First Look: Norwalk's Valencia Luncheria Reopens as Valencia Cocina

Venezuelan soul food is still present here. 24-hour slow roasted pernil, mojo marinade, yellow rice, and avocado salad, and of course, their famous green sauce.

After a little over three weeks closed for menu changes and renovations, Valencia Luncheria is back in action!

Only now you have to call it by its changed name, Valencia Cocina, representing it’s new chapter that we teased you about at the beginning of the year.

Now reopened with a sexier, but still chill vibe, a brand-new bar, and a reimagined menu, founder Michael Young, co-owner Luis Chavez, and executive chef Marv Bryce are ready to welcome you back in.

Step inside and…gasp! Color pops of blue, dimmer mood lighting, cushy new barstools, green plants, tropical themed patterns on the bench seating in the back room, and vintage bathroom sinks! Well, we’ll let Young tell you the tale about the sinks.

“I built those walls with natural pieces of oak and beech logs, inspired by Noko in Nashville,” Young says. “My wife, Jen, said, ‘How about you put it together like a puzzle while I do the glue.’ I like it so much that I might do smaller ones and sell them on eBay.”

Sit down. Read over the menu. You’ll notice a lot of changes.

Wood fired crispy skin branzino, criolla salsa, and a side of coconut rice

Top left - Margarita (made spicy)

Bottom left - Painkiller - Pusser’s Dark Rum, coconut, pineapple, orange, and nutmeg

Right - Trillionaire - bourbon, lemon, grenadine, and absinthe bitters

“One of my favorite items on the menu is the cauliflower steak (romesco, toasted almonds, raisin agrodolce), believe it or not, and I’m a meat and potatoes guy,” Young says. “The rice and beans are great, of course, the pork belly. And the pernil, one of our classics that we reinvented.”

Venezuelan beet and potato salad, slow-cooked short ribs glazed with cacao and panela, crispy skin branzino, a cauliflower steak!

And some favorites remain. Case in point, guac and chips, ceviche, street corn, pernil. But each is reimagined.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE GREEN SAUCE?! Unharmed. Relax.

Classic Ceviche - diver scallops, leche de tigre, Atlantic white shrimp, avocado, red onion, plantain chips

“We’re testing it out to see what works and what doesn’t,” Young says of the new additions. “Marv is all about seasonality.”

One of those seasonal dishes is a pepper mole marinated butternut squash that’s roasted, laid on top of a verde crema, and topped with pepitas and pomegranate molasses.

Beet & Potato Salad - salt roasted beets, red potatoes, hard boiled eggs, chorizo

“If we had pronouns as to what this is, it’s a Latin-inspired, wood burning grill,” Young explains. “A lot of the items touch the grill whether it says it on the menu or not. With the grill, we wanted to keep it indigenous, but no one could do what we wanted here, so it came from Europe. We’re the first Santa Maria wood burning grill in Connecticut. It’s clean, refined, modern, and everything here has always been handmade. We needed an update. It’s about grabbing how people are eating. They’ve changed the way they eat. We wanted to give the area something beautiful. We’re an institution in Norwalk.”

And Young gives a lot of credit to his new chef in Bryce, who’s having fun experimenting with chilis and in general, improving upon Valencia’s existing classics, and continuing the restaurant’s ethos of doing it all in-house.

The classics will return any day now.

They promise.

“Using different peppers, roasting them and such, it’s been interesting to see the flavors we can develop,” Bryce says. “Using different woods (when grilling) to see what flavors develop there, too. We’re making our own queso blanco. I’m always searching for new ways to better a dish. Seasons change. Things don’t always taste the same season to season, so you have to try different things. And we’re still looking to build on it as well, so I’m still looking for the best purveyors who will help us make it better.”

While at press time Valencia Cocina is still in its soft opening phase, we assure you that while you may not see all the arepas and empanadas listed on the menu, some, definitely the favorites, will be back! The idea is, nail this new stuff first, then mix the stuff they’ve mastered back in. By the time you read this, it’ll be fine. No need to freak out.

Tres leches cake

Cojones (yeah, we know what it means) are Valencia’s gluten free donut holes, filled with dulce de leche, and on top, a Nutella ganache.

“I’m looking forward to what’s coming up,” Bryce says. “I’m learning more about Michael’s foundation back in those days and how he came up. It’s super influential. I’m excited for the creative freedom. They trust me and that’s big because they’ve been open for 23 years and there’s a lot of people who support this place.”

And the boss praises his chef right back.

“Marv is 10-15 years younger than me, so he’s got all the tricks using all the gadgets,” Young says. “I’m a cowboy chef. I need an oven and a sauté pan. He’s got a lot of magic. He’ll keep the legacy of Valencia with some items, but he’ll bring it to 2026. A great chef like Marv can make these ingredients sing.”

As for the “what’s coming up,” it won’t be breakfast like the old days, but lunch will return soon enough, and that they’ll do a “fun” weekend brunch that Bryce says will see the return of their legendary breakfast typico. We’ll wait for that, and I, for one, am hoping the Red Smitty makes a comeback, too.

164 Main Street, Norwalk
203.846.8009, valencialuncheria.com