While starving and arriving late into the Dallas area, with a hotel in Iriving, I frantically looked online for a good, fast place to eat near where we were staying. A top-rated place called “Empa Mundo” sounded perfect. I love fried empanadas! Here’s the breakdown:
ENVIRONMENT
Located in a not-so-fancy shopping mall, Empa Mundo is a small restaurant , but with a good amount of seats. You pick up a menu at the back counter, give it to whomever is at the counter when you’re ready. You fill out your menu with a marker, similar to a sushi menu.
Miming was the only one working tonight, and she was busy taking orders, making and frying each empanada fresh. I figured this may take a while, since the restaurant had a few people in it and many to-go orders as well, but Miming was surprisingly fast and we got our food in a little over five minutes!
MENU
I really appreciate a simple menu, so I loved this one. It makes my ordering anxiety go down drastically. There is a list of empanadas, all costing $2.99. Descriptions of each are listed with a picture. There are also cookies at the bottom for $1.50.
Just check how many you want of each, turn it in, and they’ll be out soon!
FOOD
I knew from online reviews the empanadas would be small, about 5 inches long. I also wanted some leftovers to stash in the hotel fridge. So, we ordered 8 and a cookie. My husband and I only ate 3 empanadas and 1 cookie (split between us) before we were stuffed and took the rest to go.
Chorizo Empanada- $2.99
Description: Sausage, potato, peppers, onion (pictured on left)
This empanada was very tasty. It wasn’t overpowered by the full-on chorizo flavor you might find in a chorizo taco. It also was not greasy in the least, which I appreciated. But it had enough chorizo flavor that it is very good. The chimichurri sauce on each table is the perfect addition to this one. Glad we ordered two of these!
Camote Empanada- $2.99
Description: Sweet potato and marshmallow (pictures above on right)
I am not a huge sweet potato pie fan, but Drew picked this one out. Of course, it ended up being, by far, both of our favorites of all the pies. To be fair, it was the only dessert one we ordered. I wish we had ordered pumpkin as well, and three more of these camotes. I couldn’t taste any marshmallow, but the sweet potato filling was so filled with spices it was absolutely flavorful and delicious. Get these!
Texas Brisket Empanada- $2.99
Description: beef, potatoes, onions, chillies
This one was suprisingly delicious. I figured the chorizo would be my favorite, but this had even more flavor. It was very beefy, non-greasy, and probably my favorite of the meat pies. Or at least this one and the chorizo are tied. Again, glad we got two of these babies as well!
Others:
Tuna: (with onions, tomatoes, peppers, and olives) As gross as that sounded to me, it wasn’t bad at all. Not my favorite, probably won’t get again, but it does make tuna taste very savory.
Pulled Pork: (pork, celery, carrots, BBQ) This was a perfectly sweet bbq pork pie. It was very different from the others as it was sweeter than savory. I loved the contrast of it with the brisket and chorizo pies. It was so tender as well. I would definitely get this again.
Criolla: (beef, onions, olives, raisins, eggs) I was suprised how delicious this one was as well! I am not a fan of raisins and olives only partially. But these ingredients were worked so well into the filling, without being over-utilized, that a sweet and savory pie was created. I loved it! I would get this one again as well. It is unique and very delicious.
Alfajor: (dulce de leche and coconut cookie)
This was our only disappointment (besides not ordering more). The cookie was very dry and there wasn’t much flavor. Skip on this one.
OVERALL
We left with a TON of leftovers, which were all very satisfying even straight out of the fridge. Miming was so kind when I asked for a to-go box. She asked how I liked it, she gave me to-go chimichurri sauce. She even said you can order ahead and they can freeze them for you. While I did consider ordering some frozen ones to drive home with, I’m on a diet now so that would have been bad.
But I definitely will go back here whenever I’m in the Irving area!