Chalateco

Chalateco was recently closed and replaced with El Amigo Mexican Grill. Completely remodeled and much cleaner. Great food and so much better to chow down in a clean facility. Check it out!

I used to love coming here for pupusas and plantains (Keep It Simple Sweetie). Either they are moving or are closed.

I don’t know how this one is owned by the same owner, that might the other ones in the area, but the one in Santa Clara was less than exceptional. The one in Sunnyvale and San Jose kick five stars of the chart! This place should only be eaten if you’re drunk!

Service was good but food was poor.

After many dialogue about Latin Cuisines with my officemate, Chalateco was recommended for serving some of the unique foods we discussed. I came here for my first exposure to Salvadorian/​Honduran cuisine to experience the staple food, such as the pupusas, yuca con chicharron, and plantanos maduras fritos. I have to say, I love the pupusas! A freshly-​made quesadilla-​type of looking food, with many choices of filling, from cheese, meats, beans, or shrimp. This stuff is made on the spot from scratch, as you literally hear the guy slapping this corn tortilla into shape behind the counter. As I would say, any food that is made with love will taste great. Definitely, come here for the pupusas!

I’ve been here about 5 times. All 5 times the service has been horrible. They can never get the orders right and last time they just forgot about our order, leaving us sitting in the restaurant like idiots. The food is not bad, I would say average.

Cash only
Tiny burrito
Basic salsa
Chips nothing great
One small can of sprite 1.75

Five stars because of the amazing pupusas! It’s difficult to find decent Latin cuisine in the South Bay but chalateco is great. Dining atmosphere isn’t the best but the food is worth it!

I’ve only had good experiences here. The food is amazing and comes out pretty quick. The prices are reasonable. The staff have always been very polite.

Just left this place and had a horrible experience. There was a fly in my drink! I ordered an agua de fruta and they replaced it with a new drink (which they poured from the same container that they poured my 1^st drink from w/​the fly)
The waitress got our order wrong. We ordered 2 pupusas w/​cheese and chicharron and 2 pupusas revueltas and they gave us 3 revueltas and 2 cheese. We didnt bother to correct the order because the waitress looked annoyed with us.
When it was time to pay I told the cashier I needed to split the check three ways and he got mad! The nerve he had being that we found a fly in our drink and received a wrong order! I would give this place 0 stars if I could. Never coming here again.

They changed their method of payment to cash only with an on-​site ATM.
I handle our company’s 100+ million dollar merchant services account for work and I know how this game is played. If they were really concerned about credit card fees, there’s tons of ways to get that fee reduced. It’s only about how many cents and how many basis points. You can do debit card only for example to keep it really simple.
I’m surprised a mature business steps up their game in the tax evasion department and punishes customers.
I’ve been a fan of this place since 2004. Wow, a decade.
No more.
Good luck.

The food was pretty decent. Got the chilquiles and it was good but the sauce was too bitter. Tasted like taco sauce. The service was alright. Nice little place tho and clean restrooms.

I was not expecting a sit down restaurant because I’m used to getting tacos from a truck or picking it up at the counter myself. The salsa for the chips was good but I bit into a bad chip near the end, ruining the chips and salsa experience.
The menu was really overwhelming. I think it needs to be better organized. I thought the prices were a bit expensive for tacos, so I was expecting something more than what we actually got. My boyfriend and I ordered shrimp tacos and a lengua taco. They were just mediocre. I also asked for radishes for my tacos and the lady came back with an unknown white sauce that might be horseradish.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled with delicious, cheap taco trucks in LA but I don’t think I will be coming back.

I had driven past this bright yellow place who knows how many times and each time I told myself I wanted to try it out. Today, I wish I had kept driving.
The minute I walked in and nobody informed me to seat myself, wait in line or do the Macarena I knew I was in for an interesting lunch. I just kinda stood around wondering what to do until I finally saw someone else walk in, grab a menu and seat themselves. Okay, it’s one of those kinda places. I grab one of the old, beat up, sticky menus and grab a seat. I’ve had outstanding food from places like this before so I still had hope.
After a short wait some dude that looked like the cook asked me if I wanted something to drink. Ordered an iced tea. They don’t have it. No biggie, just an ice water then. Never saw him again. Ever.
A few minutes later the waitress asks if I’m ready to order. Told her I was and that I would like a chile verde burrito, a side of beans and cheese and I wasn’t sure if chips & salsa were complimentary so I ordered them too. Now, anytime I order a burrito from anywhere I always get it with no rice. Rice doesn’t belong in a burrito. Period. It’s nothing more than an inexpensive filler to make your burrito look bigger than it actually is. It’s also a test to the establishment if they are going to turn a normal sized burrito into mini burrito without all the cheapo fluff.
Not long after ordering I received my small portion of overcooked chips and my chipped bowl of what tasted like jarred salsa. Any hopes of this being a diamond in the rough are officially gone. I knew my meal was doomed.
When I received my burrito it initially passed the size test visually. It didn’t appear they had skimped out even though it had no rice in it. That was until I started eating it. They found a clever way around the size test by substituting one cheap filler for another. What I got was a lettuce burrito. So much lettuce that I couldn’t taste any of the other ingredients. I was forced to drown it with my side of beans and jarred salsa just to get some flavor in it. Such a disappointment.
Chalateco? More like Chalasucko.

I went to the place on my lunch w my girlfriends, are original location Ike’s sandwiches had a line out the door and we were on a bit of a time crunch. We’re an open minded group of people so we decided to try this place.
This place was awful from the moment I walked in the door, I was approached (not greeted) by a angry young girl w no costumer service what so ever. She pointed to a table and stated «I guess you can sit there» I just laughed and helped myself to a seat. 15min go by before she approaches our table and her first statement is «you can’t split checks, it’s a rule we have» I laughed again, this girl obviously did not want to serve us. After a few words were exchanged between the hired help and the girls I was with, she walks away from our table then quickly returns and decided that she will be able to accommodate individual checks.
she made no eye contact, rolled her eyes, ignored us, & was being very catty to the girls I was with. The food was less then basic, the atmosphere was dirty. But that girl needs to be let go she’s doing no one any favors with her disgusting attitude.
#Yourewelcome

Ordered Bistec Salvadoreño, Not good. Beef was so tough and so little of it had to go eat somewhere else afterwards. Stick with the pupusas and burritos.
Worst beef dish I ever had. Flavors not balanced, just salty. beans with salty cheese; salad from the standard prepackaged salad mix.
Not worth the trip back.

One of our favorite spots. been coming here for years! Next to Santa Clara University. Mix of Mexi & Salvadorian food… always delicious. Place os a whole in the wall but food is great!

Went to have lunch with my Unilocal BFF today and she picked this place for papusas. First off you can’t miss the building if you’re driving on the street looking for this place, it’s a bright a orange and red! It just screams «here I am!»
So it was a hot day, I first have a big ol glass if icy cold Horchata! Deliciously refreshing. I have one cheese papusa and 2 tacos. The food is very good. The papusa was filled with hit gooey cheese, the dough is thin and not too thick which is perfect.
The taco meet was seasoned perfect and had tons of flavor! I had a beef taco and al pastor I think it’s called.
A good place for some good eats!

CABO withdrawals = Late night Mexican food craving!
I had a really bad craving for tacos after work, which lead me to this Chalateco location! It’s a little tricky getting here, but I like that they are open till 11PM! The hostess was really friendly and welcoming. They have a HUGE menu, and it has pictures (very helpful to a first timer like myself).
FOOD & DRINKS
— — — — — — — — — —
— Horchatta — ADDICTING! I almost finished a cup while waiting for my to-​go order!
— Lengua Tacos — A must have!!! The first bite into this taco took me back to when my friends and I bought some legit taco from a taco stand in downtown Cabo after clubbing! *droooolsss*
— Quesadilla de Gus — They give you different options for thhis quesadilla. I believe theres cheese, chicken, and potato and cheese (?). I got the one with potato, and it was good. It sorta reminded me of an upgraded and more expensive version of Jack in the Box tacos (not that it’s a bad thing).
— — — — — — — — — —
The wait can take long, but it wasn’t terrible since I had my horchatta to sip on!

I was craving pupusas so we found ourselves here. Love that they have pictures on the menu so you can see what you will order (especially for my the Canadian who didn’t read a lick of Spanish).
What I swallowed:
GUACAMOLE (2 stars): I am not sure if the avocado just wasn’t in season as this was like a chopped avocado salad. Everything in here was chopped and it didn’t taste smooth like guacamole. I like avocado chunks in my guac but this was all straight up chopped squares of ingreadients.
YUCA CON CHICARRON (4 stars): I saw the picture of this on the menu and had to order it. The yuca was perfectly fried and was really soft in the middle with perfectly crispy edges, not too greasy eaither. The chicharron was pleasantly fried as well but had some bigger fatty bits in it. Overall I liked this dish, but seemed like the pork to yuca ratio was a bit off. Way too much yuca compared to pork. Still good nonetheless.
PUPUSAS: CHICARRON CON QUESO (3.50 stars): These pupusas were good although I thought could use a bit more salt or something in the middle. The curtido was very tastey and not too runny although it needed a bit of heat, even though it had red pepper flakes in it, even my preggo tummy couldn’t taste the heat and had to add a bit of Tapatio to it. It was delicious nonetheless. I think Sabor Salvadoreno has better pupusas but this place runs a close second, also just ‘cuz there are so many other things to try on their menu that Sabor doesn’t have.
This place was decent. They’re close to the pad so I’d come here based on mere location if I was craving pupusas.