Pupuseria Dona Mercedes

Being salvadorean I understand the cuisine very well. This is truly the best place to eat pupusas in Richmond.

I wanted to love this place, but I just couldn’t. A hot 95 degrees outside, the plexiglass windows didn’t open and just magnified the heat. The waitress was sweet, but I’m sure glad my Spanish is decent or we may not have gotten everything right. Still, I would have looked past all that for some bomb-@&$ pupusas.
Seriously, this white girl has made better pupusas at home. The curtido didn’t taste quite right (spoiled? …but shouldn’t the vinegar help avoid that?), and the tomato sauce seemed really thin.
All in all, not horrible, but find yourself a Salvadorena to make them, or make them at home yourself. Maybe the other place a block or so north…

Amidst what appears to be a ghost town, trust your belly for pin pointing this location. This a real authentic Salvadorean restaurant. Nope not Mexican and Salvadorean, just Salvadorean. My grandma is good friends with the owner of this restaurant (she also cooks), she took us through the restaurant, it’s nothing fancy, a place to get together with family and friends. We ate bean and cheese pupusas straight off the griddle that Doa Mercedes quickly made for us, the burnt and crisp cheese on the sides (my favorite part), and the curtido is really good, thinly sliced pieces of cabbage and carrots and onions. We enjoyed our pupusas and horchatas. I wish we could of tried more food, but the restaurant wasn’t open, just for us, since we were visiting. It reminded me of the pupusas we had from the pupusa stand along the freeway en route to the airport in San Salvador in the humid weather. Delightful!