Restaurant El Salvadoreño

Accidentally found this gem while out running errands. We had 4 pupusas: Chile Verde, Carne Asada, Flower bud w/​cheese & Pollo. Boyfriend said he wouldn’t get the flowers one again as he doesn’t like floral tasting fried food, but it didn’t slow him down from devouring the whole thing in 15 seconds flat haha! Next time when we have more time to scour the menu, we’ll try other types, but this is the kind of place we are willing to drive the 45 minutes into town for! LOVE

Massive portions of food. Had the fresh watermelon fruit juice. Our server was friendly. The place may be a little difficult to find the first time since it’s hidden off the main road, but worth a stop in.

Awesome pupusas! The staff is great, it’s located inside a hotel. The ventilation is poor and there is obvious damage to the ceiling, the bathroom should be avoided. But the food and the staff are great! Very reasonably priced.

Prior to taking a vacation to New Mexico, I had to scope out the restaurants in Santa Fe. This one instantly caught my eye… something new! We had never had Salvadoran food before we came here.
Thank goodness for Unilocal.We probably never would’ve done this without the favorable reviews I found here. I doubt we would have been brave enough to venture into a restaurant within the Day’s Inn without some kind of outside reference.
The place is nicely painted; it’s got a lot of El Salvador-​related décor. We came for dinner fairly early, so there were very few other people in there… it was a little awkward, because it was so quiet. There was no music or anything. Let’s just say you come here for the food, not the ambiance.
The aguas frescas were pretty good. My dad’s cantaloupe one was a little too strong for me, but I enjoyed the jamaica.
We each ordered two different kinds of pupusas… why else come here, if not for those? It even says «PUPUSERÍA» on the side of the building. I had revuelta and pescado, my mom had revuelta and zucchini, and my dad had a meat one and one with flowers in it that I can’t recall the names of. I’ll just review each item briefly for simplicity.
— Revuelta: Two thumbs way up. DELICIOUS. Best thing we ordered. I wish I had gotten more of them.
— Pescado: I don’t know what I really expected getting tilapia this far from the ocean. It was okay. nothing to cry home about. Better with the tomato sauce they gave us.
— Zucchini: I’m not a fan of zucchini, so I didn’t try this one, but my mom said it was delicious. She thought it was even better than the revuelta.
— Flower one: My dad said it was good, but you could really only taste the cheese and not the flowers.
— Other meat one: It was pretty good. Not as good as the revuelta.
We also ordered some plantains (which were apparently almost $ 9…yikes! Everything else was cheap besides the drinks). They weren’t very good, to be honest. They were the only thing we had that we didn’t like. Some of the other stuff was just okay, but not bad… these were kinda bad. (We kinda think they were just bananas… they were sweet.)
So, this little hole in the wall gets a 4 star because the revuelta was AWESOME, and the zucchini and other meat one. The other pupusas were good as well, just not as good… if they had been downright bad, this might have been a 3 star. If you go here, just get the revuelta… best thing on the menu, as far as what we ordered.

My actual rating is about a 3.5. They get points for having homemade chips and really tasty cantaloupe agua fresca. The pupusas and tamales were really just average though. I prefer the pupusas at Tuneup Café but I like that they have a few different options. They had univision on and the place has no ambience to speak of (though they have art for sale on the walls that is interesting to look at). Service was fine, we just weren’t wowed by the food. The prices were quite reasonable though so that is where the half-​star extra comes from. I have to round down though because my husband didn’t see the need to return.
The place is part of the Days Inn, if you are having trouble finding them.

Great value for the money, big portion size, I had fish plate and my husband steak plate. Very basic good food, nothing special

This place is awesome. If you are looking for Tex-​Mex this is not the place for you, but, the food is outstanding. We had pupusas… not ever having had them… and wow were we happy. We also had the steak ranchero and the spice used is incredible. Again, not tex-mex…but absolutely tasty.
We had the revuelta, loroco, and chili verde pupusas. Perfect heat on the chile verde, and, the loroco (which was ordered just to see what it would be like) was quite tasty. The revuelta was delicious as well.
If you are looking for something different, and better than the usual, this is the place. I wanted to try the green chile burger but was so stuffed that there was no way that was going to happen. I’m an eater and had 3… it was more than enough!
We stayed at the hotel and got it to go. A lot of other reviewers said the service was slow but they told me 15 – 20 minutes and it was right on time.
I would love to try their pork with their green chile and cheese but that one doesn’t exist. No regrets at all… not one!
You want tacos… there are plenty of taco places close by. But, if you want something unique, this is the place. Crazy good.

Food is always fresh and delicious. Pupusas, platanos, and tamales are outstanding. Breakfast served all day. We love it.

Hands down, the BEST pupusas I’ve ever eaten!!! I had the pupusas revueltas, with beans, cheese and pork. The cabbage garnish and homemade sauce, also delicious, and incredibly flavorful. You could tell that it was all being prepated feshly. I quite literally cleaned my plate. The waitress was very friendly, and given that I had shown up right when they were trying to close on a holiday, they were very nice to still serve me some food. Relaxed, comfortable atmosphere. Try not to be fooled by the outward appearance of this joint, it’s more than worth venturing inside. I will definitely be coming back here again.

This is it folks. The classic hole in the wall, sketchy at first, surprising and excellent at last. For 8 o’clock on a Sunday night in this town, this place rules. The famous tamales are unbelievably delicious. If I have the time, I will offer them free website development because this town was made famous by little restaurants like this. Two thumbs up.

Wow, it’s a simple and kind of dumpy place, but the food is wonderful! We almost didn’t go in because it’s in a motel. That would have been a mistake. The cook really knows what he is doing. Give it a try.

If you are a snob and the décor is important to you don’t eat here. This is not a fancy Old Town eatery. But if you enjoy very good food, lots of it and want a change defiantly go here. We ate here on our last trip to Santa Fe. We both ordered the fried shrimp plate. It wasn’t that breaded stuff we have come to expect. It was so good I can’t even describe how good it was. Cooked to perfection, lightly seasoned. I didn’t count the shrimp but it wasn’t the customary 6 little ones we are use to. On the plate also was a green salad, very good beans, yummy white rice and very tasty fries (I don’t much like fries). We also ordered on the side a chicken tamale and cheese and spinach pupusa. The tamale was one of the best I have ever had, bigger and better masa than a Mexican tamale. We also ordered a loroco to go, just had to try one, it too was very good. I will say I didn’t care for the shredded red cabbage dish, it reminded me of kim chee and was to spicy for me. Food was all fresh and tasted home made. We had a bit of a problem finding the restraunt, didn’t know it was in the same building as the Days Inn, so look for the Days Inn and it is easy to find.

I’d been meaning to come here since the first time I came to visit Man Candy’s home town of Santa Fe. I’m not gonna lie — initially the draw for me was that the name made me giggle a lot. So I went and looked up with a pupusa was on wikipedia, and I knew I had to try it.
Back in San Diego, we hunted down this little Salvadoran restaurant that had arepas, which are very similar to pupusas (but use a different kind of masa) and tried them out. They were delicious! I knew I had to finally make it into this place when I was back in Santa Fe.
Fast forward like a year and we finally made it. Since the arepas we’d had in san diego were on the small side, we ordered 2 pupusas each and a side of fried plantains.
They were HUGE! The kitchen staff made them super fresh for us, since we were there at a weird hour and were the only ones around. They came to our table steaming hot. We’d gotten a loroco pupusa, beef, zucchini, and a revuelta, which I think is the most traditional. They were served with curtido, which is a bright pink latin version of sauerkraut, but not as strongly flavored. The revuelta was RIDICULOUSLY good. Like fall out of your chair good. I thought the arepas we’d had in san diego were good. I was wrong.
Anyway, so lets just say that this place is serving up some BOMB food. It’s amazing. It’s huge. The service is super friendly, if a teeny bit slow (but I have a feeling that’s cuz we came at a weird time). I can’t wait to come back to fill up on delicious Salvadoran food. I can’t wait to try something else there!

He says: I don’t recall having Salvadoran food before, so I am by no means an expert on Pupusas or Tamales. With that said, I can tell you that this is some great grub. This place in Santa Fe is an offshoot from another one in Albuquerque and was being managed by a US military vet (Eddie?) which wins a few bonus points in my book. Ordered green chile, shredded beef, spinach, loroco (a flower), and shrimp pupusas plus some Salvadoran chicken tamales.
Pros– Salvadoran chicken tamales were ridiculously good. Wonderful masa inside, great seasonings. Green chile tamales were awesome and I liked all the others very well.
Cons– Having never had pupusas before, we ordered an unnecessary amount of food (easily two meals worth). Also, the salsa was a watery and a bit bland.
She says: Best masa-​based food I have ever eaten (and I’m an avid consumer of Mexican-​Mexican), hands down. How do they make cornmeal taste so heavenly and delicious?
The Salvadoran tamale was very flavorful, hearty, and generously stuffed — the masa was moist/​supple and soaked up the delicious juice of the stuffing — it was like eating the best hybrid grandma-​cooking of stewed chicken and polenta. You could taste the love, and you definitely would love the taste. Delicious with the pickled cabbage salad (curtido).
Pupusas were also delicious. Piping hot, lovingly grilled, stuffed pancake-​like rounds. Highly recommend beef, green chile, and loroco (very subtle, to me almost broccoli rabe-​like flower).

Best pupusas in Santa Fe. I can’t say that i’m super familiar with El Salvadorian food, but I can say that I like everything i’ve had here. There’s a chicken in «white sauce» dish that is really tasty and the fried yucca is really good too. As for the pupusas, they’re the best i’ve had (I will note that i’ve only had them at two other places).
On top of all the food being very tasty, this place is quite inexpensive.

We’ve eaten here a few times now. The décor is pretty sparse– painted cinderblock, with the word bathroom sign stenciled on the wall with a directional arrow and colorful towels promoting El Salvadorean tourism– all contribute to helping transport one from the foodie snobbery that permeates some Santa Fe restaurants. We always get the pupusas, so I can’t really address the other menu items. The pupusas are made to order, so you can specify whether you want queso, or do what I do and build from scratch (beans and calabacitas– yummy). I’m afraid to ask about whether they put lard in the beans, one can only assume, I guess. The licuados are awesome. Very kid friendly, very affordable, and really good food. I’ve never been to El Salvador, but my husband has and he gives it the two thumbs up. Next time I’m going to try the fried plantains– another item that is hard to come by in many NM restaurants.
Also, this is amazingly low-​priced. I guess what they didn’t spend on décor goes into the food– we fed three adults and two kids for $ 30.00. Can’t beat that!

I have been to El Salvador and am a big fan of some of the cuisine of El Salvador. This place serves a good variety of Salvadorean food. The owner is from El Salvador, he has a couple restaurants with the same name in Albuquerque one of which I have been to many times, and recently opened a Santa Fe branch, which I decided to try. This is the real deal. The most well known Salvadorean dish is a «pupusa», which is a very thick handmade corn tortilla filled with white cheese and/​or beans and/​or fried pork which has been ground down to a paste (called chicharon in El Salvador, different from the fried pork rind referred to as chicharon in New Mexico) and/​or vegetables such as squash or the bud of a flowering vine native to El Salvador called loroco (which is really good!!) Pupusas are typically served with curtido (lightly fermented cabbage slaw with red chilies and vinegar) and a watery tomato salsa or hot sauce. I recommend you try «pupusa de queso con loroco», the cheese and loroco flower bud pupusa. chicharon is good to. all are good. Also, there are other Salvadorean dishes like fried plantain with sour cream, fried yucca, very tasty Salvadorean style fruit shakes (licuados), and such that you can try… And if I recall correctly they a soda from El Salvador called Cola Champagne, which has an interesting taste. You will find significantly better Salvadorean food in Los Angeles or Houston (and obviously what I tried in El Salvador was much, much better), but in New Mexico this is as good as it gets. The Red Enchilada, down the street, also has good pupusas and some other Salvadorean style dishes. I recommend checking them both out…

Awesome pupusas of every flavor. Being meat lovers we focused on those but also tried the green chili as well as one that had a flower in it. All were awesome and came with all the accoutrements. The green chili is definitely hotter than many green chili dishes we’ve had so be aware and we have to say that the one with the flower in it was our favorite. 2 was plenty for an adult though we admittedly over indulged then spent the day trying to walk it off. In a city as beautiful as Santa Fe though, it’s not hard to do.