Took myself out for brunch and was excited to find a Venezuelan cafe in Melrose. The menu is extensive and it was hard to decide what to get, and the drink choices are just as varied. I settled on a mechada cachapa and a latte and waited comfortably at a table along the wall.
Good thing it was a nice cushioned bench and I had an engrossing book with me because it took a full half hour to get my meal. It wasn't particularly busy so I'm not sure what the hold up was. After 20 minutes I checked in with someone at the counter, who went back to the kitchen and then reported my food was on its way. Still took another 10 minutes to actually show up and I asked if I could at least have my coffee in the meantime. "Sure, what did you order?"
The cachapa itself was a mixed bag. The meat and the corn pancake had good flavor, but the pancake was really mushy. The latte came out more cappuccino-like. Despite my experience thus far, I decided to also indulge in a slice of the Nutella coffee cake I saw on the counter. It took another 10 minutes for that to get to my table after ordering and paying at the counter. Nice, moist coffee cake but no Nutella flavor whatsoever.
I'm still curious about some of the other delicious-sounding things on the menu and would give this place another chance but hope things go more efficiently next time. I was also turned off by the fact that my coffee and coffee cake came in a disposable cup and plate even though I was eating in--pretty wasteful and no recycling bins anywhere for the plastic coffee lids or water cups.