Cumaco Arepa House — Restaurant in Fishers

Lemme start by saying I'm NOT an expert on Venezuelan cuisine. I have been curious about this place since it opened, and I finally got in to check it out. My first experience with arepas was at a joint in Cincinnati's Findlay Market district, and the food was simple, yet delicious. So I was excited to get that here without the 2- hour road trip.

So, I'll say that the empanadas were on point! Even as takeout, they were crispy on the outside by the time they arrived at my home and got unpacked. We also had the tequenos, which were a very tasty take on cheese sticks (the sauce that comes with them is pretty great as well).

But the arepas themselves were a little bit of a letdown. I got a beef with cheese. The little lady got a chicken with cheese. They were both generously stuffed, but they tasted nearly identical, which was kinda a bummer. The dough they were wrapped in was unfortunately quite bland. Like, it didn't even taste much like corn. I mistakenly ordered a side of rice, assuming (incorrectly) that it would be seasoned with saffron or even tomatoes, like some mix between paella and Mexican/ Spanish rice. It was not. Just white rice. Kinda boring. This ended up to be a good thing, as the excessive liquid from the meat disintegrated my "bun" halfway through the meal, and I was able to use it to season the rice to add some interest.

Bottom line: try this place, but be ready for the menu items to be either intensely bland or excessively salty. The flavors are good, though they could use some spice (the place in Cincinnati had sides of like 5 salsa varieties) or acidity to break through the salt. I'll go again, but I'll likely stick to...

I had been meaning to come here for a while and just got around to coming here. First of all it’s a surprisingly difficult place to get to coming from the west. Obviously that has nothing to do with the quality of the restaurant.

We ordered a chicken arepa and pabellon arepa. I was hesitant about the price but the lady at the register said that they were pretty hearty. The food came fairly quickly and was pretty disappointed with how the chicken looked-it was just pulled chicken with out any sauce and the arepa. Biting into it I realized that the chicken was extremely dry and heavily salted. The arepa itself tasted like it was sitting out all day as it was also extremely dry.

The pabellon was a bit more interesting with the plantains, beans, cheese, and beef. Unfortunately, the beef also tasted very salted and the arepa stale. The plantains were the best part of the dish as they offered a sweet balance to an otherwise salty meal.

The portions were quite filling and the interior seemed very bright...

I regret to say that my experience was extremely disappointing. The service we received was far below the expected standard for a restaurant.

Upon arrival, we waited for nearly 20 minutes before even being acknowledged by a server. We finally had a server bring us However, we had to wait an unreasonable amount of time for our drinks to arrive, and they only arrived because we had to tell the server, this being well after we had already been served our food.

To make matters worse, throughout the duration of our meal, our server made no attempt to check on us or offer any form of assistance. We had to repeatedly request his attention, which made our experience frustrating and unpleasant.

Again, when we were ready to leave, it took effort to track down our server to request the check. It was an overall terrible experience, and we were deeply disappointed with the level of service we received.

In light of this, I strongly advise against dining here until they can significantly improve their...