Lupita’s Pupuseria

Please avoid private catering with the owner of this establishment. She offered to cater for us and promised a service that she did not complete. Just found out that her food is not fresh and uses left over food from her establishment for private catering. I feel so sad because this was a wedding she was supposed to cater for and was truly unprofessional. This how bad it was my guest walked across the street to McDonald’s to eat. Again avoid private catering with her.

Great Oakland pupuseria. Everything is delicious. They might even have a little too much filling in the pupusas. The service is friendly and they have a TV to watch whatever football/​soccer is on. Be aware that the place is cash only, and you’re better off knowing some Spanish (or doing your research ahead of time).
The tamales spot next door is also quality.

Oakland’s hidden treasure in Fruitvale area! Everyone always goes to Los Coco’s for pupusas but I prefer Lupita’s! The pupusas here are meatier and more flavorful. Cheaper is also another plus. Aside from all of that, the wait is never long no matter how many people are already there.
If you’ve never had pupusas before, then I suggest you buy one of every kind. Share them with friends and family, OR eat them all. Make sure to take a small plastic of curtido with you. Pupusas with curtido go hand in hand!
P. S. Cash only. Come prepared.

CASH ONLY!
Best pupuseria in Oakland. Hands down, period. You wanna fight about it? ‘Cause I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover. Of pupusas. Specifically queso con loroco pupusas made by Pupuseria Lupita, one of the (many) loves of my life.
Very few can even make the claim to do it better, but those that do fall on deaf ears as far as I am concerned. The food is always excellent, the ladies and gentlemen who work here are friendly and loving and in a city as beautiful as mine, we would never let a little language barrier get to us. When I first started coming a while ago, we would speak, smile or stammer our way through the ordering process until we spoke each other’s language – a bounty of colloquialisms that merge and create a fabulous dining experience. By now, when I call to place my phone order (which is def my suggestion, no need to wait!) I speak in broken Spanglish and can practically hear the sweet señorita on the other end of the line smiling when she recognizes my voice. «Ahh! Diez minutos,» she exclaims every time.
I also love the plantains and refried beans and the prices are out of this world. I’ve been to many, many places in my hood and hoods all over in search of the perfect, pipin’ hot pupusa and some joints charge as much as $ 4 a pop! Lupita’s wouldn’t dare. If you have $ 2.50, you’ve got enough for one queso con loroco and if you have $ 2, you can at least snag a queso minus the loroco addition. Oh, they have a truck outside in the tiny parking lot that borders So… What are you waiting for?

This place really sucks!!! The health department needs to come here asap! Place has fruit flys, dust everywere, ants, and whatever you can think of when it comes to health violation being broken! Why is this place open??? N don’t get me started with the service!!! If this was my business I would be keeping an eye on these employees! No wonder it was died when I came… the employees have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS TO SAFE THERE LIFE!!!
WELL YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR… MAYBE NOT $ 12.25 LOL
FYI never judge a book by its cover! I scored a 98% on my managers safe serve exam!

By far the best pupusas I’ve had in a very long time. We bought a bunch of different kinds (chicken, pork, cheese) for the sales team and everyone loved them. We are very happy and full. The horchata was deliciously perfectly sweet. They place looked clean inside too.

I drove up here not knowing what to expect. I’ve passed by here few times, I’ve read the reviews, but nothing really recent so I had to stop by.
I’ve been in search of great tamales. Yes, I have my go to tamales place on Fruitvale, but they are a cart and only open from 6 AM — 11 AM’ish. I’m not much of a morning person, so it’s really hard for me to get their early unless I’m having my weird sleeping issues and wake up around 3am and can’t go back to sleep (and that’s exactly why I’m writing this review at 4:30 AM).
Anyhow, so where was I? Oh yes, I stopped here for a tamale. The building is run down and it looks like it’s closed, but it isn’t. Out in the parking lot, there sat a woman under a canopy with cart and coolers. So I asked if she had tamales, and what kind. She said she had cheese, chicken and pork. Of course, pork being my favorite I went for the pork. On a paper plate she served me one port tamale which she took out of aluminum foil and corn husks. It was $ 2, the same as the other place I go to. Mexican vinegar based slaw and 3 types of salsa were on table right by there on a self-​serve base, so I had to try all 3.
My verdict on the tamales — it was pretty good. The masa was harder than the other place I like, however, the meat was very well seasoned, tender and so good! I loved the every bite of that meat.
I realize this is pupuseria, so at some point I may try their pupusa. I guess I can check out the inside of the restaurant too instead of just the parking lot. Will try them again soon and report back more.

HORRIBLE SERVICE!!! If there were 0 stars I would put it down. I called just to ask a question and the lady was super mean. I just wanted to ask a question about beans. I wouldn’t waste my time here. Beans are made of lard. Not real Salvadorian food.

Just ordered pupusas to go and not only were they bland but the cabbage was dried out and stale. I’m confused because this is contrary to the good reviews I’ve read on Unilocal.I will say that the beef soup was good, the service was friendly and I would be willing to give another chance if they somehow corrected this 1^st bad experience…

Order a frijole con queso pupusa and a horchata. Delicious. The pupusas are so damn delicious, can’t even describe but I’ll try; they have the texture almost like a very thin buiscut and taste like a fresh tortilla. The beans are perfect and the cheese compliments everything. The horchata is fresh made, thick, not too sweet, not like the watered down crap that usually gets served at restaurants. Go to the truck, it’s quicker and cheaper than inside.

I don’t usually go around the area but hubs and I thought it will be a good place to find good pupusas.
came in here mid afternoon and the place was empty.
had their mixed fruit drink: basically kool-​aid with diced apple and oranges. it was pretty refreshing.
they served as chips and salsa… they were good.
ordered their chicharron pupusas and cheese pupusas. the portion was a tad smaller than expected but they were very good!
service: was good but a bit slow
definitely recommend pupusas.

Pupusas are the items to order here but i didn’t. there’s about a dozen varietals (2.5).
they look huge!
they also have tamales (mexican, salavadorean, or guatamala)
eats: camarones al mojo de ajo (11) shrimp in creamy garlic sauce
–over 20ish shrimps in garlic sauce,
–lettuce salad, refried rice, frijoles, and homemade flour tortillas were fresh
–didn’t see la diabla on menu.
not wowed.
3ish stars.
frijoles refritos:
–tamales, pupusas better here.
–food specialty more salvadorean than mexican.
–cash only

My friend brought me here because she’ hasn’t tasted better pupusas than Lupita’s. The pupusa was good but the chilaquiles were overly salty. I could only stomach the chilaquiles with the side of eggs it was served with. The chips and salsa were good but also incredibly salty; I probably should have taken that as a sign. It may be safer to only get the pupusas, they’re like $ 2.25 each whereas the chilaquiles (side of 2 eggs and beans) were $ 8. There’s also a nice market next door with a produce stand in the parking lot.

I haven’t done a full survey of all the pupuserias in the Fruitvale district; I just come here. They’ve been consistently good. It’s definitely a local business: no ambience at all, TV on and ex-​Chinese restaurant tables. You come here for the food. I haven’t sampled much, usually too intent on getting my pupusa fix but everything I’ve had has been good. Friendly folks, too.
Gluten free: One of the easier cuisines to tackle.

Lupita catered my wedding last weekend. She was AMAZING. The food was off the hook and her service and ability to add people and extra food at the last minute was awesome. We originally had about 80 people estimated, and increased it to 125 a week before the wedding.
She also did it for an INCREDIBLY low price. She stayed late and helped cut and serve the cake. Love Lupita !

The fams and I were feenin’ for some good Latin food, so after much Unilocal-​searching we settled on Lupita’s Pupuseria.
At first, I wasn’t quite sure whether we were in the right space. The name on the door was right, but the restaurant itself was empty at 5:30 (granted, that’s early for dinner). Also, my lack of Spanish skills made for an interesting conversation with the sweet gal at the counter.
We ended up ordering several different pupusas, tostadas, and other stuff that I don’t quite recall. We had a pretty large order and were waiting for a while, so at one point the owner came up to us and treated us all to ice cream cones. This truly warmed my heart, as it reminded me of when I was growing up in the Philippines and my aunties would treat us now and then when we visited their homes. Super kudos to Lupita!
Our meal was super cheap. Between the pupusas, tostadas, drinks, and varying assortment of other food stuffs, the names of which escape me now, we spent a measly $ 30. Little did we know that we could have spent half that and still walked out with a ton of food for take home.
We’ll definitely be back to support this lovely establishment!

Many, many bellyful thanks to Andrew C. for his review of this place. His review was spot on. This place is great!
We knew this place was gonna be cool when they gave us all free bowls of hot Caldo de Pollo chocked full of tasty chicken, veggies and noodles. We then ordered several bean and cheese pupusas, ayote (squash) pupusas, Carne Asade plate, Carne Asade quesadilla, and Mexicano and Salvadoreno tamales. Tamales and Pupusas are around $ 2 a piece.
We fed a very hungry family of 5 for around $ 40 including drinks.
Don’t get lured next door to the taco/​tamale truck (well, maybe you should its great too!). This place is a nice, warm, intimate place to hang out and eat.
Another great reason to shop/​dine Oakland!

4 pupusas revueltas were as good as they could get! since moving from the city we have longed for pupusas in the mission and excelsior and haven’t sought out a place in the east bay but boy are we glad we did. thanks to Unilocal *head bow* we have found our pupusas craving fulfilled.
the pupusas are about $ 2.00-$ 2.50 each and we ordered 4 so our bill came out to $ 10.98 for 2 people. [dinner for 2 @ $ 10? zero complaints here] we got chips & salsa gratis too [which we both thought were good]. the dressings and cabbage salad were seasoned perfectly with just the right amount of sweetness & sourness.
when we initially got there around 530PM, it was just us and then another 2 came in shortly thereafter but it was quiet. don’t be deterred by the isolated place — if you’re looking for a semi-​greasy pupusa [this is the only way to eat it — come on!] with a little crunch to the masa shell that is a cave for some ooey-​gooey cheese melted with refried beans and whatever other filling your fixins please — i think lupita’s is a winner. at least in my list it will be.
oh — and if you want real street eats and would prefer not to get cat called, heckled at, shot, robbed, stabbed, or be in some other life threatening situation — order it to go and take it home to devour — or message me and we can go together. i’ll do my best to protect you, but mind you — i’m exactly 5 feet tall and about 110 pounds.

Looks like they’ve increased their pupusa menu from previous reviews (which said 3 version) with 8 varients of pupusas on the menu with loroco and shrimp versions in addition to the previously mentioned chicharron, frijoles, and queso and the combos like revuelta. All are $ 2 so slightly cheaper than Los Cocos ($ 2.25 /​pupusa).
I went with Revuelta and Queso y Loroco pupusas plus a Salvadoran Tamale ($ 2) and Jarritos Tamarindo to drink for $ 7.50 total.
While I waited a small basket of chips and mildly spicy salsa verde was brought to my table (
) followed by an overflowing platter of pupusa /​tamale goodness (
) with a nice pile of curtido and a mild tomato sauce on the side.
The loroco had a much more pronounced, nutty flavor than at Comalapa. In the picture you can see the green spots which are the blossoms. They actually messed up my order and gave a queso instead of the revuelta. Not a big deal since they are the same price and this was very good as well, and it really highlighted the loroco flavor since that was the only difference between the two.
Less greasy than Los Cocos, my 2^nd favorite pupusa spot.
The Salvadoran tamale was the best of the handful I’ve had to date. Cooked in a banana leaf instead of corn husks like a Mexican tamale, they generally seem to have a moister and tastier masa. I ordered from the wall menu and was given a chicken tamale, but later I saw on the table menu that pork is also available as an option. It was mostly the delicious masa with several large chunks of moist chicken and some sauce in the middle (
)
Very nice lady took my order and brought my food. Lupita, perhaps?

Synopsis:
Food — 2.5
Ambience 1
Service 2.5
I tried coming here to satisfy a Tuesday night pupusa craving but alas, after I finally found the place, they were closed. I guess I put the idea in the Jolly Roger’s head because the next night, he wanted pupusas. Oh darn, twist my arm! So we thought to try this place out– if it be open that is! Seems that luck was in our favor as they were indeed open. SCORE!
We entered withouth knowing what the heck was going on– there was a guy behind what looked like a counter by the entrance, with a menu over his head but he didn’t give any indication that he was going to help us. We then looked to the back of the room and there was another menu on the wall, but the señorita there didn’t really let us know she could help us either! WTF? can SOMEONE help us? We want food? Comida? Pupusas? Anyone?
I finally asked her if we could sit anywhere (the place, aside from aforementioned counter boy and his cohort, was deserted). she said sure. Hm, which red gingham checked, plastic covered table to sit at?
The menu was an odd mix of ‘American’ and Mexican/​Salvadorean (read– burgers, fries, burritos, and only three types of pupusas). They only offered Chicharron, frijole, or mix (we later found out mix was a combo of all three in one pupusa). I was hoping for lorroco and luckily when I asked, they did have it (even though it wasn’t on the menu). One of those, one of the mix, a chicken soup, a beef soup (caldo de pollo and caldo de res) and some tamarindo licuado.
The soup came out and it wasn’t what we expected– the usual solid ingredients like a big chunk of meat, veggies like cabbage, carrot, potato, but it came in a red, aromatic broth. This is diffrerent, I thought. Tasting it, the flavor wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t what I (or the Jolly Roger) was looking for. The addition of a lot of tomatoes and mint sprigs definitely morphed this soup into something that seemed more Mediterranean than El Salvadorean, and sadly it wasn’t what I wanted.
I had as much as I could but only managed half of the bowl. The pupusas weren’t bad, but they really weren’t remarkable either. They offered us handmade tortillas for the soup, but they weren’t as good as the ones from Los Cocos either– the masa was a different in texture where I wasn’t too fond of it. I still took them home anyway with the leftover soup.
The licuado wasn’t bad by any means but again, not great.
The two things that were a little sketchy to me–
a big pot of what looked like refried beans just sitting there, out in the open, next to the door that leads to the dining room. not refrigerated. not covered. Um, you guys aren’t doing so much business that it warrants leaving something uncovered like that. Luckily my stomach still feels fine today.
I almost ate shit in the bathroom– the floor from the kitchen to the bathroom was so greasy that when I stepped on to the tiled floor my feet gave out and I almost knocked myself out with the toilet! luckily my hand was still on the doorknob and I only managed to tweak my hand a bit but it wasn’t a good feeling.
The lack of coziness isn’t so much a factor, nor the weirdness of playing only two songs on the jukebox when we received our food– but no more music before or after, and the odd silencio throughout the entire meal. I have to say it was a very strange dining experience. Unfortunately I think I will only stick to pupusas here, and only if my other spot is cerrado.