La Caravana

This review is based purely on service. I arrived at the restaurant at 7:25p to order food to go. I did not get greeted until 7:35p when I was finally able to put in my order. I only ordered the Mini Pupusas Platter which I was told would take 20 mins. I am still waiting here almost an hour later with no food! Waiting this long for food when you aren’t even dining in is ridiculous. I have never experienced such slow service. I should’ve been home eating my dinner by now. First and last visit here.

Highway robbery for pupusas nothing more special than ones you can buy off the lady on the street for $ 1.

Salvadorean here, and this food is sooo good. I usually get my pupasas from another pupaseria but i have to change now because the food I had today exceeded all expectations.
Had the huevos rancheros & a frijol y queso pupusa, sauce was amazing on the eggs, loved the salsa for the pupasas and there coffee was absolutely amazing.
Food takes a while, but the waitstaff is very attentive and the food is amazing so i dont mind waiting a little bit more.

Let’s start by I am Salvadorian and I have been to 20+ Salvadorian restaurants and I must say this is the best one I have been to.

I freaking love their pupusas. Always order their pupusa sampler platter for my co-​workers and I.

The Hen, la Gallina Salvadoreña, was our substitute for Thanksgiving Turkey, and what a hen! It was golden outside, full of juice inside, no grease, just delight. For any other day, I’d go for tamal de pollo, pupusas con loroco, casamiento (the ‘wedding’ of black beans to white rice), yucca frita; he would have crispy chicharrón de puerco, plátanos con crema, and share my pupusas … eat most of them, but he is Salvadoreño so, to be expected.
The place is demure, clean, quiet, no fake smiles from Salvadoreans, just respect & prudence.

I love the food here, the place is very clean and peaceful environment not the typical noise type of Latino restaurant, food sometimes takes a little bit too long but it’s worth it :) I love the sopa de gallina be sure to ask for grill gallina

What a great hole-​in-​the-​wall! Food and service were both wonderful. The food took a while but that’s what happens when you wait for food made from scratch. Ensalada drink was refreshing and full of fruit. Their horchata had a flavor similar to that of black sesame. Okay so I’m gonna sound like a complete fucking gringo right now but I freakin loved the pepperoni pupusa!!! All the ones we tried were delicious but the pepperoni was such such comfort food… like an inside out pizza… yaaaas. And their spicy cabbage really packs a punch. Wonderful. Try if you’re in the area!

This has got to be one of the best places to satisfy your pupusa craving.
I typically get the bean & cheese pupusas and they are always delicious, satisfying & reasonably priced.

The food here is authentic and delicious! We had the mini pupusa sampler and the typical plate which were both outstanding! The restaurant is beautiful without being over-​the-​top. It’s clean, beautiful, and reasonably priced.
My only complaint about this place is the wait time to get food. Even though we called ahead, we later learned that the food is not prepared until the customer arrives. The reasons for doing this are totally understandable but it would have been nice to know before we got there with two very hungry kids. When we did get our food it was fresh and delicious!
Highly recommended!
Tip: Ordering to go seems to be much quicker! If you are ordering ahead of time and you plan on dining with kids make sure to mention it!

Stopped in at this place because the restaurant we were trying to visit next door was closed. Nice twist of fate, though, because we stuffed ourselves with delicious plantains, beans and the mini pupusa platter. First time I’ve had curtido, too. Tastes so similar to kimchi, I loved it!
This place is clean and the service was prompt and friendly. I would def. return, even make a detour to visit again.

My new favorite local restaurant. Those pupusas are so delicious! I had two of the regular sized (not mini) and a tamale and I was full. Oh, and try the pineapple drink too. Parking in the back or on the street. Friendly staff, clean restaurant, I look forward to introducing this place to my friends.

Fighting a cold and I really wanted Salvadoran caldo de pollo (chicken soup), I love the veggies and the squeeze of lime in this homestyle dish. La Caverna’s version has tons of vegetables: green beans, zucchini, carrot, baby corn (wha?!), and a HUGE chicken breast. A great option as the weather is cooling down in our area.
My husband got the pupusa sampler, surprised to find pepperoni in some of them! Anyway, they were good. I don’t love their curtido (cabbage) here, a bit too spicy, I wish it was more pickled.

i love Salvadoran food and eat it often and this was the worst i have ever had. not to mention it took around 30 minutes for my food to come even though there was only 1 other family there. I usually dont write bad reviews but this place was terrible, also forgot to mentio my waiter had his son who was probably around 3 years old and was playing with him and had him in the kitchen.

Tried different plates here and I have to say everything is just amazing. Pupusas are excellent and the ensalada drink is also excellent.

4 stars for breakfast. Minus one for taking FOREVER.
Great handmade pupusas, corn tortillas, delicious combination of tastes and textures when you order the breakfast of the house. The coffee is good. GREAT fruit shakes. Papaya, Mango or Banana. I haven’t tried anything beyond breakfast but I have had their fried yucca. Now I just order to-​go. Worse time to go for breakfast is Sunday between 11 and 1. The church crowd!

Food is good. Service is VERY slow. Wasn’t even greeted for over ten minutes. Party of four, been here over an hour and still no food. Server has a bad attitude to boot. Disappointing!

I was looking for a Dominican restaurant to celebrate the fact that David Ortiz had just hit his 500^th career home run (I’m from Boston… can’t stop the obsession!). I could not find any Dominican places on Unilocal,but this one popped up in my search for some reason and it was right down the street. Ok, I understand that Salvadorean cuisine is not the same or even that close… but my wife and I were hungry.
Anyway, long story short, I had no idea what an amazing feast was in store for us! I ordered the salpicon chopped steak made with onion and mint plus a pork pupusa, and my wife got the «crazy appetizer plate», which was crazy delicious. They practically needed to roll us out of there, we were so stuffed. It was so amazingly tasty. Everything was mouthwatering, even the tortillas and the rice. (note: I tend to like dishes that are a bit on the salty side, and the food here was to my taste in that regard.)
Despite being full to burst, we still had leftovers to take home. What a deal, and for food so delicious. (second note: I would not say the service was fast or attentive, but I overlooked this since I enjoyed the food so much.) I definitely want to come again and check out some more dishes. Thank you, La Caravana! This place was a home run.

They are good but way to much masa. Very heavy. Im Salvi and I know good pupusas. It looked authentic but I needed antacids after. I was also disappointed with the ensalada drink. It was just apples. Where were the nances? Over all, good but not great.

Excellent! New instant favorite. Had the mini papusa platter. Note: it’s enough for three or more people. They’re not that mini. They were great. I also had the chili relleno and everything just had something ‘extra’. The restaurant itself is very nice inside.

My family and I have been coming here for many years; mainly for the pupusas and boy do they never fail! They haven’t changed the way they taste at all! The ones with pollo con queso at least (chicken and cheese). Their ensalada drink is also very great tasting and refreshing! The crunched ice sometimes gets annoying but the chopped apples in the drink make up for it.
We mainly order out because its quicker* but dining in is also nice. The ambiance is clean and friendly and the music is great. The service is a bit slow but they are very nice. Two of the ladies at the front have been at La Caravana for years, they know what they’re doing. Definitely a tasty place to come grub !

3.5 stars
Mini Pupusa Sampler ($ 12.95): I was thoroughly surprised the mini wasn’t so mini! The pupusas were accompanied with cup of red salsa and mild cabbage — both great accompaniments. We ordered one of each pupusa and split it among the three of us so we could all try the various ones. After about the third one, we couldn’t figure out which was which! The zucchini was definitely one of my favorites. Otherwise, they were filled with too much cheese and not much of anything else.
Steak Plate ($ 11.95): Steak, grilled onions & bell peppers, salvadorian rice, beans. The only thing i really enjoyed on the plate was sadly the grilled veggies. The rice was too salty, beans were bland and the steak was OVER cooked and chewy.
Overall, I would only come for the pupusas (and do want to try the plantains) but not any of the other entrees. Service was mediocre as there was only one waitress working that night.

This place has good food but the service is way more than poor. My fiancé was bringing some co-​workers and I some food to my job since is too far for us to make the drive to and from and make it back to work in time. I asked my fiancé to ask for some plates. The cashier at the time said they did not have plates. My fiancé waited a while and decided to ask for a 2 extra to go boxes. This time it was a different employee and she kindly was going to give them to us until the first employee stepped in and said in a rude voice «i said we dont have any plates» my fiancé explained she wanted the boxes instead and the first employee said that they did not give extras.
I hate restaurant that are stingy and cheap. We ordered a total of 20 pupusas. U cant give us 2 extra boxes. Lame Place

We stumbled across La Caravana one night on our way to Altadena to visit Christmas Tree Lane. We weren’t sure what to expect because the neighborhood was a little ghetto. To our surprise the inside was decorated so nicely for Christmas! You could really tell that the owner took great care in decorating.
We decided on this please because the reviews were great for their pupusas! Our party of three was adventurous enough to try the pupusa platter, which consisted of 10 mini pupusas, one of each from the menu. They weren’t full size, but they weren’t exactly mini ones either!
We also tried the enchilada plate, which the El Salvadorian is more like a sope (shell with beans, cabbage/​lettuce, and choice of meat topping).
Their recommended chef entrées included a fried fish, which was kind of plain. The rice wasn’t bad though!
The tamarindo is my go to drink and it didn’t disappoint here either.
Overall the environment was nice, the food was decent, but the service was a little slow. if I came back in the area I think we would try this place again!
Unilocal 100 Challenge — 92 of 100

o9.26.14
I have been wanting to try this place for the past few months now because it was recommended by one of my classmates. He said this is what his home town makes and it is bomb! Hahaha. He’s so funny!
Since one of my friends asked me to dinner, I have threw this one out as one of the suggestions and let him pick. And I guess I got what I wanted. So I immediately text my friend on what I should order — Pupusas Revueltas was what he recommended. He said, two of these is much more than enough to get me full. Yea, I guess he doesn’t know how much I can eat.
So I ordered one of that and another is the chicken something. something with chicken and it comes with rice and beans? I think I have short-​term memory. Anyway, it was really delicious! I was super full but I still wanted to finish the chicken and rice. So I couldn’t even get dessert with my friend. Oh well, next time.
And next time, I need to ask my classmate to go with me. So he won’t throw this line at me again. «Not as good if I would have been there, that’s for sure.» Made me laugh.

I was recommended to come here to try their pupusas, so far this is the best place for them! I haven’t tried anything else in the menu since I come when I am craving pupusas.
The waitresses are also nice.

When I think of pupusas I think La Carvana! Never had Salvadorian food before so it was an eye opener when my neighbor told me about it. He said this place is second to his mom’s cooking but best place you will find here in Los Angeles.
There are 10 flavors of pupusas to choose from. Queso (cheese), chicharron (pork meat), ruveltas (pork, cheese and beans), frijoles con queso (beans with cheese), queso con loroco (cheese with loroco flowe), loca (pork meat, beans, cheese and loroco flower), pollo com queso (chicken and cheese), ayote con queso (zucchini and cheese), jalapeño con queso (jalapeño and cheese) and pepperoni con queso (pepperoni and cheese). They have they great deal where you can get 10 mini sampler pupusas for $ 12.95. That’s the best way to try them all. My favorites are the zucchini, jalapeño, loroco and ruveltas. All are made to order. It comes with this spicy cabbage and sauce. You have to pile everything on and then eat it. Their fried plantains are the perfect treat to end the meal.
Love this place!!! You can tell each pupusas is made with love here. I will be back to try their other items. Restaurant feels like home. It feels like you walk into someone’s home and their mom is cooking up a storm for you. Staff is always friendly. Only street parking is available. They accept credit cards. My work has called in orders before and we have never been disappointed with their pupusas.

This restaurant has a beautiful look! I love the interior design and the art!
The food is very good! They have an awesome crazy platter with a bit of great Salvadorian Foods-​such as chicharron con yuca, pupusa, platano, casimento, y mas! It is very delicious, big, and tasty!