La Ceiba Latin Food Restaurant — Restaurant in Ocala

I really hate having to write this review because Ocala could use a good authentic Central American restaurant. I've been here for 16 years and find the choices of Latin food in Ocala rather uninspiring.

We (my parents and I) specifically went for the pupusas. I am 1/2 Salvadoran, have been to EL Salvador, have made them and know pupusas are not an appetizer. Maybe La Ceiba doesn't want to be known as a "pupuseria" because the menus do not have pupusas listed, it's not even listed as an appetizer on the menu. The only place I saw them on the menu was in Guanaco entree plate picture which is something of a Salvadoran Sampler plate if you will. They are however, displayed on the front window of the restaurant.

Further, they must be a super dooper special order because on 2 "appetizer orders" of pupusas, 3 drinks and a baleada totaled almost $50 ( $46.62 to be exact). I found this outrageous. My fault for not asking how much the appetizer orders were.

An appetizer order of pupusas consists of 3 very good sized pupusas, curtido (salvadoran pickled cabbage relish) and hot sauce. My baleada super was 8 bucks, we had 2 horchatas at 3 bucks each and tamarindo drink another 3 bucks. How can 6 pupusas be 29 dollars?

I don't know if the gratuity was automatically added to the bill or what, it was handwritten and I just did not want to have that conversation with the server.

Like other reviews commenting about the server here , the server is pretty apathetic. She wasn't rude to us, rather very disinterested. She lightened up a little when my mom tried to engage her in conversation, but she clearly isn't happy being a server.

As for the food, it was good. My mom's order of revueltas ( pork meat and cheese pupusas) were tasty, she liked them and cleaned her plate. My dad's queseo pupsas were good , not as good as the revueltas though. I had to help him finish. The baleada super I had was good and filling. I don't know how authentic it was as this was my first time having a Honduran baleada so I have nothing to compare it to, but I did like it.

Honestly, the quality of the food and the fact that our bellies were satisfied is what kept me from an argument over the bill. However 29 dollars for 6 pupusas is a gouge any way you look at it !

Please La Ceiba listen to your customers and don't be so defensive on Facebook. Folks here love pupusas. Maybe you should consider allowing people to order pupusas as you normally would....by how many and what kind you want and charge a just price for them !

I really wanted to love...

The food is good but not worth the prices. My family and I only go to this place once in a blue moon because every time we have come to this place the waitress lady always charges us more then what we expect to pay.

My experience; So I came In one day with my sister and our kids (4) we made our orders which were 2 dinner plates about $12.99 each. That’s about $26 plus tax , well we got the horchatas I think they’re $2.50each so that’s another $5 plus the $26 , we got 3 pupusas for the kids cuz they don’t eat all of it.. they’re all little kids by the way... well that’s about $6 maybe so we got a total of $38 maybe plus tax I wanna say like $42 in total well at least that’s what I thought I was going to pay. When I come to the register to pay the lady tells me my order is $84.63 ... so I got surprised because I didn’t expect that at all.. I asked her why she was charging me to much and she said that my food was pricy I was like okayyy....????? (I was confused) when she walked to the back of the restaurant to get the owner I looked over the counter at the lil note pad she had and it showed my actual total which was around 40 something dollars and then it said she added her tips so in all that she was charging me about $40 in tips...??? Like really lady ??? That’s how needy you are that you’re willing to take money from clients and not let them know that you’re taking tips from they’re payment??? Like really??? I’m just disappointed I’m never going back again.. all my family was warned about this so they’re not going back as well... its ridiculous!!! Hope everyone who goes here gets they’re receipt with actual prices. Don’t pay...

5 stars for delicious. I had the queso and chicharron pupusas and they were delicious! the pupusas were pretty big and fresh. i also ordered the pollo a la plancha which was also very good. the curtido and red sauce where very good but not enough of a portion size in my opinion. i asked for more of both of the curtido and red sauce and offered to pay for it, the gentlemen brought more of the curtido but said there wasnt enough of the red sauce which i thought was strange. he didnt say they were out he just said there wasnt enough. next time someone offers to buy food from your restaurant it’d probably be a good idea to sell it to them. i mean if youre running low sell what you have, if there is none make more or say that youre out dont insinuate youre saving it for the next person that’s ordering,...