El Buen Gusto Restaurant

the best pupusas in so cal.
the platanos with beans are delicious!
horchata or the atole de elote!

We came here for lunch. He ordered a simple chorizo and eggs with an horchata and I ordered the chile verde plate. We were waiting for 25 minutes then we asked our server where our food was. We ordered eggs, which are not hard to make, and chili verde, which the sauce is cooked in advanced and you just have to heat it up or whatever.
Our food came 30 minutes after we ordered. I was tracking the time because I had a meeting I had to get to nearby and I thought we had plenty of time to eat lunch. The server did not apologize for the delay. A simple, ‘Sorry to keep you waiting,’ would have sufficed.
The chili verde was greasy. The rice is bathed in butter. The horchata was sugar water. The tortillas were good though.
While we were eating, a busboy stood by our table to watch the game showing on the TV above our head. Twice. Maybe a little focus would help this restaurant run smoother.

Alright it’s about a time I reviewed this place! I’ve been coming here for years now but have recently been coming a little more often. The wait to be seated can be a little long on the weekends, but always worth it. Everything I’ve ever ordered here is delicious, with my favorites being steak encebollado (grilled onion steak) and the beef guisado (stew) that I had today. Pupusas are out of this world but I usually don’t order them cause I will instantly gain 2 pounds after eating them (only half joking). The food is just the right amount of greasy and always hits the spot. I also highly recommend the yucca con chicharron (fried yucca root and crispy pork rinds). Service is great and food takes an average amount of time to come out (depending on how busy they are). Would give 5 stars but the place can use a deep cleaning and detail, everything feels just a tad grimy (especially the bathroom) but I can dismiss it for a bit while I enjoy my food!

Great pupusas ! The lady was nice enough to accommodate us right before closing time. Thanks for the LA hospitality from SF

Arrived on Memorial day, May 30, 2016 at 11:45 am. Me, my wife and our daughter. Sat rather quickly, waited almost 20 mins before our order was taken. Drinks took an additional 10 mins to arrive incomplete. Our meals took 30 minutes to arrive, both cold and incorrectly prepared and with no silverware. Waiter apologized continuously assuring better service which never came. It seems like apologizing has become routine. The food is actually pretty decent but not good enough to make up for the disorganization this establishment continues to practice. This has not been my first visit here, but I will say it might be my last. I will be open to giving them another chance but maybe in the next 6 months.

If I could give zero stars for service I would. For the first time in my life I felt discriminated against because our table didn’t speak Spanish. What this guy didn’t know is I worked in the restaurant industry for 12 years and probably would have tipped twice as much as any of his other ghetto tables. Let’s be real, if you’ve ever served tables you know what I mean. So I left no tip because the guy was a total jerk. It was so obvious he was avoiding our table. I asked for a water and he walked by 5 times without bringing it, then pretended he just remembered. He also handed me the bill without looking at me or saying thank you etc. It was so strange and honestly the worst service I have ever had. The restaurant is gross and dirty but we weren’t there because we couldn’t find a better place, it was a high school Spanish class assignment to try different Latin foods and I love pupusas. If I ever have a craving for them in the future I might take it to go but I will definitely find another spot to order from before I return here. This review probably won’t even matter because the type of people that eat here don’t even know what Unilocal is.

Las tres estrellas son por las pupusas solamente… El servicio es rudo, espesialmente de la vieja puta en la caja. No solamente es ruda con los clientes si no tambien con los empleados. Esta vieja gorda mal parida es la version de los cholos peligrosos de su pais. Se le nota que es una infeliz miserable que no aprecia a los clientes. Deberian usarla nomas para limpiar los banos y comerse las sobras al final del dia… Vieja serota gorda.

Great pupusas revueltas and delicious tilapias with homemade tortillas with frijoles y salad. Those are the only plates ive eaten there. Decent place!

I love coming here to eat pupusas. My favorite are the revueltas. I got two pupusas with beans and rice the prices are extremely reasonable and I always leave feeling full and satisfied.

This is our new place to go! Very delicious food n friendly device I would recommend this place.

Delicioso! I would have given 5 stars if their seating was more comfortable.
Food: great! Many options, very flavorful, and good servings. We had pupusas, sopa de pata, casamiento, and a minced meat with mint (forgot name of dish) but delish!
Atmosphere: comfortable, family oriented, and clean
Prices: reasonable
Overall: satisfied and happy. Will be returning

Came for lunch and was seated in about 15 min! That’s pretty quick.
Anyhow, I ordered the pan con pollo and a pupusa. My order was correct and the taste was an explosion of flavor, it.was.bomb!!! I’m a regular, mostly come during the week but today, this food was on point! The bread on my «sandwich» was soft, drenched in sauce and a generous amount of chicken. It was one of the best meals I’ve had here.

I was really wanting to try a pupusa for some time and finally got the chance to when I came to El Buen Gusto. I ordered a tamal de carne, two asada tacos, and two pupusas (one bean & cheese, the other chicharron). It was my first time trying a tamale, I liked it. The tacos were great, and I really liked the pupusas. The bean & cheese one I liked better because of the texture (since it wasn’t as oily as the chicharron).
There was a bit of a language barrier and I had trouble communicating with the waiter but hey, it was definitely a possibility coming to a restaurant of a different country’s cuisine.
This is most likely a return worthy spot for me.

Growing up Salvadorian, my grandma owned 12 different Salvadorian/​Mexican restaurants, makes me a instant expert on this place.
I randomly found this place by my work and it turns out the lady that owns these restaurants was a waitress for my grandma back in the days. No wonder why I felt nostalgic eating here.
Great food and service

Love there service. Pleasure eating here the food is delicious and the waiters are great fast service.

El Buen Gusto has become my go-​to Sunday brunch spot. The food is consistently excellent and the servers are friendly (and, most importantly, super attentive with coffee refills!). Can’t beat the prices, where else will you find breakfast under $ 8 is Atwater Village? Keep doing your thang, El Buen Gusto!

The food is not what I take issue with, but the total incompetence of the staff and management. Somehow they managed to lose my credit card in between taking the check and getting it to the register.
Their response to me, «no charge for your food, please cancel your card».
Sometimes when places are too Mom & Pop, there can be a lack of organization. I think this is what this place suffers from tremendously.

Food= not bad at all, not greasy, nor too salty. I’ll come again. Pupusas are bomb! Salpicon plate and Carne guisada is legit Salvadorian. Delicious.
Salvadorian drinks=pretty good, love the Horchata.
The Margaritas= SINCE WHEN is a MARGARITA WINE BASED!!! I CANT COMPREHEND!!! Someone tell me I’m wrong if I am. All I know is that a margarita is supposed to have TEQUILA! BIG DISCLAIMER!!! They don’t serve anything with tequila. THEY DON’T HAVE TEQUILA. I will never order any of their hand made drinks here for sure.
Service = bad, not the worst, you have to keep asking and asking to be served, and food comes at all different times from the rest of your table. 3 – 4 different servers come to your table and you don’t end up with the someone that started with you, so if at the beginning you want separate checks from your party and there is no communication between servers… You pretty much have to beg them to separate the orders. they have a really reluctant attitude about EVERYTHING they have to fix, that they didn’t cause.
I don’t look to any whole in the wall restaurant for their service because it’s always mediocre. To me it’s all about the food. This place makes me want to come back only because the food is legitimately GOOD.

Came here today around 3. Was goinng to give 3 stars for food and service but: 1. If you are really hungry don’t bother coming here. The food took a long while to come out. I thought it they cook when order are received but when my food came out it wasnt even hot.
2. From the time i ordered my dish and drink they it took about 10 mins for them to bring my fresca out. While waiting for my plate to come i was sipping on my fresa. I had finished my fresca long before my plate was brought out and not once did a server stop by and ask if wanted another one or even the plate was set on the table if the server asked.
3. There was a hair on my slice of tomato. GROSS! completely lost my appetite.
4. I asked for my check twice and it took 20 mins. If they were busy i would totally understand but on a slow day… what gives?
Bottom line, cleanliness 1, service 1 and food is a merly 2.

Best breakfast in Atwater village, hands down. We always get the casamiento rice, I sometimes even order it to go. Such a great value, such an excellent staff. Thank you El Buen Gusto.

I’ve been here a few times and the food is always on point. This past week I went there with a friend and of course we had pupusas, which were pretty good. I also ordered an order of fried plantain and beans, and the dish was out of this world. Very good food and the service is friendly and professional. The pickled cabbage or curtido was not ready to be served, but oh well, not a bad lunch to have.

Food was great, service was excellent n fairly price! I would definitely recommend this place. However, the day that I came there were no towels in the man’s restroom and I had to tell waiter of the problem. The hand dryer was not working n for a restaurant that has a lot of business I expect them to at least keep the restroom in working condition for it’s customers. I will give them another opportunity n hope next time the restroom issue is resolved.

Don’t go here unless you like the young perv server wearing black attire pestering you for your number. So get this. I visited this restaurant on a Saturday night w/​my gf and it was a good visit. The next day while I was at work I had my gf and sister get more food to go. This rude waiter decided to keep asking my gf for her number and said they needed the number for the order. He knows she’s taken, and kept staring at her while she was waiting for her order. Get this, as they exited the restaurant the same creep and an older gentleman cut them off on their way to the car to force my gf to give him her number. I don’t think customers should be scared at night when going to a restaurant. What kind of sick staff is this restaurant producing. Please be cautious of this young waiter, he will keep creeping on customers. DONT GO HERE. Thank you

Pupusas were dang good! Pretty big too!
(the beans were a bit oily though)
Platanos fits were on point! The price was pretty reasonable.

We came on a Saturday afternoon. I was worried that when we got seated our food would take a long time to arrive because it was a quit a few minutes to wait to be seated.
Parking was very hard to find. I had to park at a meter parking that was only 1 hour parking, was nervous but overall both the service was great and the food.

Pretty average Mexican food. Went here with a few friends and out of 5 orders, only one order was correct. It also took about half an hour to get our basic burritos and tacos. It seemed like most people enjoy this location as a sit down spot and not a to-​go spot, we got our food to-​go and the employees seemed a little surprised. The staff was extremely nice, and it was very clean inside.
Even though everyone’s food wasn’t really how we ordered it, everything did tasted good and was a large size. I ordered a burrito, and could only finish half of it, it was so big. The prices are good for how much food you get. I would recommend trying this spot out if you have time to kill and don’t mind if you don’t get exactly what you want.

Pretty average food. To me this is very similar to Mexican style food. Went here with a few friends and out of 5 orders, only one order was correct. It also took about half an hour to get our basic burritos and tacos. It seemed like most people enjoy this location as a sit down spot and not a to-​go spot, we got our food to-​go and the employees seemed a little surprised. The staff was extremely nice, and it was very clean inside.
Even though everyone’s food wasn’t really how we ordered it, everything did tasted good and was a large size. I ordered a burrito, and could only finish half of it, it was so big. The prices are good for how much food you get. I would recommend trying this spot out if you have time to kill and don’t mind if you don’t get exactly what you want.

My Salvadorian friend introduced me to this place! I love pupusas and I am glad to have found a place close to me that make the whole experience authentic: from the friendly service to the selection of beers and of course some good horchata! Happy pupusa-​ing.

This was my first time trying Salvadoran food and I was extremely impressed. I ordered a cheese pupusa. It came with rice and refried beans as well as some garnishes. It was absolutely incredible and I could have licked the plate clean. It’s very cheap as well!
The horchata here is also very good. I’ll be coming back whenever I’m in the city :)

The pupusas are AWESOME. I will make a drive for these suckers cause they are worth it. I’ve been here probably over 100 times and rarely did I encounter a problem but it’s nothing they won’t take care of. The wait can be pretty long on the weekends but there’s another location near by so you can take your pick for location.
I like the breakfast that comes with platanos fritos. The pupusas wit chicharron con queso are gooooooood. The pan con pollo is so good. The problem here is choosing what to order cause I usually wanna try several things so I usually share with whoever joins me and we order several things. Prices are reasonable but they charge a lil extra for breakfast out of breakfast hours and if you want extra cheese or sour cream they charge alot.

Here I said, full as a tick. I ate the whole Barito which is like never happens. Try the Barito de carne as ads! The papoose… I know I misspelled it but that’s because I don’t know how to spell it. Call me lazy. That’s what eating a whole Burrito does to you.

Four stars alone for their pupusas! Any pupusa you get is outstanding! My favorite is the pupusa revuelta which has cheese, beans, and chicharron (pork). They are large, tasty, cheesy, comforting, and hard not to eat more than one. So grab some on a cheat day! Haha.
Maybe I’m just not a fan of salvadorian food so I haven’t really enjoyed anything else. Plus their Mexican food is pretty mediocre as well. Which makes sense. Obviously that’s not why you go to a salvadorian restaurant for.
Anyway, come here for the pupusas alone and your heart and tummy won’t be disappointed.

Muy mal servicio. Tuve que esperar veinte minutos por mi mesa y otros veinte para que tomarán mi orden. Ultima vez que vengo a este lugar. Muy mal servicio.
Muy mala organización. Y el lugar se mira muy sucio. Lo siento pero tienen que mejorar. Y si tenían mesas para poder sentarnos. Creo que no les gusta atender grupos grandes éramos siete personas.

Good food friendly customer services
I order a side of sour cream I got charge 2.50 in my opinion I think is too much everything else was good

El personal tiene muy buena presentacion pero las bebidas y la comida tienen un precio demaciado elevado no por la cantidad si no por la calidad del producto la lechuga q usan esta vieja y negra el guacamole servido con pedazos grandes como si fueran a comer elefantes las margaritas son una porqueria es solo liquido amarrillo sin hielo y una coronita a la hora de pagar solo nos dirron el bill y esperamos hasta q nos cansamos y fuemos a pagar a la registradora hay otros lugares de mejor calidad en la comida y con mejores precios tal es las CAZUELAS el highland park pero al final no regresaremos mas a este lugar por q nos dio la inseguridad de estar comiendo comoda vieja y sin niveles de higiene

I’ve been here before but walked out because I had no idea what to order and ambiance felt a little weird. I just didn’t feel welcomed, but yesterday I came back with one of my girl friends and we were greeted and seated right away. We both got their bean and cheese pupusas and man am I hooked. They were really good and authentic. they vary from $ 2-​$ 2.50/pupusas. portions are pretty big as well.
They have a private lot but gets really packed.

I probably eat pupusas once a year. And there are two places in LA that I love, El Buen Gusto is one of them.
I’ve never had anything else other than ‘popusas revueltas’ from here and they taste great. Although my Salvodorean friends have mentioned that the rest of the food is pretty authentic too.