Three guesses as to what the specialty is at this new eatery! At Empanada’s Place (there’s one in Los Angeles), you can find more than a dozen types of the Argentine stuffed pastry — basically a savory turnover that’s typically filled with ground meat.

I met up with a good friend for lunch here after noticing the grand opening sign while driving by. The restaurant resembles a bright and cozy cafe with small round tables and it was fairly packed during a weekday visit.

There are some 10 meat-filled empanadas to choose from, including: beef, chicken, cheesy spicy beef, ham & cheese, pepperoni, tucamana (chopped beef with boiled eggs). Another eight vegetable empanadas, too: potato, potato & cheese, corn, spinach, broccoli, eggplant, ricotta and cheese & onions. All are about $3 a pop.

Not sure if it’s because they’re still new and might still be waiting for their credit card machines to come in, but I had to make a dash to the nearby Rite-Aid for cash, so consider that a heads-up.

The pastry shells of the empanadas here are made to a golden crisp — buttery and flaky, definitely a plus. We nabbed the Spicy Beef — ground beef with peas, carrots and potatoes — and found that it wasn’t spicy at all. I guess right about now I should offer a disclaimer: empanadas have never really done it for me or anything stuffed in a bread-like casing and that includes calzones and er, Hot Pockets.

The Criolla — supposedly the most well-known meat empanada — came stuffed with ground beef, raisins, green onions and eggs. It was slightly sweet. We wished we ordered the Arabe instead — ground beef with tomatoes and onions seasoned with lemon juice.

There are sandwiches, too. The grilled steak featured skirt steak simmered in a chimichurri sauce all tucked in a toasted French roll. It was a hefty sandwich, the meat was juicy and chewy but not sure it’s worth the $10. Curious whether the milanesa sandwich might have been a better choice.

We really wanted to try the Argentine tamal, but were told it wasn’t available for another week.

I am however, a sucker for the alfajor — an Argentine cookie made from two pillowy biscuits joined by a dollop of dulce de leche. I actually liked the rolled cookie better, mainly because there was much more of the gooey dulce de leche.

Empanada’s Place

3011 Harbor Blvd.

Costa Mesa, CA

714.825.0100

Posted in: Restaurants by price: $0-$14 • Argentinian • Latin-American |

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