Local Eats: review of Cafe Azul

Local Eats: review of Cafe Azul

By: Maureen C. Cribb

Bottom line: Good grab’n’go mostly Venezuelan food place … I’ll give it a second try sometime.

Have mixed feelings about this place right now. Didn’t care for the owner/cook’s dismissive attitude but maybe he was preoccupied or is a jerk by nature, I don’t know. That being said, it’s a cute little cafe and I liked the arepas he slapped together (never had them before … like them – would try something more exciting than the Venezuelan cheese filling I ordered, though, but they were out of pork when I went). I’d like to go back and try the hallacas (another new dish for me) but will they have pork, etc. on hand, I wonder?
Anyway, good to pop by and grab something to go (arepas took about 10 minutes to make) or to sit and watch construction of the latest building to go up in “the Arts District”. Free wi-fi and a flat screen (my iPod couldn’t connect and nothing was on the TV when I was there on an early weekday evening) … and as for parking, a bit tricky. You could park across the street at Soapsville, the local laundromat (plenty of space and no signage concerning parking rules, as far as I could see), or in the Busboys & Poets lot and walk north a couple of blocks. Hmmm, I’ll give Cafe Azul a 2.0 (of 5) forks. Decent Nutella-filled crepes might bump that up to a 2.3 … we shall see. 😉
~MCC
Cafe Azul
4423 Longfellow Street
Hyattsville, MD
www.cafeazul.biz