El Chalateco Tropicana

Great pupusas… the only thing Is the parking sucks and it takes forever to get your food!!!

I have been here several times and they serve the best enchiladas in the area but today there was a flie inside one of the enchiladas. I did not have to pay for the food but they need to do something to keep flies out of the restaurant.

So disappointed. Place was packed but I had ordered to go. There was only one waitress and she was working her tail off, answering phone, serving food, working cash register and busting tables. I knew I was in trouble when I could see the grill was a mess and I could smell old oil. Cooks also had to serve food because waitress could not keep up, try as she did. My pupusas were horrible and beyond greasy. They had caked black grit all over them and were thin/​flat with little filling. Never going back there again. Would like to upload pictures of my pupusas but no luck right now.

Food was really good here. Service was on point too. The waitress took her time with us, we were very undecisive. We ended up getting a couple tacos and a plate of 3 empanadas. They were awesome! And only $ 14 out the door. Much less than I expected. Good for a quick fix!

Food is good but it takes to long to come out. If you are I’m a group some will get their food much earlier than others.

I have come to this location many times and I have never experienced such a bad service. I understand they were busy yesterday but it’s summer! Restaurants usually get busier! First off we got there, the waitress kept working by us, not even noticing us being there, after 5 minutes of them doing that I asked one of them, if it’s ok if we can sit outside, her respond was you can sit anywhere you like, till then she wasn’t even polite or noticing we were waiting for a few minutes. We sat down outside and nobody came to our table for about 15 minutes, a guy (who was in charge of making tacos outside) came very politely and ask us if someone helped us, we told him no, he apologized and brought us the menu right away, he came back and asked us if we were ready to order and we started with the drinks, he brought the drinks, and then one of he waitress came very rudely and asked us if we already order, we said yes, the guy who helped us first mentioned to the other waitress something and she came to approach us right away and asked us if we are ready to order food, we ordered our food, in the middle of our meal, she came and asked us if we needed something else while walking away, when we replied yes, she rolled her eyes and ask us what do we want, we ordered another round of drinks, and she seemed upset of doing her job, it was very disappointing, the guy from the tacos, came and asked us if the food and the drinks were good, I think he noticed how poor of service her co workers was giving that he was trying to make it up for these two waitress.
I called today to speak with a manager, whoever answer the phone told me that there is not manager in duty that her manager is in the office and she doesn’t feel to call her to the phone, if I want to leave a message, I asked her if the manager will be in later because I would like to speak to her, and she said well I don’t know.
This shows that there is not presence of manager and that is why the poor service towards customer. Sad but I am not coming back to this place.

Este lugar es muy pobre en servicio al cliente, además para entregar una orden tardaron 40 minutos, no recomiendo este lugar es una mala experiencia espero u alas personas que vengan los atiendan mejor y más rápido que ami …

This place is so good just like your in Mexico. If your in San Jose you have to stop buy this place you don’t want to miss out. The tacos de tripas are out of this world.

Most of the chalateco restaurants I’ve been don’t have the best service but this locations really has the worst by far. The food is great, however you can’t really enjoy your food when the waitresses mean mug you for no reason. If you don’t like your job then don’t work there!!!

This place is great, they never disappoint. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and deserts are all great.

If I give one start it’s only for the food, but the service it’s so bad!!!
Soy mesera y el servicio Aqui Esta super mal. En la ventana dice, «se solicita mesera con buena presentacion» lo que deverian poner no es la presentacion. Es una mesera con ganas de trabajar. Para que las quieren Bonitas o buen bestidas Si con eso no ayudan en nada.
Lunes, 25 de agosto a las 4:20pm 3 meseras. Las tres atras de la caja platicando y yo parada aver quien decia algo. Despues de UNOs segundos una se sintio obligada a preguntarme Si era para llevar.
Ya avia benido con mi Esposo una ves y fue lo mismo. El se termino su agua, la Mia y la mesera solo no se aserco a preguntar Si todo estaba bien. Cuando se acerco y le dijimos alguien le pregunto algo en la cosina y nos ignoro. Mis Esposo termino POR tomarse la de mi hija tambien.
La orden para llevar le pregunte que cuanto se tardaba y me dijo que de 8 – 10 mins la orden me salio a Los 20mins! Y solo avian dos mesas. Pero Los cosineros Muy bien platicando. Sera la ultima veZ que vengo Aqui. Tanta gente y Nadie hace nada.

This place is amazing. Its hard to make up your mind. Everything on the menu looks delicious. I go there almost every weekend!!! :-)

I don’t even know where to start, let me tell you it was BAD.
I’m usually very understanding and considerate towards any establishment that I dine at and I never really give one star. For me, that’s like rock bottom.
I was planning on going to Olive Garden with my niece after running errands. My last errand was right next to this place and I guess I was so hungry and was feeling some authentic Mexican food. We came here walked in and we seated ourselves. A waitress approached us, gave us menus. Did I mention? She gave us the menu and didn’t even give us a second to look over the menu, she stood there and stared at us (looking super impatient). Like seriously? We didn’t even open our menus yet! Finally, I told her we weren’t ready and once I was ready I would go up order at the counter and pay while I’m at it.
We ordered the quesadilla and quesadilla de Gus or something like that. And a large drink. Our total came out to be 34.56 $ WTH!!! I was shocked but I was like whatever. I sat down and looked at the menu again, took out my iPhone and did my own calculations. The total that I came up with was $ 19.17! I returned to the counter and asked for a receipt, I forgot to mention this lady and everyone here knows NO ENGLISH and the one girl that was translating for me was givin me dirty looks, anyways so I asked for a receipt and she gave it to me, I looked at it and she charged me for food I didn’t even order. I pointed to her all the food she charged me for and she rolled her eyes and said sorry and gave me back the difference. Thanks for the additude after making a mistake and getting mad that I pointed it out.
Food came out, tasted like I ordered cardboard.
Never stepping foot in here again.

I really like that they’re menu is so extensive and includes pictures for every item. The waitresses are really nice and attentive, but I may be biased since I speak Spanish. :p
I usually order pupusas when I come here. The revuelta is greasier than I would prefer, but it doesn’t detract from the taste. I’ve also tried their calabaza pupusa, which mostly tastes like cheese. Unfortunately, their curtido is really dry and lacking in that tart pickled flavor, so I don’t really bother eating it. Overall, I recommend this place if you’re looking to satisfy your pupusa craving.
Another thing I’ve recently tried is their huarache and wow, it was so good! The meat (al pastor) was seasoned just right and all of the toppings came together so perfectly. I think that might be my new go-​to from now on.

I came here with pretty high expectations since this restaurant is right smack in the Mexican shopping plaza. When I stepped in I thought, hm there’s a lot of people in here, this must be a great spot! Sadly, it fell really short of my expectations.
The only thing I really liked was that they gave us free salsa and chips, and I thought the salsa was pretty good. My sister and I decided to go stay safe and stick with a carne asada burrito, marinated pork gordita, and a chicken tamale. The burrito wasn’t very appetizing it was kind of f putting to be honest. You could barely taste the meat. Gordita was probably the best thing we ordered. The meat was tasty. But oh man, that tamale was so bad. It was really really soggy. The consistency was similar to that of mashed potatoes, and or mush. I mean, I don’t know if this is how authentic Mexican food should be? But I’ve had homemade tamales before and it was BOMB​.COM. These tamales were very disappointing.
Anyway, service was okay and there’s a lot more stuff on the menu, but I doubt I’ll be back anytime soon.

ehhhhhhhh not bad, my girlfriend took me here to try the Pupusas’ here because she had a vision of eating some & i’m on this phase where all I want to eat are Tacos, so why not?
First, the place is crowded and loud, not a good place to talk, chips & salsa on the house while you wait and they’re pretty good actually. I ordered 3 tacos because I wanted to keep room for my Pupusa, it’s $ 3.98 for 3 tacos, but they have a deal for 5 tacos for $ 5 bucks, I pulled a noob moved. And the tacos were really small. I could eat at least 10 of em, G. Anyways the Pupusa was aiteeee, it was kinda greasy but sometimes you just need that greasy sht lol.
Overall, it’s not that bad, will I come back? Sure, would I recommend? nah.
Also it’s CASH ONLY! I know i’m not the only one who hate ATM fee’s so bring cash.

I’ve tried several papusa spots and always ending up coming back to Chalateco. The food is great, nice size portions and reasonably priced
Their salsa had a great flavor with a little kick. I start out with a huge glass of their fruit water. It had amazing flavor and big chunks of fresh fruit
My favorite papusa is the combination with A heaping amount of cabbage. All the flavors are on point.

The prices on some food items has gone up and at the same time the quality has gone down. The service is good and the bean and cheese papussa are still good.
dont try the chick plate that is frozen chicken deep fried and served hard and dry.

This be the spot for papusas and alambres
Pork and cheese papusa, pastor gordita, or pastor alambres
get any of the above 3 and you wont be disappointed.
nuff said

I love coming here late night when I have those cravings for something very cheesy. I love the papusas here. sooo good. The first time we came here I also got the chicken tamale and I never had so much more meat than the corn bread part. It was actually more meat. So, this time i tried the pork tamale, which was the same. more meat than the corn bread part. I tasted tamales from those street vendors (vendors; the ones that stand outside their car in a parking lot yelling tamales) and it tasted like a typical tamale. Here, you get the best tasting outside with so much flavor that it’s good without the meat. All together the tamale is on hit.
The place is fairly big and the waiters here are very fast and friendly. I think this place is better than a typical place.

Came here once and never again. It’s located in a very crowded and busy area. I came here with high expectations. I really thought this place was gonna be good. Food was bland and a little bit too expensive. Service was horrible. It was like they judged me just because I was asian. At least that was how they made me felt when I was there. It was a chore for them to take our order.
Never coming back.