviewer John G calls Arepa Bar "'the 'Whopper' of an arepa joint compared to other arepa restaurants around the Twin Cities."

The cornbread has a soft and fluffy texture, and the flavor level of the ingredients inside is perfection. However, you can elevate it even more with the restaurant's garlic aioli.

You can find just about the only arepas we have seen in Mississippi at the Arepas Coffee Bar in Starkville less than a mile northeast of the university in the fun French Quarter area. People come in both for the food and the warm and friendly atmosphere.

Google reviewer Katherine Taconi loves the food here and laments that the restaurant didn't exist when she was in school at Mississippi State because, in her words, "I would have eaten arepas every day!" There are more than a dozen types to choose from, so there's a lot to try here.

Maize and Wheat serves Colombian-style arepas near Memorial Park in St. Louis. There's plenty of Colombian cuisine to try, and they're even popular for breakfast, which is our favorite time to eat arepas.

While most places only use white corn for their cornbread, Maize and Wheat offers a choice of both white or yellow cornmeal. Another difference is that you'll find a tuna arepa on the menu, which we don't see too often in other places.

Cuba is another country that includes arepas in its cuisine, but Cafe Havana's food is influenced by the culinary traditions of multiple countries, including Mexico, Colombia, and America. The arepa on the menu is meant to be Colombian and comes with eggs, avocados, and spinach.

If you're looking for a relaxing place to eat breakfast, you'll want to try this cozy Belgrade cafe for its Latin fusion concepts. The Colombian arepa comes with a hot Mexican salsa, which makes it extra interesting.

The arepas at Arepón are pretty close to the only ones you can find at a restaurant in Nebraska. The restaurant doesn't look like much from the outside, but the food is amazing, and the star of this Bellevue Venezuelan restaurant is definitely its arepas.

The sandwiches here feature steak, shredded beef, chicken and avocado salad, shredded chicken, or seasoned shredded beef. Arepón also has an interesting twist called a tostada, which involves coating the cornbread in flavored butter before deep-frying it to golden perfection.

When you're anywhere near Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas, don't sleep on Tony's Arepas. You'll see some familiar sandwiches on the menu, like the domino. However, you'll also find some unique ones, like the hot dog arepa.

One thing you'll notice about the meat arepas here is that Tony's uses wood in the grilling process, so they have a nice smoky flavor. Another unique thing you'll find here is the amazing green sauce.

If you're looking for arepas in New Hampshire, your best bet is probably Casa Blanca in Nashua. The food here is Colombian, and there are four arepas on the menu.

The house arepa comes topped with shredded beef, a boiled egg, pork rinds, and cheese. The other ones are topped with cheese, chicken and cheese, or shredded beef and cheese. Fortunately, the accompanying sauces include guacamole, which is popular pretty much everywhere.

Highland Park is the home of Merey Venezuelan Cuisine, which makes the best arepas in New Jersey. You can find 14 different sandwiches on the menu, one of which is a build-your-own arepa, which allows you to customize one to your specifications.

Some of the meats you'll find in these sandwiches include shredded chicken, chicken potato salad, avocado chicken salad, roast pork, caramelized beef, and shredded beef. Other ingredients include various cheeses, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, avocados, plantain, and black beans.

Guava Tree Cafe is a Latin American cafe in Albuquerque. The founders of the restaurant grew up in Colombia and Puerto Rico, two places where arepas are common.

There are three arepas on Guava Tree's menu. One comes with shredded beef, black beans, plantains, and cheese. Another adds avocado to that lineup. The vegetarian option includes all those ingredients, minus the meat, plus mushrooms, caramelized onions, and roasted peppers. All come with Colombian salsa and green plantain tostones.

New York City arepa lovers were visiting the Arepa Lady to get their Colombian food fix long before Anthony Bourdain made her famous in an episode of "Layover." The arepas come stuffed like sandwiches or stacked with ingredients, depending on what you order.

The arepa lady brought her arepas with her from Colombia to the streets of Queens when she moved to New York in the 1980s, and the rest is history. Now she has three locations in Jackson Heights, Brooklyn, and Astoria, where she serves an astonishing almost 30 varieties.

Guasaca has six different locations in North Carolina and serves the best arepas around. You can find three locations in Raleigh, two in Durham, and one in Cary-Morrisville. The restaurant chain features cuisine from a variety of South American countries. However, the menu items that get the most buzz are the arepas.

There are 10 signature arepas on the menu, including some we don't usually see elsewhere like one with crispy chicken and another with salmon. Another option that seems like a no-brainer when it comes to Americanizing these sandwiches is a BBQ grilled chicken one.

Latin Arepas in Springboro makes the best arepas in Ohio. After it became popular serving food for the customers of Bar Granada, now it has a full restaurant.

The fun thing is that you get to create your own custom sandwich. Protein choices include chicken, ground beef, barbecue, black beans, and cheese. You can also pick from veggies like avocados, tomatoes, corn, onions, and jalapeños, along with greenery like lettuce and cilantro. You also have an option of four or eight mini arepa bites that come with a selection of three house sauces for dipping.

There's no need to go further than El Arepaso Venezuelan Cafe in Tulsa to find the best arepas in Oklahoma. We've found them to be lip-smackingly flavorful, especially when paired with one of the house-made sauces. We like to add different sauces for different bites to get the full effect.

The restaurant has eight arepa varieties, but the pabellón is the most popular and our favorite. It also has the reina pepiada and domino varieties along with a ham and cheese arepa. 

You don't need a fancy restaurant name when you serve the best arepas in Oregon. You can find one La Arepa food truck in the Zed food hall parking lot in Portland. The other one is among the food trucks at The Barley Pod food court.

La Arepa has both an omnivore and vegan-vegetarian menu. Meat options include shredded beef, shredded chicken, chicken salad, or tilapia fish. Vegan and vegetarian arepas come with beans or beans and cheese. Plus, there's a sandwich that features scrambled eggs.

The best arepas in Pennsylvania come from a Lancaster food truck called Chellas Arepa Kitchen. There are four different arepas on the menu, ranging from a honey BBQ pulled pork, two with steak, a chimichurri chicken, and a vegetarian option.

Google reviewer Dan Garrett calls the pernil arepa (barbecued pulled pork) "mind-blowingly good." The chimichurri sauce at Chellas is the showstopper, so don't ignore it as a sauce for your sandwich. You also won't want to miss the yuca fries as a side.

Rhode Island is another state where the best arepas are at a place called La Arepa. Unlike in Oregon, this La Arepa is a full restaurant. Google reviewer AJ Castilla said the restaurant "serves the best traditional Venezuelan food, perhaps, in the entire United States."

The menu features lots of Venezuelan foods and fusion foods. It has 17 different varieties from simple to more complex sandwiches. Some of the more interesting options include surf and turf, shrimp, and egg one.

VeneTown is a Venezuelan market and food truck in Charleston. You can get a wide variety of pre-packaged Venezuelan foods and snacks in the market. Meanwhile, you can get freshly made Venezuelan foods from the food truck. Both are on Mount Pleasant Street.

The food truck serves five varieties: cheese, pork belly, steak, shredded beef, and shredded chicken. They all come with heaping amounts of cheeses you can buy from the VeneTown market. You also won't want to miss the green sauce.

The only arepas you'll find in South Dakota are at the Corazón Cafe food truck in Rapid City. You'll find the truck at places like Jolly Lane Greenhouse, Founders Park, or Cohort Craft Brewery.

Meat options include shredded pork or chicken, while the vegetarian version features cauliflower and walnuts. You can ask for cheese, black beans, or pickled onions. It also has cashew chipotle or avocado lime cilantro sauces. Add some kettle chips and a gluten-free, vegan dessert, and you'll walk away happy.

You have to go to the Nashville Farmers Market to find the best arepas in Tennessee. The Caracasville food truck serves other Venezuelan foods like empanadas, but the truck's fresh arepas are the menu item most people talk about. Google reviewer Dakota Soto declares it the "Best Venezuelan food in Nashville!"

Available varieties include chicken, pork, black beans, cheese, beef, and chorizo. If you're an early farmers market goer, there's also a ham, egg, and cheese one that's perfect for breakfast.

The best arepas in Texas come from a Houston food truck called Tasty Arepa. It serves a lot of Colombian food like empanadas, and it's even got burgers and hot dogs. Since the truck makes its arepas from scratch, you may have to wait up to half an hour.

Google reviewer Estela said the arepas from this truck taste like "heaven" and are "life changing." The truck's namesake arepa comes with fried pork, Colombian sausage, plantains, and black beans. Plus, it has cheese, pico de gallo, and a yummy sauce.

If you're looking for the best arepas in Utah, there are three Arempa's restaurant locations from which to choose. You'll find one in Salt Lake City, one in Orem, and another in Midvale. Each menu is slightly different, but they all serve delicious, large Venezuelan arepas.

You can get a scrambled egg and veggies breakfast arepa until noon. The other varieties feature beef, chicken salad, steak, chicken, pork, ham, and veggies. One oddity at Arempa's is that most of the sandwiches come with garlic sauce and ketchup.

In Vermont, the most obvious place we know of to get arepas is Moon and Stars. Moon and Stars is a non-profit company that focuses on regenerative agriculture, which entails growing its own corn and sourcing other ingredients from local farms to contribute to the local economy. The company has a food cart that sells stacked-style arepas.

The company takes its arepas to customers throughout the Northeast, so you're likely to see arepa carts in cities like Montpelier, Burlington, Woodstock, Waitsfield, Mt. Ascutney, Braintree, White River Junction, and Hardwick.

Arepa lovers living in Virginia can find the best ones at Pa'l Carajo Arepa Lounge in Virginia Beach. You can find 14 distinct versions of the Venezuelan sandwich on the menu.

For a little more than $25, you can try a sampler platter filled with five types of mini arepas, which can give you an idea of which ones to buy the next time you visit. After trying the fried mini sampler, Google reviewer Rafael Bueno said, "The shredded beef arepas are to die for." However, you might find a different favorite.

You can find the best arepas in Washington at Paparepas. Paparepas has a restaurant and food truck in Seattle, a restaurant in Kent, and another food truck in Mill Creek.

The chain has 13 different ways you can buy arepas. You'll find several meat arepas. The vegan arepa comes with Impossible plant-based "meat." There's a build-your-own arepa option and a build-your-own arepa bowl. You can also buy arepa cornbread disks in lots of one or five. There's even a combo that comes with an arepa, drink, and appetizer.

For the best arepas in West Virginia, you'll need to visit El Gran Sabor in Elkins. As of this writing, if you visit on a Wednesday or Friday, your meal will come with a side of live music.

You can order arepas a-la-cart, plain or stuffed. The lunch arepa platter comes with both a grilled and fried arepa stuffed with your choice of meat or mushrooms. It also comes with rice and beans. The dinner portion also comes with a soup or salad. There's also a mixed arepa and empanada platter option.

The best place to get arepas in Wisconsin is in a mall food court. You can find Arepa's Place in Brookfield Square in Brookfield. Google reviewer Lexi Engelbart said it's "hard to put into words how great Arepa's Place is." She said she liked it so much that she booked the restaurant's food truck to cater her wedding.

The menu contains varieties of arepas including chicken, pork, shredded beef, plus vegan-friendly options. The best seller appears to be the roasted pork one, according to the restaurant's Facebook page.