Casita Salvadoreña Restaurant

HIDDEN GEM
Just finished up here and sitting in the parking lot at 3:50 pm on Sunday 2÷28÷16. HOLY MOLY, this little place is fantastic!
I chose it while looking through Unilocal for something different after popping into Northeast Mall, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
First let me address points hit in previous reviews:
Excellent service, and despite being packed, I waited all of maybe 6 – 10 minutes for my piping hot, fresh, homemade meal.
It’s 80 degrees today, and it was almost too cold from the a/​c inside the establishment. (This is saying something because I think I’m pre-​menopausal at the tender age of 44, lean toward the beefy side, and am quick to get overheated.) Any issues with temperature are resolved, apparently.
Décor is quaint, with a few waxed fruit pieces hanging around, flags on the wall, mirrors along the back strip to enlarge the space, bright white walls with light gray near the lower quarter. No thick swaths of blue paint anywhere. Tables spaced well apart, clean tile floors, all but two tables were full with families. I grabbed one of two free tables — otherwise was at capacity (small — size of an old DQ or med/​largish donut shop).
Everyone I encountered speaks English. Didn’t have to point at the menu. And those are tamales, not ‘tamals.’ That’s a typo on their menu.
Nothing is priced over about $ 8. They have a drive through and also serve at least one breakfast plate that’s on the menu all day. There’s a breakfast menu on the wall with the more familiar breakfast tacos & bagels/​cream cheese as well, which is brilliant because it’s across the street from an elementary school so parents can feed Junior on the way in.
I’m definitely no ethnic food connoisseur, but I gotta say, yeah, that sweet corn tamale was bad ass. The pork tamale was great, too (as noted, corn exterior is solid yet steamed (?) so well it’s buttery/​creamy when eaten), as was the bean and cheese papusa (recommended by the elderly gentleman who took my order — said they were spot on).
The pork skin papusa was OK, but I honestly thought it might have been a different kind of bean papusa because of the texture and neutral flavor. Finally decided it was indeed pork. Never had a papusa or pork skin, so unsure how they rank. The slaw on the side is fab! Not covered in detectable vinegar, but it’s likely there — what stands out are the red pepper flakes that make it sing & give interest.
My bill was a whopping $ 6.50, and I couldn’t eat all of it. 1 bottle of water, 2 papusas, slaw side accompaniment, pork (skin) and sweet corn tamales. Tip them well, friends.

Their pupusas were small but they tasted ok. I’m from California and the salvadorian food is so much better there. I also had a tamales de elote and it was good. The service was ok but the lady in the front seemed scared of my bf and kept staring. It was a little wierd.

In a word. Fantastic! The place is an old drive in that they converted. The seating as well as the whole place is very basic. But, man the food is awesome. Very authentic too. Bring a working knowledge of Spanish food names, don’t worry though they have a working knowledge of English. Try the tamel with sweet corn, the best! As you can read, I really like this place. Come on down and try it.

Does not look like much from the outside but don’t let the appearance fool you. Food was so good! Service was excellent! I’ll definitely come back. Very authentic. Love it!

We checked this place out tonight after discovering it on Unilocal.It’s in an old Dairy Queen or something, you know not, fancy, but clean and serviceable. When you walk in, it seems like maybe you’re supposed to order at the counter, but it’s unclear. Finally a guy walked around the counter and gave us some menus and gestured for us to find a table.
The menu isn’t huge, which is fine by me. I’d like to make it by there for breakfast sometime, as they had most of a page dedicated to that menu.
Most of the dishes have a reasonable description of the dish in English, but the writers assume you already know what a pupusa is, for example, which I DO! :) We shared two chicharon and cheese and one loroco and cheese. The English translation for «loroca» was just «flower» and we had no idea what they meant exactly, but we were intrigued. In the time between ordering and getting the food, we googled it and I’ll be damned, loroco is the name of a plant which has these kind of flowerish buds on it. It’s used as an herb, and it was delicious. The chicharon version was wonderful too, though not as firm as pupusas I’ve had elsewhere. These were served with slaw.
We also ordered one chicken and potato tamal, which was so different from the version we’re accustomed to — the corn part was more like a smooth pudding. Delicious, but kind of a mind f*ck. We also shared a plate of three asada tacos, which were bland and uninspiring. The rice and beans were very flavorful but the beans were room temperature.
We’ll be back with a laser focus on the pupusas.

This is a great restaurant. The waitresses are friendly even though I don’t speak Spanish well and the food is wonderful. I like papusas and know good Salvadorean restaurants in each of the cities that I frequent. This place serves tasty papusas! I also like the guisada, the gravy is great with a rich flavor from the meat. They also have good salsa, the verde is spicer and seems fresh.

There’s a bit of a wait for the food, but it’s so worth it. The pupusas come out piping hot! An order of pupusa is accompanied by cole slaw. The price is attractive ($ 1/​per) and the pupusa is quite good.

I have only had the pupusas here, but honestly after having one there is no need to try anything else. I have eaten pupusas all over the country and there are by far the best. They are amazing. Never dry or without that homemade flavor. The curtido and salsas are amazing by themselves. The atmosphere is a bit cold and not really outgoing to be honest but I pay for food not hype. They have english speaking staff members but are not always there. Spanish speaking skills not required unless you are unable to point to a menu item and i dicate quantity with your fingers. Seriously. Because they are made fresh to order i can take time but I guarantee it is worth the wait. We live 40 miles from this place and we don’t habe to think twice about making the trip when that craving hits us. 14 pupusas and 2 sodas later, that $ 18 bill was more than welcomed.

This is a gem of Haltom City! It is a true «hole in the wall» and a place I will return again and again. I barely speak a lick of Spanish and had no problems here at all. The staff is very friendly, food was freshly made, and definitely traditional Salvadorian and not some Tex-​Mex version of itself.
I would highly recommend going for any meal!

I went here for my hour lunch break and it took about 30 minutes to get my food, but the fact that it’s authentic, homemade and fair prices makes it all worth it. The menu is in Spanish AND English. Its a small hole in the wall, but don’t let that stop you from walking through the door.

Been here a lot great food enjoy the atmosphere locals make feel like your in another country. plantain is a must order. also the large Mexican cokes enjoy

Great authentic El Salvadorian food is the good part!!! Everything I have eaten has been delicious and felt like quality, nutritious, home cooked food.
The bad part for some could be the condition of the dining area, very basic but is what I expect from a place like this.
What I don’t like about this place are the prices, they seem very high to me and the portions are small especially for the price.

Been a few times for lunch and looks a little like a hole in the wall on first sight, when you don’t know it.
I have to say that I really like the pig skin pupusas. They stick to your ribs though. :-)
But my real favorite is the Carne Desabrado!!! Love it! Absolutely tasty every time.

the pupusas are $ 1 each. they’re a little small, but pretty good. i only wish they had a bit more crust from the grilling.
and as russell r. mentioned, there was a young girl taking my order since i didn’t speak spanish. she was sweet and got the job done!

This is a unique place to eat. Judging by the orange and blue paint caked on everything a paint brush could touch, this was going to be an experience. The inside was sparsely appointed. The entertainment was a small television in the corner surrounded by three kids. Our menu arrived and we quickly found our fare.
My wife ordered the Tamales which are wrapped in a banana leaf (Salvadorian style) and Pupusa stuffed with chicken and covered with a cole slaw served with a red sauce. The tamales were very moist and were quite tasty, but the pupusa was wonderful, light and full of flavor.
I ordered the Barbacoa tacos, served with black beans and pico de gallo. Very fresh and enjoyable! The kids ordered the hamburger and fries. What is there to say about hamburger and fries?
All in all, the place was quite surprising and we left $ 22 dollars poorer, but quite filled. We will drop by again someday. If you are in the neighborhood, give it a try.

Sit down… I got a story for you about this place. There were a lot of firsts for me at this restaurant.
So, this location has changed hands many times over the years. I have no idea what it use to be, but this is one of those places where Grand Opening signs are common.
I’ve noticed that this particular restaurant has survived longer then most so I thought I’d give it a try one day.
First a warning… if you can’t stand hot places, don’t go here during a hot day. I think they had the air conditioner on, but it was so muggy that my girlfriend and I were slightly sweating.
So, we sit down and are asked by our server (a young girl of probably 15 – 16 yrs old, and one of the only people that could understand English well enough) what we would like to drink.
Ice Tea… nope.
We’re offered soda, but we don’t drink soda so we look through the menu and discover that they sell Lemonade.
Ok… Lemonade. (sounds good for a muggy dining room)
So we get our Lemonade and well… it was hot (as in temperature hot).
No, no… not tepid, not warm,… hot like the water out of the hot tap (with a little ice on top).
We devise a way to drink it anyhow by drinking the Lemonade closest to the ice, and it turns out that it’s really tasty… just hot if you go below the ice level.
Ok…, we look over the menu and see that we’re in for some authentic Salvadorian food. There are a handful of pig skin dishes and a dish where they pan fry a whole fish (head, tail, eyes and all — Bizarre Foods here I come).
If I had money to blow on a dish I might turn down then I’d probably would have gone with something different, but I’m hungry and want something I know I’ll eat so I go with a safe Chicken and Rice dish.
To be honest (and what saved this place from being 1 – 2 stars) the food was pretty good.
The moist chicken (leg and thigh) was stewed in some kind of yellow-​ish sauce with potatoes and carrots. My meal came with white rice (cooked very well) and a bowl of creamed black beans (which I would eat buckets of, it was AWESOME).
I wish the prices were a little lower (about $ 8.00 a plate) especially considering that the portions were enough to satisfy me but not really a lot of food. But the taste was really good so I guess I can let it pass (maybe it was the heat of the dining room and drink that was making me think that it was overpriced).
So, if you’re feeling adventurous and want to try something new then I suggest you try this place (on a nice cool day).