“Homey” is the word some Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen customers use to describe the restaurant in Seattle U-District and across Lake Washington in Bellevue.
Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen specializes in the cornbread sandwich which is filled with various ingredients, such as beans, cheeses, and meats. Arepas are a national symbol of Venezuela and a staple of the country’s diet.
The Venezuelan restaurant opened in Seattle’s U-District in 2016.
In 2022, Isamary (Isa) Herrera and her husband, Ulises Andrade, bought Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen from Felix Valderrama, their friend and daughter’s godfather.
A year later, the co-owners opened the Bellevue location.
Customers can choose from various dishes, desserts, and 17 arepas, all with traditional Venezuelan roots.
“Arepa is really symbolic because it’s our identity. Where you find arepa, you find a Venezuelan person,” Herrera said.
Born and raised in Merida, Venezuela, Herrera moved to Seattle in 2001. She learned how to make arepas at 10 years old with her mom.
“It’s not just that we are here making an arepa; no, we are making it with love,” Herrera said. “We have in our minds, in our consciousness, that this is something we are making here in Seattle, but my mind is at home.”
The pabellón arepa is one of the best-selling arepas of Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen in Seattle. The arepa, filled with shredded beef, fried plantains, black beans and monterey jack cheese, is a traditional Venezuelan dish with origins in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
Photography: Ashlyn Bowman
Customers wait in line to order food and eat inside Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen in Seattle. The restaurant features a painting of co-owner Isa Herrera, painted by Venezuelan artist Alex Siniscalchi, with the Venezuelan flag woven through her hair to represent her home country.
Photography: Ashlyn Bowman
Valentina Bello, an Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen customer since 2016, dines at the Bellevue location every Tuesday night with her husband and two kids. Bello moved to the U.S. in 2003 from Caracas, Venezuela.
“We can cook the food. I can make arepas,” Bello said. “But we love the fact that we have a place where we can get this food that someone so lovingly cooks for us because I know they put all their heart and soul and love into it.”
Herrera loves the feeling of bringing her customers together through arepas. She aims to make customers feel like they’re back at their mom’s or grandma’s home, eating arepas around the table with family and friends.
“The food is very homey,” Bello said. “It doesn’t feel like you’re going to a restaurant. They use great ingredients, so it feels like I go to my friend’s house, and I have this homemade, beautifully, amazing quality homemade meal that really makes us so happy.”
Herrera hopes Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen gives Venezuelans a sense of belonging in a country so far from home.
“Immigration has been a part of our history in the last 20 years,” Herrera said.
As of December 2024, there were 7.89 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide, according to the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela.
Bello has not been able to visit Venezuela since 2013 because she cannot obtain a new Venezuelan passport, and Bello’s young children have never visited the country.
“They are very much the people that are helping me shape my kids’ relationship with their Latino heritage,” Bello said about the Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen staff members.
Bello describes Herrera and the restaurant’s employees as her kids “aunties” and “beloved family.”
Herrera said customers like Bello are what make Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen special and motivate the restaurant owners, alongside the core values of authenticity, passion, quality and service.
According to the Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen website, the restaurant seeks to be a place for non-Venezuelans to dare and try new foods.
“We are bringing our heritage, our cuisine to new people, and they love it,” Herrera said.
Unica Le and Gabriel Godina (aka GG) Espinoza had their first date at the Seattle Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen in March 2023. That was Le’s first time trying Venezuelan food.
“This is the best food I’ve ever had,” Le said about an arepa. “And so that became one of my favorite restaurants in the U-District.”
Le describes Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen food as authentic, fresh, and comforting. In October 2024, the couple got engaged at their go-to table in Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen.
Unica Le and her fiancé, Gabriel Godina Espinoza, hug during their engagement at Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen in Seattle on Oct. 18, 2024. The couple connected through food and loved the restaurant’s arepas and homey atmosphere, making Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen the perfect place for an intimate surprise proposal.
Photo provided by: Unica Le
“We are also different cultures,” Le said.
Le is a Chinese-Vietnamese American, while Espinoza is a Mexican-American.
“So it’s even more special that it happened to be in a Venezuelan restaurant bridging different gaps of different cultures,” Le said.
The couple feels at home at Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen, reminding them of their first date and the memories they have created together at the restaurant, according to Le.
While Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen’s original location on NE 50th St. has created lasting impressions for many, the U-District restaurant will soon relocate just a few blocks away.
The Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen on 50th St. will close in July because the building was purchased by new owners in 2023, according to King County public records.
In the same building, Grand Illusion Theatre and GoEBITS in U-District closed earlier this year.
Herrera remains hopeful about moving locations.
“I vision that this is an opportunity for Arepa to step up and bring us to the next level,” Herrera said. “This is just going to be a very special part of Arepa history.”
Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen’s new U-District location will open on March 29 at 11:00 a.m. at 4500 9th Ave NE Seattle, WA, 98105.
It will remain open Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekends.
Ashlyn Bowman is a senior at the University of Washington double majoring in Political Science and Journalism and Public Interest Communications. She is passionate about reporting on community-focused and human-interest pieces to highlight otherwise untold stories.