OBRA HandBakery - Long Beach, CA — Restaurant in Long Beach

DELICIOUS EMPANADAS ! After our aborted lunch at a highly touted Columbian eatery in Long Beach on Sunday we needed to find somewhere else for lunch...fast ! My wife googled this little bakery not too far away. EMPANADAS ! According to the review they baked great empanadas. We parked our wheels on the lot around 1pm and headed in here. It's a cute little hole in the wall joint....with lots of customers. And heaps of fresh made empanadas on warming trays. LOVE IT ! And they had a lot of other stuff too plus an espresso machine. My wife picked out 3 EMPANADAS - VEGGIE ( spinach, corn, mushrooms, carrots, onions & cheese ), CUBAN ( diced pork, black beans, onions, yellow rice & sweet plantains ) and CHICKEN ( shredded chicken breast, mild yellow chili sauce, onions, potatoes & cheese ) and asked for 2 cups of water. I liked the look of the POTATO BALLS ( filled with ground beef and mozzarella cheese, coated with bread crumbs ) so I ordered one plus 1 x BEEF & POTATO EMPANADA ( spicy ground beef, potatoes & onions ) and 1 x BURRITO EMPANADA ( ground beef, pinto beans, onions, rice & diced hard boiled egg ). We paid upfront and our lunch order was placed on the front counter shortly after. Our expectations were not high.....as long as everything tasted alright we would be happy. We sat at a table in front of their shop. BRING IT ON ! My wife totally enjoyed her Veggie Empanada and the Cuban Empanada but thought the Chicken one was a bit too chewy. I really liked my Beef & Potato Empanada and the Burrito Empanada however I was not so fussed on the Potato Ball ( where was the mozzarella ? ) which tasted bland. Overall we were more than happy with our unplanned lunch...

Food was good. Service is deli style. The environment is very loud, so you have to scream for the staff to hear your order. Seating is sparse, about 6 mini tables that can fit 2 people each. A bit on the pricey end for the quality of the food, since it's not much of a sitdown restaurant with an enjoyable environment. The food is mainly Cuban style with a hint of Argentian fusion. Their aoli sauce is decent, and i give them props on the Argentinian chimichurri, but their green salsa sauce is watered down so much that it is more like a drink. The cakes are pretty dry and not very much worth the calories. The potato balls are pretty good and giant; one of them is a whole meal in itself. The leading appeal is the empanadas. For cuban style cusine, they are fantastic. Personally, i'm Argentian, and when it comes to empanadas, nothing beats a good medocina beef empanada with the hard boiled egg and green olives (aceituna). Compared to the hundreds of different places and empanadas i've ever eaten, i'd rank this place a 7/10. As a baked beef (and potato) empanada, it is too oily, fatty, made with low grade ground beef (hence, unrendered fat/lard), starchy via the overload on the potatoes. The excess of lard soaked potatoes negates any seasoning or flavor the filling may have, reducing its savor. Although the beef empanadas were, to me, disappointing, the chicken and curry empanadas did not disappoint. OBRA does shine with their...

I wish I had enjoyed my meal more. I wish I could say better things about this restaurant because I have been meaning to try it for quite a while. I've heard it compared to Porto's. It's definitely not that in anything other than the fact that they have a display case with food inside of it.

I will just give you a quick rundown. We got a beef ball, a Cuban sandwich, a Cuban empanada, a ropa vieja empanada, choripan sandwich, and a chocolate chip cookie. That was $45 which seemed pricey to us. Both empanadas were pretty flavorless and dry. I usually get ropa vieja at every Cuban restaurant I go to. It's my go to for judging how authentic a Cuban restaurant is. This was probably one of the worst versions of that I've tried. I also did not care for the Cuban sandwich although I will say it was fairly unique. The beef ball wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't like I've had other places. The flavor of the beef was very unique and the cheese was kind of a surprise. The chocolate chip cookie had the most potential, but it was just OK. The best thing for me was the choripan sandwich. It was really good. Best thing I've had out at a restaurant in a few weeks probably. That doesn't take away from all the other misses at the restaurant though. As you've probably guessed, we will definitely not be coming back. I hate to give it a negative review since everybody else seems to...