Empanola — Restaurant in New Orleans

Let me tell you potential new customer, I'm somewhat of a food critic and this place doesn't let me down. I travel southern Louisiana in my line of work, weekly, needless to say I have endless time to try good food if I want. Im a fan of authentic, tasty, and fairly priced, a dangerous combo. I can honestly say for each of these being nearly $5 its well worth the price. This weekend my spouse and I went in and got 6 empanadas.

Specifically Beef Argentina, Chorizo Mexicana, Gumbo, Chilean Beef, (new edition) Caprese, & the Guava Cheese, not forgetting the cilantro lime & chimichurri on the side. We cut them in half and share, so we're both trying 6 different empanadas. I say without exaggeration each one is like a separate dish inside the dough. It's as if they cooked a meal and filled these. I made a joke and said "I could actually eat a whole meal with this paired with rice or potatoes", and in all seriousness I really could.

Whoever puts together these ingredients and cooked them knows exactly what their doing to the letter and the sauce pairing is too perfect. Both of these sauces went wonderfully with each one aside from the more dessert type like the Guava Cheese. I really have to speak up for all the fellow foodies, come here and get a handful of these, you will be hard pressed to be unsatisfied. Im a repeat customer and over the course of a year plus, the quality and taste has stayed consistent! Kudos to you Empanola, we get excited to come here when hungry...

Folks with nut allergies beware. I ordered a yellow curry empanada that had nuts in it. I would normally chalk this up to me forgetting to ask but not this time. There was a sign directing those with nut allergies to read empanada ingredients before ordering. I did this three times on the yellow curry empanada and no nuts were listed so I ordered and consumed and thusly had an allergic reaction. After me asking the employees if there were nuts in my order they texted a manager or someone as they didn’t know. There was and they were quick to double check the signage and did discover their error and said that it was an “oversight”. They wrote a masking tape warning after I had my reaction. They didn’t seem very sympathetic and only offered me a new empanada…which I not only couldn’t physically eat, but didn’t want to for fear of contamination or missed Ingredients.

I will say, my reaction isn’t life threatening, but If it had been… I’d be pretty upset.

Anyway, I’m happy to remove this review after I receive proof that their signage or ingredients have been corrected. This seems like an otherwise great place that my girlfriend enjoyed. Great atmosphere and...

Wish I could give 3 and a half stars bc 3 feels a little too low and 4 a little too high. I was super excited when checking the menu to see impossible meat bc as a vegetarian in new orleans, I dont get a lot of opportunities to have subsitute meat. Unfortunately, when I bit into it, I was a little taken aback by the flavor. I wasn't a huge fan. After taking a second bite I realized I hated it. I kept eating bc I didnt want it to go to waste but eventually realized it had fricken olives in it. Whoever made that decision is diabolical. Obviously im not gonna say the empanada was bad just because I dont like olives, but they have a pretty obnoxious flavor and I think there should be a disclaimer or name change that says impossible and olive. Anyways I also had the curry which was good. A bit light on flavor but the last empanada I got was guava and cheese and good lord that was heavenly. Could shove about ten more of those things in my mouth even when theyre piping hot.

Hope to never taste an olive again in my life but kudos for trying to spruce it up...