Cocina Latina

A very good place to get your cravings for pupusas. They have six different pupusas and they are fresh. My boyfriend loved the chicken soup that was included in the buffet.

I will be back. Enough said. All good stuff. Mmmm… Chicharron.
Lunch buffet $ 7.95 for adults.

Located next to an abandoned washateria that looks like a meet up place for drug deals to go down in, cocina latina is a restaurant that proves that people will go to any environment if the food you sell is worth the fear of your safety. Thats just a long way of saying that this place is quite ghetto.
I came here with my 2 other asian friends and lo and behold, we were stared at for a good 5 minutes by all the hispanic or salvadoran customers in the room (sorry if im not being PC, but they were all speaking spanish so i go with my best assumption). Although i did feel slightly uncomfortable (it felt like some of these people had never seen an Asian before), i felt confident that this place was legit because a salvadoran restaurant full of salvadorans is always a good sign. Its like if you walk into a chinese restaurant and see no chinese people eating there… then it probably sucks.
Anyway, the sign outside the restaurant said the buffet was $ 4.99 but my friends and i were charged $ 7.99 each… not sure if the race card had anything to do with it, but nevertheless, they were friendly and we just paid it (like good passive asians).
Onto the food.
Delish.
They only sell pupusas, which are basically big fluffy flour tortillas stuffed with different ingredients. Different selections: 1) only flour 2) pork with queso 3) beans and queso 4) mix of pork and beans and queso 5) chicken and queso 6) queso. So its basically queso heaven and lactose intolerant hell.
They also had a chicken vegetable soup that was delicious (broth was a little too salty but that chicken meat was fall-​off-​the-​bone tender). I drank 2 bowls of that and still craved more but was too full.
The picante red sauce is sweet while the green sauce is super spicy.
After you finish getting your food in the line, you take your pupusas to your table and each table is stocked with a tub filled with curitdo, which is fermented cabbage with red chilis and vinegar. Its like a more spiced up coselaw. You add that on your pupusa, add some picante sauce, and fold your pupusa like a taco and enjoy.
The pork with queso and the chicken with queso was excellent. Not only was the shredded meat and cheese cooked to an unhealthy perfection, the texture balance between the soft flour tortilla and crispness of the curitdo added to the enjoyable taste. Next time i come back though, im gonna take some tortilla off bc there was way too much carbs for my liking – i got full off 2 pupusas. $ 7.00 for 2 pupusas and 2 chicken soups – i was actually left very satisfied.
Drinks prob all involved some sugary syrup (i taste trialed each one and there was one drink you could literally see the separation of the sugar syrup and liquid…). But if the sweet stuff is how you roll then youll love it! They have horchata and jamaica (kind of like a sweet hibiscus tea). I just asked for some aqua and was very kindly serviced.
Overall, you enter the parking lot feeling a little scared for your life, but you leave feeling very full and satisfied. Would highly recommend to anyone craving some salvadoran food.
I hope this business continues doing well bc the workers (even if they did rip us off) were very quick, efficient, and friendly. They have maximized on their product and cooked and sold it well. Will be back again!