El Comalito (Amherst) — Restaurant in Amherst

This little restaurant specializes in what they term "authentic homemade Mexican and Salvadorian food", and the description is very honest. El Comalito is inconspicuously located behind the Moan and Dove Pub and next to a large gas station. However, it is worth hunting down as the food is truly delicious and quite inexpensive. In addition to the range of Mexican offerings, they have homemade Salvadorian pupusas, a thick corn tortilla filled with a mixture of cheese, beans, and, sometimes, a thick paste of ground pork. They also have fried yuca and plaintains

My wife had a Chicken Chipotle burrito which was both delicious (I stole some) and enormous. I had the Chicken Enchilada dish with chipotle sauce. Also delicious with very generous portions. (A cautionary word: the food is genuine and when they say chipotle sauce, they mean it. If you like spicy as much as we do, you will be very pleased. If you don't, there are several milder sauces including a Mole and even a ranchero sauce.)

The true test of this kind of food resides in the rice. Some restaurants throw in some tomato sauce and a few spices and call it Mexican rice ... nah. The rice at El Comalito testifies to the care and time that the chef invested. It is savory, with a deep flavor that nicely compliments the other elements of the meal.

The restaurant is cheery, bright and clean, but seating is very modest and it functions principally as a take-out operation. If all this weren't enough, give them an order that is $10 or greater and they will deliver throughout the Amherst area. Oh yes, and they also cater to...

After having entered the cramped space known as Mission Cantina and finding the wait to be seated was an hour and a half, we decided to check out El Comalito. That was the best decision we have ever made, in my humble opinion. Entering the brightly painted restaurant, we read the menu of food to go and quietly spoke whole deciding what we want. Almost exactly as we had decided, someone came around to take our order. We ordered and waited for a little under a half hour, which was reasonable since the place had been empty prior to our arrival and thus the food required a little more time to cook, but when the food came out and we for home we opened up the most delicious take out we had ever had. The plantains were delicious, and the pupusas were better than I could have hoped. Everything we got from El Comalito was DELICIOUS. I recommend it to anyone who wants Salvadoran or Mexican food. Well done,...

As someone from El Salvador I must admit that it is a little pricey: a 3 dollar pupusa? They're 50 cents in Oloquilta! That being said, good LORD is it DELICIOUS and authentic. The pupusas are stuffed and fried to perfection for just the right amount of crunch in the outside. So full the cheese bubbles out and gets fried outside the pupusa. Fresh avocado in a burrito so stuffed that it tore upon the first bite. Refried beans so addictive I finished the leftovers on my friend's plate. The horchata is on point; just the right consistency, not too thick or too thin. Just when you think you can't keep eating you check out the desserts and the churros sound (and later, you find also taste) like heaven.

I was back home for 2 hours while feasting on all that glorious food. I expected goodness but I got gastronomic paradise on earth. Not enough gratitude in the world for this...