El Carbonero Restaurant

This was the place to go when I was craving popusas. The food was delicious and the prices are very reasonable… until I found a cockroach in the cabbage topping for the popusas. We advised the manager and she pretty much said that it was my environment and not her establishment. Never going back again!

Terrible pupusas. I am a pupusa lover and these were the worst I’ve had in a looong time… 0.2 stars.

DO NOT GO HERE unless you feel like waiting 15 minutes to be greeted, 30 mins just to get three pupusas and another 40 minutes to get soup. The pupusas were bomb, but totally not worth the wait. We ordered two siete mares bowls of soup, but left before it came to the table because we were waiting about 25 minutes after receiving our pupusas. The service was awful and let me add that there were only four other tables in the restaurant with us – so the wait time for food should not have been that long. I understand the pupusas are handmade, I’ll give them that, but come on, another 30+ minutes for soup? And one of the ladies had the nerve to give us a sob story of how the server will have to pay for the soup that we ordered since we were deciding to leave. Not my problem; we paid for our beverages and three pupusas and left. We never complain nor do I ever write bad reviews since we both used to be servers and were in the industry for years, but this must have been the worst dining experience. Don’t come here unless you’ve had a pre-​meal and/​or you phone your order in.

The pupusas are good the reason I’m giving them one star is for the waitresses shitty attitude is like they all got menopause at the same time I always order a pupusa with cheese n jalapeño which is not in the menu they have always made but today the waitress we got refuse make my order she said their was no jalapeño pupusa

Been going here almost my whole life. Love love love the popusas horchata is to die for and the Yuka is amazing but never fails service is crap. The workers there are incredibly rude take forever don’t smile literally sickens me how unprofessional they are but the food there is worth the stress of having to deal with them I think that’s the only reason why people go, it’s definitely not because they treat you like family the minute you walk in, like a little hole in the wall should.

I ordered my food ahead by phone so I can just get there and eat it. Made the order at 11:30am. I was told it would be ready in 15mins. Got there at 11:45am and didn’t end up getting my food till 12:10pm. The place was empty, it was on a Friday. Took them 40mins to get my food. Should of just gone somewhere else.

This restaurant is just minutes away from Disneyland and Santa Ana Zoo and so worth the trip.
Food is plentiful. The favorites of my dining party included Tostado de Camaron, Caldo de Pallo (a chock full of vegetables chicken soup), Camaron a La Plancha and Platano Frito.
Service is fine, English is limited and I wonder if some reviewers took that as rude, as all that I experienced was smiling faces anxious to help. All the food is prepared fresh by the owner, Maria, so if you are looking for fast you may want to keep moving along. If you are looking for quality home cooking then order a beer and enjoy.
Come hungry, bring cash (no credit cards) and prepared to be blown away by the delicious food and the very reasonable prices.

Cash only — bring $ or they have an ATM you can use.
It was my first time to try Salvadoran cuisine and I pleasantly surprised! You have to try the tamales — the best. They are wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husk which keeps them very moist and yummy. Yuca Frita, Ceviche, Shrimp entrée, etc. all excellent.

Explore the different & delicious flavors of El Salvador! The owner prepares her own authentic dishes that will make your mouth water. I recommend the chicken tamales, caldo de pollo and camaron a la plancha. Try their pineapple water too! This location only accepts cash, but they have an ATM inside.
Keep in mind that she makes everything in house so the service may take a while. Good home cooking takes a while. If you want fast food, there’s a Mcdonald’s down the street. #justsaying

The only reason i am giving it 2 stars is because the food is always delicious. But i only get the popusas! I had a chicken soup from there once and i got food poisoning. Horrible service… I stopped going there, it’s just not worth it anymore. All and i mean all the waitresses are horrible, rude, and unfriendly. Don’t believe me, stop by!

Waitresss was really rude. They took almost one hour for our food i asked the waitress that i wanted to take out food she said nooo cause it was going to take more than an hour to get out food. This restaurant sucks…

This is the worst restaurant I’ve ever been to. The pupusas took an hour to get to the table and they were cold when they got there. I’m from El Salvador, so i know what they are supposed to taste like. These pupusas are bland and cold. The condiments were no better. Then we still had to wait 15 more minutes to get our fried Platines. They didn’t even use the right type of beans! They use pinto beans! Our seafood soup came in 15 minutes later, and no tortillas were brought. Waitress was not courteous. My mother got up to pay for the check, only to get yelled at the waitress for wanting to pay at the counter. I wasted $ 45 here and I will not be coming back ever. I would give zero stars if possible.

The food was ok. I’ve had popusas from a grocery store & they were a lil better than the ones here. the waiting time here was soo long. I probably won’t be back.

Food is alright nothing special but their service is the worst I’ve seen! My food took like almost an hour to arrive and when I asked for assistance, they give me this rude look. Rude people working there!

I’ve been coming to this place since I was a kid. I usually order to go because the service is the worst ever!!! The waitresses are rude and obviously hate their job. It’s obvious that the owner doesn’t care or else he’d get rid of these bitter women! One star solely for the food.

I’ve been here for 5 minutes and service already sucks. The lady was SO rude and just seemed like WE were bothering her. One word starts with a B and ends with ITCH. WOW! I haven’t even had the food yet and know I won’t be coming back here again

This place has great food but the ladies here suck!!! They’re so rude… I check was 16 $ I asked her for four sodas (can ones) and she charged me another 8 $…

I’m giving it 2 stars solely basing it on the food. The service was horrible! Waitress was beyond rude. There was 11 people in our party and I don’t think any of us will return due to the horrible service!

DISCRIMINACION Y PESIMO SERVICIO. 15 minutos para tomar la orden y casi una hora para que la trajeran a la mesa. Como a la media hora despues de ordenar, llego una pareja con 2 niños. (salvadoreños), rapido los y les trajeron la orden antes que a nosotros (mexicanos). No nos dieron cubiertos, Ami esposo, no le dieron cuchara para el caldo, en nigun momento se acercaron a la mesa a preguntar si se nos ofrecia algo, con los salvadoreños vinieron 2 veces a preguntar si se les ofrecia algo mas. 2 veces le pregunte x una cajita para llevar y como no venian, fui a la caja registradora y le pregunte a la mesera, cuanto se tardan en hacerme 1 pupusa mas¿ No me dejo terminar la frase, me dijo, NO, quise hablar otra vez y me dijo, NO, apenas le iva a contestar de mala manera, cuando la otra mesera me dice, ya cerramos. eran las 9:30 y cierran a las 10:00 .La mesera no sonrio en ningun momento. No tenian cambio, .cuando llegamos habia como 3 o 4 clientes nada mas. La proxima vez que quiera pupusas, voy a ir al negocio de al lado, parece que ahi si atienden rapido, son amables y no DISCRIMINAN. NO LES RECOMIENDO QUE VAYAN, PERO SI VAN, QUE NO LOS ATIENDA LA MESERA GORDA, CHAPARRA Y DE PELO MUY CORTO… (CREEN USTEDES QUE SE MERECE PROPINA ESA MESERA’?)

This place is a NO GO for Pupusas!!!
The only reason i even gave it a star was because the service was good! I am 100% SALVADOREÑA these Pupusas give us Salvys a bad name! They looked fried! Masa is way over cooked. Chicharon does not taste anywhere near chicharon. My husband is Mexican and even he knows what they are suppose to look and taste like. He said and I have to agree they looked like FRIED GORDITAS! Not only that the drinks are CANNED, so refills are a NO GO as well.
Sorry Carbonero this is the dish we are known for and you guys really did not come through with presenting our main dish !

A great hole-​in-​the-​wall most popular for their pupusas, which is a traditional Salvadorean dish. The second you step inside, it’s like you’re transported to El Salvador with pictorials of the countryside and large farms. My friend was adamant in taking me here to try their pupusas, as she attested to the fact that they taste just like how they make it back at home in El Salvador.
Pork pupusa — They offer a lot of different variations of pupusas but alas, my eyes were set on pork. Pupusas look like plain tortillas but they’re typically filled with cheese, refried beans, and whatever meat you want. The pupusas here looked to be made with corn flour. Mine came out looking like a bloated corn tortilla, filled with a thin layer of cheese and lots of shredded pork. There wasn’t much flavor to the pupusa itself aside from the natural flavors from the pork. It had little to no oil, and the cheese wasn’t all that greasy.
To fully enjoy what the pupusa has to offer, make sure you dress it with some curtido. It’s a lightly fermented cabbage relish that consists of cabbage and carrots. It has a bit of a tang, which leads me to believe they use lime juice.
Chicken Tamale — Shredded chicken encased in a mushy corn dough, shaped into a burrito. One of the better tamales I’ve ever tasted because the meat portion was more than a typical tamale.
The place is cash only so make sure you come prepared!