The entrance to El Arepazo.

Eating at the new Venezuelan restaurant at 47 North Pearl Street is a family affair. That’s because what you eat is as close to Latin@ comfort food as you can get.

Carlos Gutiérrez and Eliezer Molina, from Venezuela, are the hardworking and friendly owners of El Arepazo, and they also do the cooking. The small restaurant has a cozy atmosphere, aided by the piped in rhythms of the best Latin American and Latin@ music. Because the owners want to incorporate familiar Latin@ foods, you also find Colombian, Cuban and Mexican favorites.

Here are a few of the more popular dishes that we recently sampled:

Patacón
This dish starts with a foundation of fried sweet ripe plantain, topped with your choice of chicken or beef ($6), or mozzarella cheese ($4). Other layers include lettuce, mojito (spicy green salsa) and the restaurant’s delicious cilantro sauce, which is made with mayonnaise and other ingredients that the owners keep secret. The house sauce is either plain or spicy, which gets kicked up a notch with chile de árbol. You can purchase the daily-made cilantro sauce for $8 a bottle, depending on availability. The sweet taste of the ripe plantain combined with the saltiness of the beef and the tastiness of the other layered ingredients makes for a surprisingly savory combination. If you have never tried plantains, this is a great way to begin, and if you have, you will absolutely love this dish.

Beef arepa
Arepas at El Arepazo are made with P.A.N. flour (a Venezuelan brand of white corn meal), water and salt. The dough is kneaded until it acquires the perfect consistency, and the arepas are handmade and grilled to perfection. They are then stuffed with your choice of beef, pork, chicken or tuna ($5), or if you prefer yours vegetarian, with black beans or mozzarella cheese ($4). The beef arepa was stuffed with lettuce, mojito, cilantro sauce and cheese, in addition to the beef, which is shredded and very tasty.

Colombian Platter
The Colombian Platter ($6.99) has an unusual combination of white rice topped with a fried egg. By breaking the yolk on top of the rice, you get an uncommon but flavorful experience. The other ingredients, including pinto beans, fried ripe plantains, and a strip of salted pork, make this dish unforgettable.

Venezuelan Platter
The Venezuelan Platter ($6.99) resembles Brazilian food with its classic combination of black beans and white rice accompanied by shredded beef. The mix of beef and beans was very tasteful, and delicious fried ripe plantains complemented the dish. To top it off, there was also an arepita—a tiny version of the arepa without the filling, which gave the dish a special final touch.

Empanadas
Almost every Latin American country has its own version of empanadas, and the ones at El Arepazo are as unique as they are delicious. In this case, the arepa mix is fried to create a relative of the turnover that is stuffed with tasty shredded chicken to create a crispy sensation. Beef Empanadas $3.75.