Hidden Paradise El Salvador (PUPUSAS) — Restaurant in San Bernardino

This is one of my favorite hole in the wall restaurants. They are one of the few places I've found that has pupusas with both corn and rice flour (harina de maíz and harina de arroz).

It's a small operation so it can take a while to get your food but it is definitely worth it. Ask any Salvadoran, the only way to eat them is with a ton of curtido (the cabbage slaw) and salsa. My favorite variation is the mixta which is combination of beans, meat and cheese. So delicious! I also recommend the loroco and cheese - it's a really delightful little tartness with gooey, cheesy deliciousness. In all honesty I have no idea of they use traditional cheese or mozzarella in theirs, but I don't really care because they are so good.

They have a great thinness to them and are griddled to perfect with beautiful browning. If you've had pupusas before I would highly recommend trying them with the rice flour - it adds a great chewiness to them. While you're there try the ensalada drink - it's got apple, mango, pineapple and I believe cashews and pairs great with the pupusas.

I am also a huge fan of their tamales here. Some of my Mexican friends aren't big fans because the masa they use is quite different than how Mexican tamales are made - they are Salvadoran after all. Instead of wrapping their tamales in corn husks as most people are familiar with, they use banana leafs to steam them. This allows their masa to maintain a good amount of moisture but it still holds it's structure well.

Lastly, don't underestimate the pupusas. They have a great lunch combo that comes with two pupusas and a small drink which is more than enough to satisfy most diners. As I mentioned the location is quite small so seating is limited. This place is a must...

Our first time trying pupusas. We enjoyed them! It's interesting how the photos look so boring and they all look the same, but in reality the taste is so dependent on the filling you get! They said the bean & cheese was their most popular, but we found that one a bit bland. We really enjoyed the chicken, shrimp, and zucchini pupusas! Each comes with salsa and a cabbage thing to put on top, but we liked them a lot better without that stuff. We also got the plantains, which were sweet and yummy. Tamales - The chicken one was SO good! It tasted more moist and was bigger than other tamales from stands/markets that we've had before. Really good! We also ordered a corn one, and apparently that just means it's ALL just the tamale corn meal. : / Definitely would not order that again.

The biggest downside was how long it took to get our food! It didn't seem very busy, but it took 20-30 minutes for our food to be ready! Plus, the lady did not call our number very loudly - so we missed it, which made it take...

Unfortunately this place is not a SALVADOREAN restaurant, as a native i know how a real dish looks like they are maybe mexican cooks (no offense), but they do tried to make a real pupusa but the masa its ok but they do use burrito style cheese, then the beans are not refried, the curtido is not made with water and clear vinager is made from pineaple vinegar and needs to be left one day before to serve with onions, and carrots ....they only use lettuce chopped with clear vinegar. The salsa is supposed to be made with big boiled tomatoes with "relajo"(mix of seeds and pepper) to make the salsa more thick this place just put tomatoes on a blender, anyway first and last time to buy pupusas if you are a true salvadorean looking for pupusas lets go to L.A because this place does not serve real salvadorean style pupusas they are similar but the taste is not sorry. Parking is accessible, easy to find and clean inside no bathroom for customers and no other salvadorean classic items...