Caracas Arepas Bar

This homey hole-in-the-wall (with expanded evening-and-weekend operations next door) prepares more than a dozen varieties of the eponymous stuffed corn-flour cakes, as well as a small roster of other Venezuelan standards. The thin skin of my "del gato" ($5.25) clamped down on salty, mild guayunés cheese, cool sliced avocado, and still-warm fried plantain, but the flavors just wouldn't mingle for me. As for heft, it was no more substantial than a loaded English muffin.

Caracas Arepas Bar
91 East 7th St. (near First Ave.)
212-228-5062