Sarita’s Grill and Beer – pupusas and more!

Sarita’s opened in January of this year, in the space occupied by Maison Biriani for a short time, as it opened at the height of the pandemic and replaced Dosa. As we reported earlier, young entrepreneur Natali Juarez named her first restaurant after her late niece, and the restaurant is a full-fledged family affair. Her mother and sister do all the cooking, while her sister-in-law helps her with household chores. Juarez created a space to merge good food and the culture of its people; on the wall opposite the bar are a series of fun facts about El Salvador – for example, Salvadorans eat pupusas with their hands. A rather messy, albeit delicious, prospect!

On my first visit, I had a few friends to help me. Of course we tried a bunch of pupusas…

Now everyone in the Mission has their favorite pupuseria. But I will tell you to go try Sarita’s. The permutations are a little mind-boggling: you can get the classic cheese, then you can go crazy and get cheese and beans, or loroco, or pork, or chicken, or jalapeno, or shrimp, or zucchini , or spinach – or just go for it. go ahead and get the “Crazy Pupusa” – a sampler, if you will, and about twice the size of the others.

I found the pupusas here quite satisfying, an excellent representation of the genre; a puffy, warm and tender but slightly crunchy exterior gives way to a soft, never dense, abundantly cheesy interior. Their love is a cut above – perfect flavor, heat and crunch to offset the richness of all that queso deliciousness.

One member of our group tried a Salvadoran tamale…

This one was chicken, and while he generally said he preferred Mexican tamales, I found the masa of their Salvadoran cousins ​​infinitely softer in texture, quite meltingly tender and infused with so much flavor from but. For my taste, it was a winner (although I would have preferred the pork, which they have.)

I had one of the pupusa combos:

My pork and cheese and Loroco the pupusas were a delight, but the soup was perhaps the star of the plate, if only because I ate so much beef latin broths in the neighborhood and none had a flavor as deep and beefy as this one. Bold and full-faced, full of tender meat, yuca, carrots, cabbage and potatoes. A hearty combo, to be sure, and I had no problem finishing every bite.