El Paraiso Restaurante

This place is located in a little strip mall off of Raymond Street near the post office. I’ve only been in for the ginormous breakfast burritos. These are delicious! There’s a self serve salsa bar with all the yummy fixings! If you’re in the mood for a good breakfast burrito at a reasonable price come here.
Ambiance ⁴⁄₅
Food ⁴⁄₅
Service ⁴⁄₅
Value ⁵⁄₅
Restrooms sorry I’ve never checked them out here

Wow, I haven’t had Salvadoran food this good since my grandmother passed away. Apologies to my cousin… :-)
I haven’t tried the quesadia yet but they make it there. I expect it to be better than the factory made quesadia my aunt brings for me. As soon as I’m done with this review I’ll have to go have a piece!
OMG, the tamales were great. I’ve been forced to settle for Mexican tamales for so long I forgot how good they can be.
As for those complaints about the «rude» waitress. She was there, the American half of me understood why some people are flipping out. My Salvadoran half said «this food is soooo gooood» who cares?
If you pay attention, she isn’t trying to be rude, it is just her personality. She appears to be so focused on getting to the next task that she tunes out everyone and everything else.
If the service really bugs you, go buy a hamburger, a bucket of sand and a hammer. You can pound sand while you eat the hamburger sold to you by someone with a genuine fake smile.
For the rest of you go there now, right now, and have a great meal. Now off to try that quesadia I brought home! Mmmmm, quesadia…

Rating for the Food: ⁵⁄₅
Service: ¹⁄₅ for 1 specific employee and their policy
The food was great. I’ve been here twice and have ordered the huaraches and pupusas. Both were amazing. The pupusas have a great texture, have a nice crispy crust on the outside and chew on the inside. The huaraches also had a great consistency for the tortilla and they definitely don’t skimp on the toppings.
I’ve never actually eaten there and sat down before until today, and everything seemed fine until my friend received the wrong order. When she cut open she saw the filling for her pupusa was completely wrong. When she brought it up with the waitress, the waitress basically dismissed her and said she couldn’t do anything about it. She was completely unfriendly and had attitude, and blamed my friend, saying that’s what she ordered. She tried making the excuse that she had a lot of orders and that is complete bullshit. If you have a restaurant and you fuck up, you fix it. It’s not the customers problem if you have a lot of orders to fill, maybe you should’ve gotten right the first time. It’s not like the ingredients are expensive that they used either, so it would barely even cost them anything. If someone had an allergy and they fucked up, I’m pretty sure their policy of sorry we don’t exchange food wouldn’t fly.

Stopped by today on my lunch break and tried the Sopa de Pollo de Rancho. I would give this restaurant 5-​stars based on the soup alone – it was so delicious. Service was fast and friendly. This place is perfect for a quick bite to eat.

There pupsas are so amazing my favorite also there tamales and there fried plantains this place always hits the spot

The food here was usually good bit bad maybe sometimes greasy but when I went back the usaully sweet lady that runs the place wasn’t there. The guy that runs the restaurant was there and the waitress was beyond rude. I would rather go home and make my own Pupusas or Salvadoran food than ever drop one single penny here ! I cannot believe this B gets away with being that rude to customers. We had started ordering and carlos asked her some questions about the dishes and the beers to make his order he wasn’t done and she asked me what I wanted and I said he is still ordering from you .‘she rolled her eyes and went back to him, then when he was done. I started to order and she walked away while I was talking to get giving her my order. She was so rude she put her hand in the air like talk to the hand gesture to us and we tried to go up to the man that was ringing someone out to tell him to cancel our order but he was to busy and didn’t notice us. The girl was usually arrogant and rude. No restaurant should be allowing their loyal customers to deal with this drama queen .
Seriously lost me as a client and my whole office and we are in Lake Forest ! Time to goto Tacos Ensenada where the food is fresh and the ladies know how to act like professionals with a warm smile !
DONT GO HERE EVER ! At your own risk !!

I have often heard people using the expression,” what’s up your butt”. Well. I finally found out what people really mean by this.
The waitress at this place was extremely rude. We asked her a couple of questions about the food and instead of kindly replying she responded back with a rude temperament and walked away from our table as we were ordering.
I guessed we asked to many question about the food. Or maybe our breath smelled, or she did not like the pimple on my nose, or maybe it was Monday (you know what they say about working on Mondays)…Who knows!!!
I bet the food is good but service like this is unexceptional.
The only thing that I valued from this experience is that I’m happy I finally understand what people really mean when they say, «what’s up your butt».

I only come for their pupusas, never had anything else although I hear all good stuff about everything in their menu. My son and I are hooked with their chicharron and bean & cheese pupusas!
Service is also very friendly, the skinny guy that’s always there (I don’t know his name) is super efficient. I’ve seen him take care of the whole restaurant by himself, and we had never waited too long for our food/​drinks to come. It’s a small place but it does get packed.
I must also point out they do great at keeping the place clean. Which is a plus at any restaurant especially when they provide homemade style food!

Called to order a plate to go. They were very polite in the phone. I ordered a pupusas combination which came with 1 tamal and 1 pupusas. I asked if I could have two pupusas instead– no problem.
Let me just say, I know my pupusas. I am not Salvadorian but I’ve had my fair share of pupusas. Got there and picked up my order. Typical ethnic place, not very good at customer service. Stood there for about 5 minutes before the lady even made eye contact.
Finally she turned to me and said how can I help you. I said I had an order for pick up. She grabbed my bag and gave it to me– $ 7.50. I asked for an extra hot sauce — $ 0.50. Ok. Paid and left.
Got to the office and opened my food. Yum! Smelled really great! Now for the real test– the rice was bland but fluffy. The beans were good but more like a refried beans from a Mexican joint. The pupusas– greasy! The taste was ok but a little soggy. I couldn’t really taste anything the salsa was very watery. Spicy but watery and the cabbage was good. It looked like it’s been sitting for a while as the crunch on the cabbage wasn’t as fresh anymore but it had good flavor.
Was I impressed? Let’s just say I’m still on the hunt for a great pupusas place in South OC.

Best Caldo de res I’ve had in a restaurant, almost as good as mom makes. Maybe I got lucky but the bone in my soup had a nice piece of bone marrow still attached. The pupusas where good and not greasy at all. The wait was a little long but it was packed for a rainy lunch. Now hopefully they will pass the consistency test next week.

South OC tends to be more on the vanilla side… but El Paraiso in Lake Forest changes the food game. The papusas and plantains are as good if not better than those in the Mish in SF. If you know me at all… you know that means a lot from this SF lover for life.

Update: Have been back several times. Hint: Order «ice water» or you’ll get bottled water — there’s some distrust of tap water among immigrant Hispanics. Anyway, I often get a plate of taquitos, very nicely done and smothered in chopped veggies. I ask for an extra dollop of sour cream. The guacamole is a good side order, absolutely freshly prepared in the kitchen. Going back tomorrow!

Really liked the taquitos and cheese pupusas. The hubby wasn’t a big fan of the chicken fajitas though, said they were «too watery.»
Cheap food, very small place, in small shopping center.
We’ll continue to explore their menu, hubby is open to trying other options.

I have been in here before on a weekend day and the line was way out the door. There aren’t many Salvadorean restaurants in south county. I had their «Gallina caldo» and it was good. Today, my boyfriend and I came here for a late breakfast/​early lunch. We ordered water and they brought out bottled water, I thought they were complimentary, I should have known better. I ended up getting sick while waiting for our food and proceed to vomit stomach acid in their bathroom as the lady who took our order stood outside the bathroom listening to it. I came out in desperation and told my boyfriend he needed to take me to the hospital, so I ran out to the car. He told them I had an emergency and to cancel our order, well they proceeded to charge him $ 3.23 for a bottle water which he opened and they never once told us had a charge. He was dumb enough to pay it and then he drove me to the ER.
NEVER EVER have I EVER had this happen before. They clearly saw and heard I had an emergency and charged for a water that we never wanted in the first place.
Come back? Ha!!! You are funny!

First timer here. Ordered the pupusas revuelta with a side of plantains and their fruit drink. Everything was fresh and made to order. We’ll be adding this place to our rotation for sure!

Place is clean and renovated, my family and friends love this place. I will totally recommend it! Best pupusas.

This is my place to get pupusas! The combo of cheese, pork, and beans is a killer. It is always made fresh to order and the vinegar slaw that goes with it is the best compliment. Taking it to go, they package them separately so the pupusas stay crisp and hot to contrast the cold slaw. Yum! Fill your craving of masa, oozing cheese, tasty bean and pork filling here!

I met a friend here for lunch because we were both looking for something new to try that was close to my work.
This place is located off the corner of El Toro and Jeronimo. It’s in the first shopping center right there and parking is tight.
Inside, it’s even smaller. I arrived first and grabbed a table. Service is quick. We each got an horchata — light, refreshing, and amazing. It’s always been a favorite of mine. You get a huge glass of it for only about $ 2. Love!
Food is amazing and tastes fresh. I got a combo plate of the chile rellano with beans and rice. The chile rellano was stuffed with flavored chicken and cheese. Omg. I could not believe how amazing it tasted. It came with handmade tortillas that looked good but didn’t taste as good unfortunately. Maybe it’s just me but the food more than made up for it.
If you’re looking for a great lunch option, check this place out.

Great place for pupusas and sweet corn tamales! This is probably the best place in this area to get pupusas. The sweet corn tamales taste like corn cake (from el Torito) if you have ever tried it… If not, it’s really good! Slightly sweet and moist with corn kernels throughout.
We typically get one of each — cheese, beef, mixed, and squash… My favorite is the meat and cheese.
The cabbage slaw and the red hot sauce adds a nice flavor and texture to the pupusas — we always get extra. The hot sauce is not spicy to me (I love spice) but it adds a nice moisture and flavor to the pupusas.
Make sure to also order their fried plantains! They come with a sour cream sauce and beans. You need to dip the fried plantain into both to achieve a wonderful flavor.

I eat out often on weekday lunches and enjoy sampling cuisines from different regions of the world. Food from El Salvador was next on my bucket list.
I noticed El Paraiso while eating at Phở Sapa in the same plaza. I observed many Spanish/​Latin blue collar workers walk in and out of the restaurant. Something must be delicious and authentic inside the tiny hole-​in-​the wall eatery. Curious to try, I bookmarked «El Paraiso — Pupuseria Y Restaurante».
6 months later, I finally passed by the area and gave it a try.
There were two dishes on mind when I walked into the restaurant. No doubt one was to try the pupusa, a specialty street food of El Salvador. The other was to sample the Salvadorean variation of tamale. El Paraiso offers this combination in addition to rice & pinto beans for only $ 6.99.
The pupusa de queso was a thick corn tortilla stuffed with cheese filling. It was served with curtido (pickled coleslaw) and mild salsa roja. The pupusa was crispy when it came out piping hot from the skillet but then when cooled, it was chewy and dough-​like. The texture was similar to pizza or pancakes, but the dough tasted different because it was corn based.
The tamale de puerco was moist and prepared inside a boiled banana leaf. The masa was densely packed and stuffed with pork. Unlike the Mexican tamales, this variation did not contain a lot of pork fat or grease. The size is much wider than the typical snack-​sized Mexican tamale. I highly recommend it.
For anyone trying Salvadorean food for the first time, I don’t think you can go wrong with a pupusa and tamale. The Spanish soups (caldo de camaron, caldo siete mares, caldo de res, caldo de pollo de rancho, caldo de pata) also seem to be popular, as all 10 Spanish speaking men watching football in the restaurant had a bowl in front of them.