Barroco
Since this was Mr. Z’s night to choose a restaurant, I was surprised and thrilled to find that he had chosen someplace a little outside of his comfort zone! Barroco is a very cool Latin American bar/bistro/café serving a really wide variety of dishes. I think their main feature though, would be their Arepas. If you’re unfamiliar with Arepas, I would urge you to check out Barroco’s menu online for an explanation, as well as definitions of what some of their other menu items are. Thankfully our wonderful server, Barry, was kind (and patient) enough to go over the menu and answer all of our questions, as well as offer some great suggestions.
After studying the menu at length, we zeroed in on the Arepas! Then it was time to check out all of the ingredients in the various Arepas. Wanting to play it somewhat safe, Mr. Z ordered the Perico Arepa (even though this particular Arepa contained chorizo – not something he’s knowingly had in the past). He said it was really tasty, but all of the ingredients seemed to be mingled together in such a way that you couldn’t really distinguish the individual flavors. Not sure if that was a good thing or not, but he liked it. All Arepas come with your choice of side and he chose fries, which were just……plain old fries! I went with the Reina Pepiada Arepa which was totally amazing. Unlike Mr. Z’s, my Arepa was packed so full that it felt like it weighed as much as our table, but thankfully it was easy to hold and absolutely delicious! I didn’t fare so well with my choice of sides – I picked the Tostones which are a type of fried plantain. Unfortunately, I found them to be very chewy and not very flavorful, so I will pick something else next time. There will definitely be a next time!!!
Barroco is located at:
287 Crocker Park Blvd.
Westlake, OH
(440) 641-1283
(as well as 2 other locations)
https://www.barrocoarepabar.com/