Dona Carmen Pupuseria Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Worth

My husband and I were in the JPS area and we wanted to get some lunch, but this was one of the few restaurants open on Christmas Day. The restaurant is located in a nondescript area, and it appeared to be a hole-in-the wall, but the restaurant has plenty of tables inside. We did not have to wait to be seated. As soon as we entered, a man asked us something in rapid Spanish. Neither of us knows Spanish very well. He had an English-speaking waitress, a young lady, seat us and serve us.

The menu was entirely in Spanish. The waitress offered to explain the menu to us, but the place looked busy, so we told her it's okay. We used google translate to help us figure things out. I ordered a corn and beans pupusa, a corn tamal, and pescada con tajada, which is fish with sliced plaintains (see photo). My husband ordered an item from the breakfast menu (see photo). I got so excited about all the options that I ordered all this food! The pupusa was scrumptious. The tamal was a bit like cakey corn bread. By the time I got to the fish plate, I was already half full. The fish plate was huge! The fish was maybe a foot long with as much plantains topped with a salsa on a bed of cabbage. It was too much food for one person, for one meal. I ended up having to take most of it home and ate some of it for dinner, but even then couldn't finish it. My husband had to help.

Anyway, this was an excellent experience. I loved the authenticity of the meal. All of the patrons in the restaurant besides myself and my husband were locals, and Spanish speaking. The wait staff was very kind, even if they couldn't all speak English. The waitress was patient with us. She even gave us a sample of their home-made drinks. We ended up ordering one of each: the horchata and maranones drink. They were very refreshing and sweet. The horchata was really flavorful. Although this restaurant is listed as a Salvadorean restaurant, it has some Mexican items on the menu as well as items from one other country (which I've forgotten). I recommend anyone trying this place for tasty...

Five stars on value. Never having had pupusas before, we all opted for that part of the menu, and, after I looked up "tamal de elote" on Google and found something that said it was much-beloved throughout Central America, thought I'd try one. Several different kinds of pupusas are available. All that we had were good, but we agreed that the revueltas were the best. Pupusas, for the uninitiated, are like gorditas -- the shell has the same taste -- but flatter, and without lettuce, tomatoes and cheese as part of the filling. The tamal de elote is really nothing but sweet masa -- think of a tamale with no filling that tastes like cornbread with an extra cup of sugar in it. Pupusas were $2.00-$2.25; the tamal wasn't much more. Eight pupusas and a tamal set us back $25. English isn't the primary language of the staff we encountered, but I found the staff willing to bridge the language gap with a little effort and patience on both sides. Atmosphere is typical working-class Latino cafe, with a big-screen TV playing dubbed "SWAT" reruns. There's a sign at the register that says, "Tu propina es mi vuelto" (your tip is my wage), which I took...

I'm sad to give this restaurant such a bad rating since the food is good. But I have never had such bad service in my life. I ordered delivery using their web site and less than half of my order was delivered. I called to let them know about the mistake and have them deliver the missing items I was informed that there was no longer anyone to deliver the food. Things happen so I kindly asked for a credit for the missing items. I was then told that NO, they would not credit me, instead, I was told my only recourse was going to the restaurant in person to pick it up. As I was in the middle of my shift that was not an option. I was told they would not under any circumstances refund me any of the money and it was my problem to fix despite this being their error. I spoke with several people and the answer was the same each time, they would keep the money I paid for food I didn't get. Needless to say, after being treated so poorly, feeling like I got scammed, I decided that I never wanted food...