El Salvador Cantina Messicana — Restaurant in Salerno

We were excited to switch up our routine and try something new this past Saturday, and we were not disappointed!

El Salvador was a really fun little ristorante located in downtown Salerno. The locale is a bit younger, late teens/early 20’s, but still respectful. We sat out on the patio as there were heaters that kept us warm and we could enjoy nightlife sightseeing.

I am a Mexican food veteran - I’ve backpacked thoroughly through Central America and loved the cuisine, however we ordered very simple dishes as it was my boyfriends first time and it was a pretty simple menu.

They advertise as Tex/Mex, which means the menu mostly had nachos, quesadillas, burritos, fajitas.. Those kind of things! As well as all the yummy drinks! (Think daiquiri, Mojito, bulldog,etc)

Servers were friendly enough. Mexican food is usually pretty quick to prepare, so I think I was expecting to have our food quicker. We ordered the chicken and avocado quesadilla, Cajun tortilla chips and three dips. Food was good! Not overly authentic.

For the price of 2 pizzas a couple doors down, we got a couple of appetizers, mains and water. No...

Sorry to say that this place has a lot of potential but fails to deliver.

Sangria Unsweetened. Only tasted like red wine and not how a sangria should taste. Appetizer Veg nachos: Tasty! Nothing bad to say about it. Main course Veg quesadillas: Was okey. Felt like something you make at home when you want to use leftovers. Wasn’t thought through. Maybe change it to something else like pulled jackfruit, panko fried avocado or panko fried cauliflower.

Shrimp taco: the shrimp wasn’t cooked and it had the black string left. A suggestion is to put some flavour on and fry it with chilli, coriander, garlic and olive oil or panko fried shrimp.

Staff: Didn’t have service mindset and questioning our request for sweeter sangria, and moving tables over our heads while we were sitting and eating when there was plenty of other space to do that.

The food can be as wonderful as the environment and I hope that you see this as a...

I gave the restaurant 4 stars because the service and ambience was very good. The waiter was trying so hard to please I had the classic fajitas which were served very hot. Everything was fresh, meat tender , great presentation. It just didn't have a lot of south American flavor. I'm comparing it to fajitas we have in the US so it may not be fair. I don't think the Italians are really big on adding spices to flavor food. They tend to eat food naturally. My husband it was the same with his food. We did have the churros which were hot and very tasty. So if you are tired of pizza and pasta I would recommend this restaurant. Ask for...