Orinoco

Orinoco is a fab restaurant that I first visited in the South End a couple years ago when it first opened. It's Venezuelan and it's SO GOOD! They are currently in the new edition Boston magazine, here. 

Anyway -- they opened up another location in Brookline Village out in my part of town and we went for the second time last  night as I was craving arepas.

Perhaps you read about these on Gluten Free Girl's website recently?

Anyway, arepas are these small delicious cornmeal-type sandwiches (naturally gluten free). They have different fillings like shredded beef, venezuelan cheese, and the one I got last night had a cool & refreshing chicken salad with tomatos & avocados called a Reina Pepiada, and it comes with a garlicky-lime  sauce called Mojo:

(This is a picture of Orinoco's reina pepiada arepa, not mine, found it online)

We also shared a plate of Datiles -- warm dates wrapped in bacon with a small hazelnut inside. I can't even tell you how delicious these are.

The best part -- the arepas there range from around $4.75 - $7.00, and are filling enough for a meal.

They also have an excellent drink menu (Brookline location only) -- we got a Passion Fruit Mimosa, a Watermelon Mojito (YUM), and sangria.... The drinks cost much more than the food.

I need to ask about their shredded beef & if it's OK to eat, but if you get a chance, I highly recommend trying it.