Arepazo – Spiciest Dish in Columbus Series

We’ve been eating this food for a while, but finally had time to put it on the list.

With two locations (Brewery District and Gahanna), El Arepazo has been a Columbus staple for 10+ years. Previously located downtown in Pearl Alley, you would have to squeeze by numerous folks to order and it was always crowded, which is great for Arepazo! Thankfully they were able to move into two larger locations and today seating is much easier.

Their menu holds a lot of tasty dishes including empanadas, Mexican chilaquiles and one of our favorites, the Pabellón criollo, a traditional Venezuelan dish served with rice, beans, and plantains. Arepazo is one of the only spots in town where we consistently get their plantains because they’re so darn good.

Really, you can’t go wrong with any of their entradas. Peruvian lomo saltado, cuban sandwich, burritos, tacos, the list goes on. Whatever you do, be absolutely sure you snag some of their cilantro sauce. You can get it in small containers or in large containers, just make sure you get some. Even if you’re the “ew, this tastes like soap” type, give it a try.

Which is which? Seriously.

Let’s try a haiku today:

Spicy cilantro
Cover everything I see
Green spice all around

I’m not sure if it was a post-Halloween Trick or if this is common, but when we dug into the sawces, the sauce with S on top ended up being non-spicy, while no S marking was the spicy container. A fun game of find the landmine for those not accustomed to heat, but not a huge deal for the Lady of the Farm and I.

I approached my Mexican Chilaquiles, Sautéed corn tortilla chips on a SPICY tomatillo sauce with Mexican chorizo and toppings, and slathered it with the spicy cilantro sauce. I left a small corner to try the heat of the Spicy Tomatillo sauce by itself and was glad I did. The heat patterns for the two sauces are entirely different. The Spicy Tomatillo is low and slow and has a front-of-the-mouth heat, coating the tongue and cheeks with a jalapeño/cayenne-like heat.

The Spicy Cilantro, oh man, I wanted to get the 12oz bottle of this stuff because there’s never enough. Sadly at the time of posting they were out of the bottles of sauce. Whispering quietly, Nothing that says you can’t try to get a bunch of tiny containers though.

Food appropriately sauced, I dug into the spicy cilantro’d dish. A back of the mouth heat with a green chili to unripe habanero heat that gloms on and doesn’t want to shake off for a few minutes. This is what I consider a “fun” heat. It grabs your attention, allows you to enjoy the spiciness, and then leaves you alone. The Lady of the Farm, with a few tiny beads of sweat from the sauce container mixup, agreed, it’s a good level of heat for folks to dip their toes into the spicier side.

While on our spiciest list Arepazo’s Spicy Cilantro sauce lands at #60, it’s potentially one of my favorites on this list.

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