Makus Empanadas - Durham

The order was wrong. The salad was only spinach leaves. It wasn’t worth half the money.

The veggie empanadas were a little bland. The sauce makes them better, but it's an extra 60 cents for a cup of sauce. The place was relatively clean and pleasant atmosphere. Quick service.

Makus Empanadas was excellent. Five stars all around. They checked all the boxes for me: food, service, and value with nice touches sprinkled throughout. This is a quick, convenient, and delicious food option. Makus is pronounced make us as in make us empanadas. I believe this location in Durham, in the Hope Valley Commons shopping center with Harris Teeter, was the first of what 's now three locations. This original location opened in 2015 with the Morgan Street Food Hall Raleigh, 2018) and Duke University Hospital locations coming after. This is a fast casual restaurant with a polished look and sleek marketing/branding/design. The restaurant isn 't very big and the menu is streamlined. During my visit, on the menu, there were 10 different kinds of empanadas $2.75 each), chipa Latin American cheese rolls, $3.25), a small handful of sides most $1.75 each), two sauces, an empadog hot dog wrapped in empanada dough, $2.95), sweets such as cochitos dulce de leche and coconut cookie, $1.95 each), craft beer $5 per serving) and wine $6), and self serve fountain drinks and tea. They also offered combo meals, party packs, and daily specials such as: Monday and Friday: buy a dozen empanadas, get 3 free Wednesday: 50% off all bottles of wine Monday Thursday 3 5pm happy hour): get 2 empanadas 1 sauce for $5 Every day: get 4 empanadas 1 bottle of wine for $21.95 Finally, they sold frozen empanadas and frozen chipa which you could bake at home. 12 frozen empanadas for $33 and 15 pieces of frozen chipa for $8.95. I think they started selling these bake at home alternatives because of COVID. The decision of what to order was easy. I went with Makus ' Family Meal appropriate for 2 3 adults, in my opinion) which came with 10 empanadas, 4 sides, and 2 sauces for $28.50. Since this was our first time having Makus, this allowed us my wife and me) to try one of every empanada on the menu as well as all of the housemade sides and sauces. Here 's what we got: 10 empanadas Beef Chicken Pork Chimichurri Pepperoni Bacon Cheese Ham Cheese Onion Cheese Sweet Corn Spinach Veggie zucchini, leek, onion, rice, spices) 4 Sides Black beans and white rice 2) Cole slaw Spinach salad 2 Sauces Chimichurri Red Hot Each and every empanada tasted terrific. My wife and I independently concluded that all of the empanadas were equally enjoyable. Some flavors were more memorable than others, but that didn 't diminish the quality nor satisfaction of the less memorable ones. For example, the empanadas that stick out in my mind were the pork chimichurri, ham cheese, onion cheese, and sweet corn, but empanadas like the beef, chicken, and spinach were just as tasty and gratifying. If I had to pick a least favorite empanada here, it 'd be the pepperoni. It reminded me of a pizza flavored Hot Pocket, which isn 't a bad thing. The problem was there wasn 't enough pepperoni/pepperoni flavor for me. Maybe it was just the particular empanada I had. The spinach empanada was like eating spanokopita Greek spinach pie). At the end of the day, I don 't think you can go wrong with any of the empanada choices on Makus ' menu. They were all great. The ones with cheese bacon, ham, onion) were rich and succulent. The beef, chicken, and pork chimichurri were meaty, tender, moist, and savory. The sweet corn and veggie packed more of a flavorful punch than I expected. The crispy, flaky dough wrappings were baked to perfection and generally, each empanada had the right proportions of ingredients just take a look at my cross section pics). The empanadas were yummy enough on their own that no sauce was needed. In fact, I think the two sauces both the chimichurri and the red hot can overpower the flavors of the fillings inside each empanada. The sauces were very good though. The chimichurri was strong and garlicky while the red hot tasted like straight up Tabasco. As for the sides, the black beans and white rice wer

Love this place. It's close to my commute and I'd probably come back for more. I felt like the size was pretty small and I ate 3 but I was still starving. The quality was good and the flavor was nice too. I liked the vegetable empanada and the chicken empanada. The sauce was flavorful and the cheese balls were good too.

I really like the empanadas and love that they offer GF options. The customer service is friendly and helpful. I only wish they would stop using styrofoam for their packaging. Since most of their orders are to go, they is a lot of styrofoam added to our landfills.