acajutla

poor service and terrible food. i can't believe this place is rated 85% here, there is something wrong with these reviews. the service is poor, but what really bothered me was the food, no quality, no art, nothing special. latin american food can be a lot better.

if you are planning on coming here i strongly advise that you don't. we went there as we wanted something authentic and us being from central america. let me tell you as soon we walked in we should have left, the server did not come to our table for about 5-10 minutes. once she came there was no courtesy. we ordered our overpriced meals, there was no cutlery for us to eat once we got our meals, we had to remind them that we hadn't gotten all our orders and some of the food was not prepared to how asked for it (the meat was under cooked) when brought to the attention of the waitress she got mad and said "well maybe we can give you a small discount" (the discount was not given) and she was rude about it. when we were leaving the cook came out and was talking bad about us because we had complained about the food. i would say "save your money". el rancho is definitively the restaurant to go to if you want authentic and way better prices too.

amazing!!!. i am mexican, so i know when something tastes authentic. this place is by far the most authentic place ive found in edmonton. the food is soooo delicious and pretty affordable. i went with my friend today, shed never tried latin food in her life and she loved it. pupusas are amazing, tamales are even better than in mexico, tacos aint too good though. dont be fooled by the shady lookings of the exterior, the place is amazing! highly recommended

pretty good. i've eaten here a couple times. very authentic tasting. not you average taco bell food. had their burrito once, it was fairly good but i think like $9 is a bit steep price...

the chicken escabeche was awesome a+!!! reasonably priced, clean and friendly

definitely looks like a dive after getting the courage up to stop and try them was pleasantly surprised at how good it is very authentic and lots of flavor if you can get past the exterior looks you will be rewarded with a great meal at a great price .

the best thing i ever ate: mix pupusa. if i had to pick this city's best latin menu item it would be acajutla's mix pupusa. ($3.25)
tortilla stuffed with your choice of pork, cheese, refried beans or any combo.

this traditional salvadoran dish is also served with house-made pickled cabbage and spicy hot sauce which should both be piled on in abundance! it makes a perfect little appetizer which cannot be missed. i always choose the "mix" option to enjoy all three of the options. the tortilla is fried to a perfectly crisp-yet-chewy doneness and the contents inside are always hot and gooey and savoury and delicious. but it's the cabbage and hot sauce (and maybe a little avocado sauce) which really kicks everything up a notch. the cabbage adds a crunch of acidity which really balances all of the components out. it's a flavour party with everyone invited!


-----26 feb, 2010-----

3.5/5 for acajutla. acajutla is a mexcian and salvadorean restaurant that's located in a bit of a shady neighbourhood. but what can i say, sometimes you need to venture to some interesting places in order to try some great food.
we went there on a thursday night, and the small-ish place wasn't very busy at first. it did pick up throughout our meal though. the restaurant is very cute and viberant on the inside! the walls are painted a bright lime green, and they have colourful flags hanging from the ceiling. the table cloths are also bright and authentic. they certainly have the atmosphere "right." the service was also incredibly friendly, our server was happy to explain anything on the menu and was very pleasant the whole time.

the menu is a few pages long and it was hard to make decisions with each item sounding so good!
the server explained what all of the specialty drinks were, and we were very interested to sample them! i went with the horchata (2.50$) which is a beverage made out of nuts and seeds - it was delicious! it was sort of milky and reminded me of a soy beverage. it was certainly a new flavour that i'd never tasted before.

i found that the appitizer round was actually fairly easy to decide on. a favourite, tortilla soup (corn tortilla, avocado & feta cheese in chicken broth - 6.99$) was on the menu, so i went with that. normally i'm used to this type of soup having a tomato base, so the chicken broth base was different, but certainly a welcome variation to a soup that i enjoy. the fact that there were actual pieces of chicken within the soup was an unexpected and tasty twist. all of my favourite flavours were present in this soup.
i also started with a pupusa (tortilla stuffed with your choice of pork, cheese, refried beans or any combo - 3.25$), which is a dish that i adore. i first sampled this item at a taste of edmonton (a food event that happens every summer in churchill square) and it's become one of the items that i look forward to the most. i chose the 'mix' option which is a combo of all three of the possible fillings. when you get your pupusa, you're supposed to add some spicy cabbage, avocado sauce and spicy sauce on top. delicious! it's a hot little package of flavours bound together by gooey cheese. i recommend that everyone tries this!

when it came to choosing my entree i was a little less decisive. there were so many choices, but in the end i went with a bit of an old standby, which was the mexican enchiladas (soft corn rolled tortilla stuffed with chicken & topped with spicy enchilada sauce & mozzarella - 9.99$). i'd say that this was nearly as good as any enchilada that i've had. the chicken inside was shredded and savoury, the sauce was tasty and spicy and the cheese completed the dish. it tasted very authentic. i was so full by this point that unfortunately i couldn't finish the whole meal, so i packed up the rest to take home.

the only problem with the whole dining experience was that we were working on our appitizers and still had plenty of food left, when our entrees came out before we were done. the server just crammed the plates onto our table and there was barely any room for everything. we were forced to quickly rush through the rest of our appitizers in order to get to our entrees before they started to get cold.
other then that everything was pretty great. i'm not sure that this is the best mexican joint in the city, but they certainly offer plenty of good reasons to give them a try.

food?. the service was basically non existent. we sat for 25 min on a friday evening with no attention whatsoever and then left. the place was not full at the time, but the servers appeared to be rushed beyond their capacity. i have no idea what the food is like as we didn't get to try any.

mom & dad eatery. for me this place lacks on many levels.
food quality, atmosphere, decor, customer service.
it will always remain the little restaurant around the corner that is ok when you have time and nothing else to do. otherwise, nothing great to say about it.

the service is soooo slow, i can eat twice at another restaurant in that time. the servers are so shy it is painful to talk to them, all the staff seems scared when you want to talk to them.

pupusas are good, so are the tamales. but that's it.
thew family should open a smaller place and focus on salvadorean food and not try to make mexican that does not make the cut.

i would not recommend this restaurant.

am i missing something?. i have been twice to acajutla. both times it was with a larger party. the service was friendly and competent. the decor is...well, it's not what you come for. you come for the food. but i cannot figure out why people like the food. it's like something i might throw together at home when i don't really have time to cook. bland chicken, refried beans that either came out of a can or are cooked in such a way that they might as well have... my friend raves about this place, but can't explain to me what it is that she thinks is so good.

this place is sort of a dive but the food is really good! everything is made from scratch in their kitchen!!!yummy, yummy, yummy!!!

yep this does it. anything you order is good authentic & reasonably priced!!!

i have been going here for 9 years and have never had a bad meal, the staff are friendly once they warm up to you. if you want a great meal pupusas, tamales and a bowl of their pozole is the way to go, i highly recommend this restaurant.

wonderful experience!. the service isn't great, but this family run restaurant really feels like a warm and inviting el salvadorian experience. the pupusa's are delicious, be careful though, they're very filling! you really only need two per serving!

i've tried to convince myself i like this place... but it really is nothing special. i wanted to like it; i like the idea of it, i had heard it was good but the food is lackingly plain.