Sarita’s Pupuseria

Ordered a lunch special for $ 15 off the Restaurant Week menu. The lunch special included 2 items of your choosing; I selected 2 pupusas (revuelta– pork + beans + cheese & loroco– loroco + cheese) with pickled cabbage and salsa on the side, along with the sopa de res– beef soup with rice, hand made tortillas, sliced onions, and limes. Both were delicious and had so much flavor. Some of the best pupusas I have had and the sopa de res had so many large & yummy veggies in it, none were soggy from being in the the broth too long. Not only was the food delicious but the price and the portions were great. I normally don’t like to split food because I eat a lot but, my brother and I were able to split the $ 15 lunch special and no one left hungry.
The cashier and the workers were super nice and friendly. The cashier was very efficient in taking the lunch rush crowds orders and got our food out in under 20 minutes!
So thankful Sarita’s Pupuseria is still in Grand Central Market :)

Insanely good!!! I love this place! Even the bean and cheese pupusa’s are so simple but taste SO amazing. Prepare to wait in line, it’s SO worth it!

Saritas is one of the few restaurants that has survived the remodeling and new tenants at Grand Central Market for a reason. The food is delicious, well priced and it’s near impossible to get great tasting traditional Salvadorean pupusas in LA. Stopping by Saritas is a must whenever my wife and I go to GCM and it’s only getting better with a better with the new golden road taproom opening up. I recommend the revues task as well as the traditional cheese and loroco and don’t forget your traditional sour curtido slaw. Feel free to add ingredients and ask then staff what they recommend as well. Adding a fried egg on top of the pupusa as well as cheese on top too is amazing. I am so glad I first saw Saritas on the food network many years ago otherwise I would be missing out on these wonderful flavors.

Yum! After you have pupusas in El Salvador, it becomes a mission to find a spot that compares. I’ll be back for more!

Love this place for popusas in downtown Los Angeles! The portions are huge for what you get and the price is reasonable being that you’re in dtla. The wait after you order is roughly about 20m and that’s because there is a high volume of orders. It is located inside La grand central market so there will always be traffic in and around the area and restaurants.

Get your fresh, handmade pupusas here inside the Grand Central Market! They offer the normal flavors that you’ll find at any pupuseria: queso, frijoles, loroco, and pork, as well as some other unique flavors: basil, garlic (not sure about those…). The wait is a bit longer than other places (about 20min), but that’s because they’re forming them and cooking them right then and there. The cabbage slaw and sauce are the perfecting toppings. They’re $ 3 – 4 each, which is pretty standard.

Tastes just like the pupusas I had on my trip to Guatemala. Pupusas are El Salvadorian tortillas filled with your choice of filling. I opted for the cheese and pork which came with a side of picked cabbage. The pupusa was warm on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and at $ 3 – 4 each they make an affordable and delicious meal.
–1 star since service was slow. There was no line when I ordered yet I still waited over 20 minutes for my order

Pupusas were very tasty and flavorful. The intensity of the flavors were just right where you can eat one after another without getting sick of it.
The pupusas would be even better if they added a just a slight more meat, for the ones that are ordered with meat.
The wait will be approximately 20 — 30 minutes from standing in line to receiving your food on a weekend.

One morning, my boyfriend and I were planning to get Eggslut but after seeing the long line, we decided to check out the other eateries and we were lead to Sarita’s by the great pupusa scents.
We wanted to try a little bit of everything at the Grand Central Market that day, so we got one pork and cheese pupusa and one chicken tamale to share. Wow! Both were delicious, served hot and fresh! They were both so good that we wanted repeats, but we will save that for next time.
Overall, solid pupusas and tamales over here! We will be back.

While down at the Central Grand Market, one of my friend remembered that he had seen one of the stalls on the Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network. This particular stall was Sarita’s Pupuseria which specialized in wait for it Pupusas! You know that it’s everyone’s favorite Salvadorian foods. I am huge fan of pupusas while I may not know what Salvadoran look for in terms of good pupusa. The pupusa featured on that show was the mashed pork skin, bean and cheese. So, we ordered one to split just to find out if it could hit the lists of things we ever ate.
For those of who don’t REALLY know what the Pupusa is, Pupusa is basically traditional and most popular El Salvadoran dish made of a thick, handmade corn tortilla that is usually filled with a blend of the following: Queso aka Spanish word for cheese cooked and seasoned pork meat ground to paste consistency refried beans, or Queso con lororco.
Next, let’s me explain how the pupusas are being prepared inside the small kitchen. First, the cook pinches off a piece of dough a bit smaller than a tennis ball. It’s basically a simple dough made from Masa de Maiz, then the cook shapes it into a pouch with her hands. Then, she puts in a tablespoon of filling — cheese, refried beans, chicharrones, or lororco aka Central American vine used as vegetable. The cheese is soft, white salvadorean cheese similar to Mozarella. She seals the pouch shut, then claps the dough back and fourth between her hands until it’s disc about 5 inches round and a half inch thick. Here at Sarita’s, when the cooks are making pupusas, you hear a sound like someone applauding the performance of an artist.
Pupusas are heated on the grill until becoming golden brown on both sides. They are served hot, with scoop of curtido aka salvadorean Sauerkraut and a thin orange hot sauce. They provided a beaker full of it to pour on my plate.
In other words, pupusas here were prepared completely from the scratch, so it took awhile for them to fry ours up on the griddle, but it was so much fun to watch them put it together and I definitely don’t mind waiting for fresh-​cooked foods. When it was ready, our number was authentically called in Spanish and we grabbed our pupusas. My friend destroyed his half by putting cabbage pickle on it, but I kept mine pristine and cabbage free.
Items I ordered last time with my best friend:
1. Pupusa with Lororco and Queso (3.5÷5): As mentioned above, Lororco is basically chopped buds and flowers of Central American vine called Fernandia pandurata (Per Wikipedia), which has a quite bitter, pungent flavor, but only a bit goes into the pupusa, so it doesn’t overpower.
Here at Sarita’s, there’s a narrow counter with a deep blur formica countertop that curves around the back of the stall, and eight or so matching bar stools where you can eat and watch them like more pupusas. I used the knife and fork to cut it into pieces, with a bit of curtido to flavor each bite. I dipped into hot sauce gingerly, hesitant to raise the heat level. The cheese was creamy and melted, nd bits of green lororco was distributed evenly throughout. The masa gave the dough a faint grit on the tongue, and you could taste the corn flavor.
2. Salvadorean Horchata (³⁄₅): I must admit, haven’t tried this unique horchata before, but it was my first time trying Salvadorean style Horchata. It’s completely different from Mexican style Horchata (most popular one in decent Hispanic markets) because it’s made from Morro seeds as I explained in my pics couple weeks ago. Basically, Salvadoreans are fiercly lotal to their horchata, made from seed named Morro aka green, hard shelled fruit looks like coconuts. While Mexicans are just steadfast about rice-​based drinks, which Salvadorean won’t touch.
Spinard who consider their nation the parents of real horchata, dismiss the claims by people from their former colonies. They insist that their creation, prepared from roots they call them as Earth Almonds is the only drink worthy of the name.
So far, I would still prefer the Mexican version over this one.
NOTE: There’s a major language barrier issues in this place! Hard to order if you don’t speak good amount of Spanish…
My conclusion:
In the process of eating, I found that I was fan of this pupusa, but could it really qualify as best thing I’ve ever eaten? Sadly for Saritas, this was NOT the case. In fact, strangely enough I’ve eaten better Pupusas in North Hollywood and Van Nuys. So, what was the problem? Well, I am glad you asked. The pupusa had some distinct flavor that I was unable to put my finger on it. It might have been coffee or who knows, but whatever it was, I didn’t want it. On top of that, I felt like it was still doughy. I would prefer the pupusa that you can definitely pick up in your hand and eat, unfortunately this one didn’t offer that to me. In general, it was still quite tasty, just not worth making the cut as one of the best thing I ever ate.

While most of our group went to line up for Eggslut, the boyfriend and I ventured off to try something new– pupusa! We got an order of the Mushroom and Cheese pupusa which came to be almost $ 5. A little pricey given the size of the pupusa.
It’s definitely made fresh to order, because we waited more than 10 minutes for our order. We ordered for here and ate at the counter on the opposite end from the register. The pupusa came piping hot with a side of cold pickled cabbage. The pickled cabbage was refreshing and nicely seasoned with a spicy kick. Pupusa is similar to a quesadilla but with its fillings fully enclosed. The pupusa dough was fluffy and soft, while the mushroom cheese filling oozed out with each bite. The texture and flavors were not too impressive, and the mushroom was lost with all the cheese.

I’ve never had pupusas before, so take this review with a grain of salt. And in case you’re wondering like I was, pupusas are Salvadoran dishes made of thick corn tortillas stuffed with meat, cheese, beans, etc., I ordered the revueltas o mixtas (pork + cheese + beans) as well as the carne asada con queso (beef and cheese). The first one was warm, delicious, and hearty. And so cheap at $ 3.25 a piece. I was so stuffed from the first one that I just took the other one home (which was not as good unfortunately.) The pickled cabbage on the side was not even pickled. Very bland actually.
FYI: Made to order, which can take up to 10 minutes. Credit card minimum of $ 10.

My first time trying pupusas and it was delicious! I got the potato and cheese one. The cheese was melted just right and flavorful. This place is nestled inside a market and you can see the chef cook the food. Great place!

First time trying a Pupusa! I’m a fan!
They have a couple vegetarian pupusa options. I got the bean and cheese pupusa and the cheese and squash pupusa! It came with a side of spiced cabbage that was very tasty and balanced out the heavy pupusas.
Unlike other mexican food, pupusas take a while to make so after about 10 minutes we finally got our food! Overall though, it was worth the wait, at a fair price, and absolutely delicious.
I’m getting hungry again and definitely tempted to stop by Grand Central Market for another one!

My first time having papusas are from Saritas. I have nothing to compare it to, but they were delicious. I tried the pork & cheese and beans, pork & cheese combo. I think I prefer without the beans cause then you get more cheese inside. It wasn’t an overpowering flavor, I just preferred more cheese. Also, they add pickled cabbage on the side which make a nice complement to the papusas. It had a little kick but not too spicy.
They are also affordable. One papusa can range from $ 3-​$ 5. 10−15min top they have your order ready.

If this is the cornerstone of a great pupusas, then I don’t think I want to eat pupusas ever again.
I like to try new things but I simply could not finish what I bought. It was so boring I don’t even remember what I ordered. All I know was that it was the very first menu item. That part I remember because smile and all, when we asked the man at the register what was best he simply frowned and pointed at the menu taped to the wall.
Not out to a great start already. An unenthusiastic employee just dampens the mood and a fine dining is one part ambiance.
After ordering we took a quick walk-​a-​round to the counter located on the other side only to find that there was trash all over. It was sticky and there was no rush at all to clear it off for us. We ended up pushing the trash over to one end of the counter and avoided touching the counter as much as possible.
Overall the taste was like eating ground up corn with pickled vegetables. I’d like to review how the meat tasted like but there was so little I really just didn’t taste it. It was cheap, that’s all there is to it. I will not be back again especially with all the other great eateries found in the Grand Central Market. Between the two of us we only finished half of it and threw the rest away. Cheap prices are not a good indicator of good taste.
I may try it again but only if it’s home cooked because there was no heart in this one.

Handmade pupusa’s! Also, made to order.
Cash only, unless you spend $ 10.
Food takes awhile since it is made to order. My pupusa took about 15 minutes to be ready.
Chicken/​Cheese Pupusa — $ 3.25 — Soft corn tortilla shell with chicken and cheese stuffing. Basically a meat pie! Needs the salsa to dip because alone, it gets bland and dry.

After Mary Sue Milliken talked about this place on Food Network’s «Best Thing I Ever Ate», the pupuseria exploded in popularity AND raised its prices, ;-) but the pupusas are still delicious. You won’t find so many stuffing choices anywhere else that I know — probably twenty or so.
Cheese and loroco, a Central American flower, is one popular choice. I really like cheese and mushrooms, as well as cheese and beans. They also have beef, pork, zucchini and many other stuffings. Every stuffing starts with cheese, so it’s always Cheese + XYZ. Most people order two.
The cortida – a vinegary, tangy slaw of cabbage and carrots is excellent and plentiful on your plate, but beware — if you order your pupusas to go, you’ll get a tiny little plastic bag of this slaw, so if you like it as I do — order for eating in and then take a box (right there on the counter — no need to ask) and pack it yourself. Also, try their Jamaica aqua fresca drink, a homemade delicious hibiscus beverage that’s not too tart, and most importantly — not too sweet.
At lunchtime, the line moves relatively quickly but is still quite long, and then your food is prepared to order. If your lunch is short, order ahead by phone or maybe skip it — you may not make it back to work in time. I’ve had better pupusas — Sarita’s are a bit doughy, but never have I had so many stuffing choices which make eating pupusas a lot more fun. The Grand Central Market is a fun hip place too, so it’s definitely worth a visit.

I’ve always wanted to try pupusas and saw this place during my visit to Grand Central Market.
I tried the pupusa stuffed with cheese and chicharron. Crispy on the outside from the flat top and dense yet fluffy on the inside. They put a large amount of cheese inside! The chicharron was there but just wished they had put a little more. Good saltiness from the combination of ingredients and their salsa/​slaw that they give on the side give a good acidic/​bright kick needed for this heavy dish.
I loved it and would try more my next visit. For $ 3.25 a pupusa, you get a good sized portion with good flavor.

Pupusas made to order! My friend and I came here for late lunch/​snack around 2:30pm on Friday. We each got the #1 pupusa with chicharron and cheese. Made to order, so it takes about 10 minutes to get your order. Comes on a plate with that spicy tangy cabbage slaw on top. Drizzle some hot sauce on it and you’re good to go!
I thought the flavor was okay, but the filling is a bit uneven. Loved that its cooked to order but it does take a bit of time. There’s counter/​bar seating on one corner of the stall.