Little Patagonia Empanadas & Café

On a whim decided to stop here for a bite to eat - so glad I did and you should too if you've never been here before. The staff manning the counter/restaurant was very welcoming and considerate. I ordered a spicy empanada - I did ask how spicy it was and it was definitely on point with the spice content. If you don't like spicy food don't order it but if you love a kick of spice you'll be well pleased! The choripan was mouthwatering delectable. I'll definitely be back and will be trying out the other empanadas on the menu on my turn. Oh they have a happy hour too! The music in the background was ideal not too loud for a conversation nor too low to not be able to enjoy the ambiance.

After school one afternoon, I decided to reward myself with a little treat and stopped by this place. The interior is nicely decorated--looks like it would be a fun spot to hang out as a neighborhood bar later in the day.It was a great sign to learn that the empanada place owner is from Buenos Aires--a clear cue that I was in for authentic flavors. It wasn't a long chat, but the owner was very friendly and helpful introducing all the optionsI ordered the spicy beef and the corn empanadas. Big applause for the spicy beef! I love spicy food, and it can be frustrating when items labeled "spicy" barely have any kick. Not the case here--the spicy beef had a great punch of heat and flavor. As for the corn empanada, the sweetness of the corn paired beautifully with the creamy filling, making it pleasantly rich and satisfying.I also appreciated that the empanadas were heated in the oven, so by the time I got home, they were still piping hot inside with a crisp outer layer. At first glance, $4 per empanada might seem a bit pricey for a snack, but considering the quality and flavor, it was worth it, and I enjoyed every bite.

2nd Visit. So after the UT Women's Basketball game, my friend and I stopped in to grab a bit to eat before hitting the 37th St. Lights. I had been here before, however, this time I chose to have the empanadas. And I was not disappointed. Of the three savory choices, the Four Cheese was my favorite. Not to take anything from the others I dined on. All were very tasty. Usually, I am not a fan of Swiss Cheese, however I could not taste it as the other cheeses, parmesan, cheddar and mozzarella, "drowned" out the Swiss. The Brisket was delicious and will definitely have to try the spicy brisket next time. The Banana and Nutella was a tad on the sweeter side than I expected, yet very delicious. Last, but not least was the Alfajor that I mistakenly called an Alfonso, was the final piece of this delectable quatrefoil of fine food. Dulce de Leche with Coconut flakes and a savory biscuit. My only ding with this visit, was the wait for our food. I think an additional hand would have been helpful. However, that will not deter me from visiting again and partake on some of the other choices.

I was skeptical of this place. I've been trying out many places near UT as I have to go weekly multiple times for meetups with students. And one suggested this place. She told me Patagonia:/ and my Google maps took me to downtown lol it didn't look right without parking and then I realized she meant Little Patagonia so we remapped and turned back around. I missed an exit due to the construction but circled around. It took us ridiculously longer than necessary to get here when it was situated right off campus and I started off at PCL! I virtually toured downtown Austin! Finally arrived and glad there is parking but had to reverse it into the place. So again I am skeptical because we haven't hit many good places thus far around UT lol we've been trying to find new ones each time we meet and it hasn't been great lol So when I heard she wanted to go to this place I already had my guard up and assumed much. The outside didn't look impressive either but when we got in it was such a warm cute place. The boy working behind the counter was super friendly and nice. We took some time to order. It was hard to decide so we asked for recs. The pies looked small and we were hungry and we didn't know how much to order. I picked at least the ones i thought I wanted. Mushroom cheese onion, brisket and lamb. All recs from the only boy who worked there that day. I needed a sweet one so I added banana Nutella. She got 3 total empanadas the spicy brisket, guava cheese and something else. She said her guava wasn't cheesy but still enjoyed. And our bill came out to $30. I expected it to be that because each empanada was around $4. Because of the price point I am hesitant to give it 5 stars. It seemed pricy for a small empanada. He gave us some water since we didn't order any drinks and we sat to wait for our order. And yes it took awhile so don't come too hungry. It isn't immediate but since it was a lunch meeting I had time to wait and chat. Ok it's worth the wait lol because you want it toasty and warm. He brought our empanadas on cute wooden planks. Looked great but again small. I bit into the mushroom onion cheese and I fell in love lol I've had many pastries and empanadas across the nation BUT this one is by far the tastiest. The crust was perfectly done. Inside oozing with flavor. Maybe a tad overly salty but this one is my fave! The lamb and brisket was good but not as wow. They were salty too. My Nutella banana was good. Small. But I was still wanting more of the mushroom onion cheese one. My friend's order was ok. She enjoyed it but didn't share my enthusiasm:) it's ok lol she introduced me to this cute place and if I had to come back I'd get only the mushroom onion for sure.I left full and satisfied. Didn't think I would while I ate but after we met I wondered if I should get 1 more but i didn't because I was actually full and fine! Cute place. It was empty when we got there near 11:30 but then handful of people filtered in. Some had to go orders. If I come back I'd love to buy a box especially again the mushroom onion lol so good! I am happy to have tried this place. Did not know it existed lol I'd recommend it to anyone who loves pastries or empanadas. We didn't get the drinks so I can't rate those. I almost got a coffee but I had tea already in the car. Next time! Go and enjoy and if you like mushrooms and cheese do get that one'! To me it was the best!

Excellent empanadas! Service was fantastic and the restaurant was clean and great ambiance. I loved the spicy beef empanada.. The lamb empanada was excellent..not as spicy. Spinach was also..great

Proper Argentinian empanadas. It's been a while since I've had these delicious baked pies and these were worth the wait. Funky on the outside, quite nice on the inside. Even have a decent selection of wine.My wife was born in Uruguay, across the river from Argentina and they share many of the same dishes. There were a welcome reminder of home.

What a treat to try the new Little Patagonia Empanadas & Café Austin location for its opening weekend. Located north of UT on Guadalupe, Austin just got its own location of this popular Houston Argentinian restaurant. My partner's family is from Argentina, so we had to try it out right away because #EmpanadasAreLife. I had actually been to this same spot when it was a yummy brunch place, and the Little Patagonia team did a wonderful job refreshing the entire atmosphere. There is ample seating indoors for different sizes of groups with plush new seating, a cute patio space with both heaters and fans for keeping the patio comfortable year-round, and the restrooms are gender neutral. Let's dig into the food: We ordered four kinds of empanadas, and they were all absolutely incredible with perfect, authentic Argentinian flavors and divine flaky crusts. I don't eat meat, so I tried: the Cheese, Mushrooms, and Onion (SO good I ordered a second one), Four Cheese, Spinach (my partner's absolute favorite: "This tastes like my family made it"), and guava and cheese. The chimichurri was perfection. We wanted to try Tuna and Corn, but they were both sold out because they had such a great turnout earlier in the day. My partner had an ice cold Stella and said, "Damn, this is cold. Why don't more bars in the US have really cold beer?"I look forward to returning to try future flavors of empanadas and a café. Our one tip would be to provide tap water for guests so they don't need to purchase a bottled water. ¡Bienvenido a Austin, Little Patagonia Empanadas & Café!

Overall take- try the savory empanadas but skip the dessert empanadas and choripan. I honestly really enjoyed the savory empanadas but I wasn't a fan of the dessert empanadas. I had the beef brisket, spicy chicken, guava, banana & Nutella, and strawberry & Nutella empanadas. I also had the choripan sandwich and the alfajor. The brisket and spicy chicken empanadas were so delicious. The guava, Nutella & banana, and Nutella & strawberry weren't very good. The guava one was super sugary without having much flavor. The guava flavor was so mild to me that I couldn't detect it. The strawberries in the Nutella strawberry empanada were really mushy. I didn't like the alfajor but two people from my group tasted a piece of my alfajor and really liked it. If you're a dulce de leche fan, you might like the alfajor. The choripan was very okay. The sausage had no flavor but the chimichurri sauce was really good. The price of $16 for sandwich with a tiny sausage and a lot of bread seems ridiculous. There was a really long wait for our order and when our food came out, we only noticed because someone from our group went to order a drink. The restaurant was pretty clean looking. I'd definitely come back to try more savory empanadas.

Little Patagonia has recently opened, and is located near the corner of Guadalupe and 30th St with plentiful parking. They have a menu sporting empanadas for less than $4 per empanada (as of July 5th, 2024), and a beverage menu which includes coffee, tea, beer, and wine.I arrived here on a whim at 10 am, which is when they open; I saw they were offering an introductory promotion of buy twelve empanadas get two free, so I took that opportunity to try out a good chunk of their menu, to-go.When I entered, the atmosphere was warm and inviting, yet dark and sports bar-like. The floor is blue, with a dark ceiling, with warm wooden tables and matching chairs. They have a neat logo plastered on one of their side walls, as well as all of their to-go boxes on display. On display are empanadas, wine bottles, and coffee bags.Ordering is done via counter serve.The food:This place offers a variety of empanadas. Each empanada is stamped with label indicating their filling. These empanadas are baked. The crust/wrapping is nice and thin with a pleasant crunch, but the bottoms end up quite greasy. The empanadas are small, and are currently offered at a price point of less than $4 each.I took them up on their buy 12 get two free introductory promotion to get a chance to sample a large variety from their menu. They also kindly offered me a dessert empanada for free.Once you order, they take the empanadas from the display case and bake them for a few minutes in the oven; then they are ready to go.I ordered 1x of each of the following: Beef, Spicy Beef, Chicken, Spicy Chicken, Texas Brisket, Spicy Texas Brisket, Tuna, Pork, Spinach, Corn with Béchamel Sauce, Roquefort, Veggie, Lamb, "Cheese Mushroom & Onion", and received the "Guava & Cheese" as dessert.Out of the 15, I enjoyed the Spinach, Roquefort, and Pork the most. The spinach reminded me of Jeanette's Bakery in Providence, RI with super thin calzone dough when you look at a cross section, stuffed to the brim with spinach and olives. Here, the spinach is less voluminous, but still well-seasoned. The Roquefort had a nice blue cheese flavor, and had some caramelized onions. The pork had a nice refried bean flavor included.For the remaining empanadas, I can only say they were lackluster. The Corn with Béchamel and Tuna were the definition of bland. All the meat fillings (whether spicy or not) were ground meat, or they surprisingly had meat floss incorporated into them. Meat floss was especially prominent in the brisket and chicken. The tuna and brisket were soul suckingly dry. The seasonings for the beef/lamb/brisket/chicken were all quite similar. The cheese mushroom onion was quite cheesy, kinda like a very cheesy and greasy cheese and mushroom pizza. The dessert empanada I could have done without: it was filled with a guava jelly; there were no discernable chunks of the fruit within, and the cheese was something which tasted similar to a cream cheese--super sweet and a bit disappointing.I'm sure the empanadas are priced at less than $4 each because of the quality of their fillings is quite low. I would love to support this new business, but at this time, the quality of their empanadas is not up to par, and they are not something I would voluntarily pay for at this time unless they are drastically improved. Del Campo Empanadas in Flower Mound, TX is a great example of an Argentinian Empanada joint that I would gladly repeatedly revisit.Instead, I would like to give feedback to Patagonia on their food products which will hopefully allow them to improve their product offerings. By using higher quality ingredients for the filling and making each filling option have a more intense and unique flavor would go a long way (most of the meat flavors had quite a repetition in flavor and seasoning). Adding more hints of sweetness or making salt/acidity more prominent could be beneficial. Keeping the fillings moist and not dry would also be helpful. Finally, I really do not understand what advantage meat floss provides in flavoring the filling, especially when present in copious amounts. I don't think it adds anything positive, to say, the brisket. Finally, for the dessert empanadas, if you are able to incorporate chunks of the fruit, rather than just straight jam, lower the sweetness, and showcase the fruit flavors, that would go a long way. I think many currently enjoy the thin and crispness of the baked dough, so that's a plus.#supportsmallbusiness

So nice inside. The empanadas and cappuccino were AMAZING!! Staff were really friendly. Overall highly recommend!