Tita’s Pupuseria

Great food. Family friendly. We stopped here on a road trip and will definitely be back

This place is always a stop when driving to or from LA. Good food, nice people and good prices.

Great pupusas! We stopped here by accident and, wow, what a great find. At first we thought the prices were high, so the five of us in my traveling group decided to share three plates. It turns out the plates are huge, so the prices now seem well justified. The pupusas were very good. Try this place out if passing by on I-​5.

Mm mm. Definitely recommend this place when you are in the middle of nowhere on the 5 freeway.

This review is based on our brief experience and not on the food itself.
We purchased two coupons from
the week prior to our visit. When we arrived, we were told they are no longer accepted.
We explained that we had just bought the coupons that very week. Why are they still selling them if they are no longer honored? At this point, the cashier «helpfully» moved a poster on the wall, revealing a hidden hand written sign that says, to the affect, «we are no longer accepting online coupons». You know, because it must make perfect sense if it’s posted on the wall.
We then asked if we can at least get the money we spent on the coupon back, since they’re now worthless. «No, because don’t honor them anymore.» Oh, okay.
During the whole exchange, we did not receive a single apology. The cashiers couldn’t have been bothered by the situation. We will be filing a complaint with
against this establishment. Be warned that your online coupons will NOT be honored, and be prepared for a healthy dose of «you’re SOL» treatment

Pupusas have been one of my favorite foods since I was five. I discovered this gem on my way down to San Diego last year and have made a point of stopping here on every subsequent roadtrip, in both directions.
The pupusas are hand-​made to order and come piping hot. I love the revuelta (pork and cheese). The outside is crisp and the inside is melty gooey porky perfection.
The dipping sauce that comes with is more flavorful than spicy, but the chili cabbage slaw brings a little heat. It’s a nice accompaniment– crunchy, acidic, and spicy. Kinda makes me think of a mexican kimchi.
Do not miss Tita’s!

We have stopped by here on our way back from Oregon twice now. Their pupusas are SOOO DELICIOUS! The first time we togo-​ed our order from the store. We got the cheese, pork and chicken pupusas and MMM MMMMMMM so good! On our second visit, we had to order from the truck. The store sign says they are open until 11pm but it was closed before 10pm. oh bummer. The pupuas from the truck wasn’t as good as the ones I got at the store, but still delicious. We also tried their asada tacos (nothing special) and their pork carnitas burritos (pretty goood). We have made this place our official pit stop for our road trip up north!

If you need a place to stop on the long stretch of the 5, definitely try this place. Pupusas are excellent per others reviews. We went to the food truck. Fast and delicious.

I knew I was in for it when I noticed how pissed off the other customers looked. We were given our menus and then the servers disappeared for a while though we could hear giggling and conversation coming from the back. 15 minutes later our server appeared to take our orders and realized she forgot our drinks, and between texts managed to get them to us 10 min later. Once in a while an angry customer would approach the counter to say, «We’re ready to order now» or «Can I have my bill?» etc. followed by an apathetic «I’m sorry» and a slow walk out to the floor, only to go back behind the counter, text, giggle, and flirt with guys who would show up and hang out without ordering food.
We got our food an hour later with 4 other tables present (was 5 but for one couple who wasn’t patient enough to eat stale chips and be ignored for an hour) We got no drink refills, the asada tacos, though cheap were not as fabulous as we were made to think by reading these reviews. The pupusas were delicious, but worth the wait and total lack of service? Not in my opinion. I also had to go up and ask for my bill.

This is becoming one of our usual food spots when traveling from L.A. to SF. Great pupusas, tamales, and breakfast burrito. The pupusas are what we come here for though. If you’re ever traveling on the 5 and you need to stop for gas around the 58 Bakersfield exit, this a MUST!
Just FYI: sometimes the service is a little slow at the sit down restaurant because everything is fresh & made to order, be prepared to be there for a while (at least 30 – 40 minutes). So if you’re looking for some quick & fast, go to their food truck near the freeway entrance, right before the restaurant. I was about to give them 4-​stars because of their slowness but the food is amazing & it’s worth the wait =)

We stopped here for a quick dinner on the way to LA. I’ll give this 3* for the appearance, but 3 ½−4* for the food.
The outside and inside don’t look too pleasant (you get this feeling that they aren’t the most sanitary), BUT the food was good and it was worth the wait to eat at Buttonwillow, in the middle of nothing-​land. I’m typically more careful about going to these hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurants only bc I have a sensitive stomach– but Unilocal was very convincing, and for good reason!
We got cheese pupusas and carne asada tacos. Service was meh, but the food was very juicy and filling. The portions were HUGE. Plus, they also open late, so this place is a good pit-​stop on the I-​5.

In the vast wasteland that is the I-​5 corridor in the Central Valley, Tita’s Pupuseria stands like a blazing oasis, awaiting tired, hungry travelers with pupusas the diameter of a baby’s head. I’m vegetarian, and had a choice of frijoles, loroco, or calabaza pupusas. Why not get one of each? Because that’s too much food for one person, that’s why. I got one loroco and one calabaza pupusa, and was happily full — also euphoric from the mind-​numbingly hot roasted peppers in the crock-​pot on the table that you can help yourself to with tongs (but eat more than two and you might die).
I won’t go so far as to say that I would drive to Buttonwillow just to eat pupusas at Tita’s, but I would postpone a meal for hundreds of miles just so I could eat here. And they’re open until 11 PM!

Travelling up the I-​5 from LA to SF and we stopped by this place to grab a quick lunch. My friend has been here before so she told us they had some pretty solid pupusas here! Warning: the pupusas here are HUGE! I mean like more than double of what a usual serving would be like. Good thing our friend told us this otherwise I would’ve ordered 2 for myself which wouldve been too much.
The place is a decently sized restaurant that was nice and air conditioned (it was 100F+ outside). Sat down and waited at least 15 minutes before they came and brought up water, chips & salsa, or took our order. So the service part of that was really slow.
My friends and I each ordered a Revuelta pupusa (pork, bean, and cheese) and a Loroco (squash, cheese, zucchini) to share. On top of that, 2 mexican pollo tamales to share.
Pupusas were gigantic!!! I could barely finish one of them with the tamales to share as well. Pretty decent. Filling is more concentrated in the middle which left a small ring of just bland dough on the edge. But the slaw and the salsa that came with the pupusas made it a lot better. Pupusas were only $ 3.50!
The tamales were also pretty big and had a good amount of shredded chicken, However, i found the tamales to be a little too dry.
The horchata they have here is «el salvadorean» and I think they put in groud up melon seeds which make it a lot sweeter. I personally prefer the other version of horchata that is less sweet and has a more pronounced cinnamon flavor.

Neat restaurant midway while driving from SFO to LA. Especially I f you hate fast food places it’s a must to break your journey here. Prompt service made this our favorite.

Buttonwillow. Ever heard of it? Me neither. However, the paucity of dining options is quite pathetic along Highway 5 between the 580 cut-​off in the north to the point where you suddenly recognize you’re getting close to LA. As everyone knows, the usual suspects are Split Pea Andersen’s where the girth doesn’t meet the mirth, Harris Ranch where you can smell the cows before you eat them, and In-​N-​Out where a two-​hour wait in the middle of nowhere is like watching a TLC reality show without a bathroom break. I read about Tita’s in a Triple-​A article I found on the web about the best places to eat on Highway 5. It was a very short list, but the writer recommended Tita’s, and we like pupusas, so…
Buttonwillow is a little over two hours outside of LA if you’re not stuck in traffic, a big ‘if’ down there. Anyway, when we stopped to get gas, we got confused as to where the real brick-​and-​mortar Tita’s was since the address led us to their food truck in a desolate parking lot next to a motel (photo:
). I’m not sure if the woman was Tita herself, but she and her cohort appeared pretty settled in the spot since they had picnic tables set up shielded from the blistering sun by a large corrugated awning shaped like an army tent (photo:
). I was surprised to see Menudo on the menu, and judging from a customer slurping nearby, it was a decent-​size bowl for $ 8.75. But I got nervous about the road trip and passed on it.
Jamie W. and I both went for the $ 3.50 Pupusa. I went for the Loroco y Queso (Flower Herb & Cheese), ladled on the tomatillo salsa from the little bin on the side of the truck, and scooped up some curtido (photo:
). That pupusa was not going down my belly alone, so I ordered a pair of Lengua Tacos for $ 3 each. Pretty tasty with the frijoles, chopped onions and the tomatillo salsa, though the warmed jalapeño peppers kicked me like a burro in love (photo:
). Spending ten bucks for that amount of food was a good deal, and we were certainly in-​n-​out (pardon the pun) a lot faster than any of the options I listed above. It’s good to know I don’t have to inhale a cow or spew out some split pea soup in order to sustain myself on that long journey home.
FOOD — 3 stars… home-​style Mexican fast food works in a pinch
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… well, it was nice to have the shade… tin roof, rusted!
SERVICE — 3 stars… come and get it!
TOTAL — 3 stars… finally a place to eat on Hwy 5 that isn’t a major time investment

When you’re driving up and down the 5, big billboards of pizza hut, subway, mcdonalds etc are being thrown at you at every corner. It can be very difficult to get a quality meal while on the road. However at the Buttonwillow travel stop, Tita’s will supply a quality lunch.
First the food, the reason this review is so high. We ordered a carnitas burrito, 2 red chicken enchiladas, and a cheese pupusa as we heard this is a MUST buy. My husband loved his carnitas burrito. I inhaled my enchiladas. I could definitely tell they were homemade and were just assembled. The chicken chunks haven’t been sitting for awhile. The cheese pupusa… oh man a must order. The cheese was high quality and fresh. Everything about it was delicious.
They’re lucky that the food is so good, because the service left something to be desired. First, they offer a drive through, but their full menu isn’t on the board. I pulled up their website to see a more thorough menu. When we asked about the options, they confirmed that they had them. Why they weren’t on the menu is beyond me. Second, the drive through can use some help. There’s a sign to honk for service, but we weren’t sure if they heard us due to the wait time.
We didn’t go inside. So, I’m not sure what the restroom situation is like inside, but it might not be ideal since a woman found the need to exit the restaurant to change the diapers of her kids (multiple) right in front of us while we were waiting for our food. Talk about an appetite killer.

If you are willing to make the ~20min drive from Bakersfield you should definitely give this place a try.
When my group came there was only one other group seated. Located off the I-​5, you’d think it would be busy but people wouldn’t expect to come. The service was good. We got seated and had our waters pretty quickly. There’s a lot to choose from on their menu, especially since a good majority is under $ 10! We all settled for simple items:
Carne Asada Tacos
Carne Asada Burrito Mojado (Wet Burrito)
Al Pastor Burrito
We were given chips and salsa. The salsa had an even amount of heat, wasn’t over powering. My friend thought it was a «slow burn.» Our food was great. The burritos were big, taking over the entire size of the plate and were nicely stuffed. I had to take half of it home, which says a lot since I normally always finish there. The tacos were tacos, it’s hard to mess those up.
Coming back to try the pupusas next time!

Accessibility (Parking /​Wait Time)
¹⁄₁ Star: free parking lot. No wait to get a table.
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Service (Waiter /​Cleanness /​Ambiance)
⁰⁄₁ Star: bad service. I had to walk up and yell into the kitchen for my check. No employees in sight.
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Taste (0=Not Edible /​1=Edible /​2=Good (average) /​3=Must Try!)
²⁄₃ Stars: tacos were tasty and came with a lot of meat, but they were dry.
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Overall Experience
³⁄₅ Stars
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Last Words
I went during lunch and it was slow. They have a drive though as well.

After passing Bakersfield from Las Vegas to the I-​5, we arrived at this small town for gas. Then knowing there wouldn’t be many decent restaurants along the way back to SF Bay Area, we found this place which was the only top rated place around for miles.
You must stop here to eat! It would be the best decision you make on your long drive through this boring highway.
You can order the Shrimp Enchilada’s like I did, which was excellent. The tomato sauce had to be fresh or it wouldn’t taste like it did. And the salsa and the chips were delicious and spicy. The only thing was that the dish was so big I couldn’t finish it. But I guess for some people, it’s not a bad thing.

On a long drive along I5 there are few things that make me stop: Gas, restroom breaks, and now pupusas.
Originally just a food truck right off the freeway in a truck stop area, they now have a full restaurant open in the same area. We decided this time to get food at the restaurant. The truck is literally right next to the onramp.
We ordered a couple different types of pupusas and tacos. The pupusa revuelta was sooo good. Melted cheese and pork with a slight crispy tortilla — Definitely a must get. The shocking part was the pupusas were still warm after a few hours! We also got carne asada and carnitas tacos which was pretty good. And finally we ordered some rolled tacos. You haven’t had rolled tacos until you’ve had them here. No Lie, the best rolled tacos i’ve ever had. After that small sampling, I’m sure you will not be disappointed with whatever you pick.
Overall a great place to eat and now is going to be a mandatory stop to and from SoCal.