Rio Restaurant Pupuseria Salvadoreña — Restaurant in Garden Grove

The place is actually bigger than what I thought for the location where it is at, they are friendly and attentive, the food takes longer than advertised (they have a sign that advertise it would take from 20 to 25 min) but it actually takes quite longer, however the food was really good, fresh, hot and tasty. We tried breakfast #1 which came w a pupusa of your choice, I got the loroco and cheese, it was good! Too bad they did not give me curtido nor salsa; and we also asked for breakfast #3 . Bathrooms are really clean and smelled really good, I forgot to bring my phone and take pics🙁 , but take my word, it was clean and nice decorated, I actually was impressed! I mean, most places like this one have just a decently ok bathroom, but this one was better than I expected, matter of fact I wasn't expecting much lol. I recommend this place, it's clean and organized, friendly customer service, good food, nice ambience, tables don't have salt and pepper or any condiments other than napkins but im pretty sure it's because of the pandemic... Any how, again, ...

Honestly, the food is below mediocre for being a Salvadoran restaurant. My wife and I ordered the pupusas to try out the place. It had been sometime since it used to be El Carbonero years before. The pupusas we ordered were Queso con Loroco, Chicharron con Queso, and Ayote. The masa was under cooked and the chicharrón did not taste authentic. For many that may not know, most places add bread to the chicharrón as a filler to reduce their costs. This in turn alters the flavor and product outcome. The refresco de maracuya tasted like a kool-aid mix instead of containing real fruit or concentrated extract. The menu items are over priced even in this inflation economic situation. The only reason we gave service a 3 stars was because the servers were all well dressed, groomed, and respectful. The place was clean and well kept, but I will not recommend this location to dine in. Your money and business is well deserved elsewhere. For this in Anaheim is a joke...sorry. just...

Two things keep it from 5 stars: Not the largest selection of pupusas; they were missing a few that I was looking for. The pupusas were much more greasy than what I'm accustomed to, making them hard to eat with your hands, which I'm told is the Salvadorian way to do it.

Okay other than those 2 minor complaints this place was great, lots of food on the menu besides pupusas as well as a great selection of packaged foods (none of which I was familiar with). Of course the restaurant mainly caters to its local Latino market, but they had no qualms in speaking English or helping us understand something.

They also had a nice outdoor setup because the large indoor dining area was closed. Overall, I've tasted better pupusas in SoCal, but the service and experience here was good enough to make me consider returning. Maybe next time I'll try another...