Atlacatl - Los Angeles

This cozy, casual restaurant offers affordable prices and friendly service. My friends and I shared several delicious pupusas, including the cheese and frijoles pupusa (which features a delightful soft white cheese), the pork pupusa (made with hearty ground pork), and the queso con loroco (a type of flower that has a flavor reminiscent of a mix between broccoli and asparagus). We also tried a combination pupusa that had beef, pork, and what I believe was either cheese or sugar. The pupusas were incredibly tasty! My favorites were the queso with frijoles and the queso with loroco. I also sampled a dish that had broken eggshells filled with frijoles; surprisingly, it was delicious and not overly eggy. The fried plantains appetizer had a light, crispy exterior with a wonderfully soft center. I can't wait to go back and try the cheese and pork pupusas again, as well as some of the other non-pupusa dishes on the menu.

Once inside, we felt as if we had been transported to another world, filled with lively conversations in Spanish. The menu featured a variety of traditional dishes, many of which were new to us. Our hunger got the best of us, and we ended up ordering more than we intended! The standout dishes were definitely the pupusas de loroco y queso. Loroco, which are small, unopened edible flower buds, are commonly used in Salvadoran cuisine and have a flavor reminiscent of asparagus. These pupusas had a fantastic creamy taste and texture, thanks to the melting cheese, the masa flatbread, and the loroco. We also enjoyed the curtido, a cabbage slaw served in a generous bowl, which added another layer of flavor to the meal. However, the pastelitos de puerco y verduras were somewhat disappointing. These deep-fried ovals had a bland filling that didn't impress us. We decided to try the Atol de elote without knowing what to expect, and it turned out to be a bowl of corn soup that leaned towards the sweet side for our taste. It appears this dish has Maya origins, which is intriguing from a historical standpoint. The mojarra entomatada, a whole tilapia served with tomatoes, cucumbers, and a black bean purée, was absolutely perfect; the fish was sweet and moist. Perhaps the most unusual dish we tried was the Chilate con nuegados, which consisted of plantains, sweet potatoes, and fried dough balls shaped like mushrooms, all drizzled with a honey sauce and chilate. We couldn't quite determine what chilate was, but I later found out it is a beverage made from atol, cacao, and chili—an interesting complement to the nuegados. All of this was accompanied by freshly made rounds of flatbread and several bottles of Salvadoran beer! The service was also worth mentioning, as it was warm and friendly. Our waitress struggled to describe some of the dishes, but she did her best with a smile. Overall, it was a delightful dining experience, and we left the restaurant eager to return.