acajutla

traditional and satisfying. food was hot, tasty and filling! most of the staff were pleasant, helpful and attentive. the papusa were very delicious, sausage tasted as if it was made in house! now on to the star of the show...the tamales. incredible!! just like down south. the "corn tamal" was amazingly moist and sweet, thechickenand pepper tamale was savory moist and delisious! just a quick note on the staff...seems like they are a small family run outfit which is completely fine with me. however the young girl seems very unhappy and has no drive or enthusiasm. cheer up sweet heart, life is not that bad! regardless i will be back!!

oh btw if you're looking for taco bell do not go here!

chorizo tacos, ceviche and pupusas

continuing with one of my all time favorite foods, tacos, we went to acajutla. this restaurant boasts el salvadorian and mexican cuisine and overall does it alright. tacos came in 3, served on corn tortillas with onions, cilantro and avocado. i had the chorizo (that is typically never moist), had some kick to it but the rest of the ingredients like the veggies were so-so. ceviche had diced tilapia, in lime juice and chimol had a pretty decent tase. definitely tasted better than the tacos for sure. main reason we came here though were the pupusas. traditional salvadoran pupusas made with corn flour and stuffed with cheese and pork. i thought the flavor was ok, but wish there were more filling. there might be some standard value for the tacos here, but the pupusas being 4 bucks each is kinda pushing it. also running out ofchickenwas kind of weird. friday night seems like a primetime to havechickeny’know?

located on 107th ave and 113st, this small restaurant has some charm. although the service was lacking as i had to get up from my seat to get someone’s attention, place was a decent enough place to try if you’re in the neighborhood.

sal says: just try it (3/5)

@jda_03 says: pupusas are tasty and very satisfying. mixing cheese, beans, and pork are the way to go. ceviche is light and fresh. running out ofchickenwas odd.

@ms_bal says: it’s a cute little restaurant. i love the pupusas. i really enjoyed the chile con carne dish as well.

service was friendly but very slow. ambience was severely lacking in charm but i would have forgiven that if the food had been good. only 1 person of our table of 8 liked their food. the shreddedchickenin my tacos was dry and tasteless. on top of that, the portions were ridiculously small for the price - the mains were the size of appetizers. the bill came to over $100 for 4 mains and 5 appetizers (no drinks).

thechickenescabeche was awesome a+!!! reasonably priced, clean and friendly

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 inchickenbroth - 6.99$) was on the menu, so i went with that. normally i'm used to this type of soup having a tomato base, so thechickenbroth base was different, but certainly a welcome variation to a soup that i enjoy. the fact that there were actual pieces ofchickenwithin the soup was an unexpected and tasty twist. all of my favourite flavours were present in this soup.
i also started with a pupusa (tortilla stuffed with your choice of pork, cheese, refried beans or any combo - 3.25$), 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 withchicken& topped with spicy enchilada sauce & mozzarella - 9.99$). i'd say that this was nearly as good as any enchilada that i've had. thechickeninside 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.