El Salvadoreno — Restaurant in San Diego

There’s a few things wrong with this restaurant. As I read the reviews, I hope the owner or any of her kids read this and take actions on the issues described here (luckily from what it seems, it’s only their customer service).

I’ve been coming to this restaurant on and off since I first came to Cali back in 2005. Currently, the main reason for me to make plans and travel over 60 miles south is their tasty food, it has always been delicious (that rates 5 stars of course). I’ve always given their customer service the benefit of the doubt as they’re always busy. However, Thursday was a long night with more than a few drinks and not even thinking about it, i decided to go early Friday in the morning (around 9ish almost 10) just to have me some sopa de pollo and come back to life (as expected it was the bomb (burnt my whole top side as some of you may already have experienced—lol). As I walked in, there were about 6 people in the whole place. Similarly to what happened to some reviewers happened, this is what happened during my visit:

1-Per her facial expression, I felt like I just had cursed the young waitress and felt quite unwelcomed. My expectations are not high at all (as I rather be golfing on a Friday morning) but when I get no greeting and feel unpleasant to the server—that is a concer for me. *Of note: this is the same server they’ve had since I remember coming to this place (perhaps is the owner’s daughter).

2-I said to myself: Okay, no problem; I’m just here to eat. As she drops it off and walks off without even asking me a thing, I start skimming the menu. Perhaps three minutes went by and the other lady comes (the older much shorter lady—not the owner) and asks me: Que va a querer de tomar? I asked: what do you have? She pointed me to the back of the menu and as I started looking she walks away and tells me to look at it that someone will come back and take my order for my drink (I’m still cool).

3-Finally the younger waitress comes and takes my order for my sopon and this time after she asks for my drink I simply replied to her just to get me water. In didn’t know that glass of water was supposed to last me the next 45/60 minutes I were to spend inside the restaurant. Not once, anyone came to check on me or asked me to refill my water.

4-What happened to bringing the bill to your table and handing over your card/cash for payment? Once you’re done, you have to get up and wait till call-ahead and waiting orders are handled. Not to mention there’s only one cashier.

Three good things standing out and I hope they can continue: the decor, the clean bathroom, and of course the authentic and delicioso sazon de mi pulgarcito de America.

I know some may say: well, if you come here to eat and you like the food, everything else is secondary. Yes, I agree but certain expectations are set for those businesses which are in the customer-service driven industry. Let something like this happen to any American restaurant franchise (and I don’t mean fast food restaurants like Mickey D’s); it’s unacceptable.

Bottom line, I think I’ll start doing what another reviewer recommended: CALL AHEAD FOR A TO-GO ORDER or start going to the one in University Avenue (food and prices are comparable but better customer...

I have been to this restaurant countless times. They have by far the best pupusas ever! ... but the reason for only two stars is because of poor, terrible service. During rush hour (Friday night) they have 2 main ladies taking orders and serving. While we do love the owner and the staff is on their best behavior when she’s there they do poorly when she’s not there. Today I came to eat with my family and several things happened. 1. We had 9 people in our table and when we finished the tomato salsa we asked for more and the server said she’d get it. I got up to ask for salsa after waiting for awhile and once again the lady looked at me and said rudely that she’s get it done. Our kids all had to wait for the salsa, about 5-10 minutes meNwhile their pupusas got cold. 2. once done we set the tables together, ready to be picked up, on one side of the table. When the server came by she asked if she could take them and I started saying we wanted to place an order to go and she turned around and walked away. Completely ignored me. She came back only to take the order of the table behind me. After taking their order she came back to ask me what I wanted to order. My husband told her that what she did was rude and she said she didn’t meant to do that. It’s understandable that they’re busy but I think they need to add more servers. It’s always the same problem every time I come. My advice is to order over the phone to-go that way you avoid the terrible service. If you do eat there order to-go when you place your initial order. By the way, during the time I was there not one of the servers came to ask if we...

Terrible experience + service. But the food here is delicious. The pupusas were great along with baleadas de carne asada were good. This review is about the service and wait time. We were seated and ordered. A family beside us came after us along with a few other people arriving at other tables after we had ordered. They were all given their drinks before us. Then their food arrived before us as well. We didn’t get our drinks until 40 minutes of waiting. Then our food arrived 30 minutes later. When we paid, we kindly told the person up front along with the waiter that we would have appreciated a heads up about the food and wait time and that we didn’t understand why families of 4 or more got their food sooner and before us when all we ordered were 4 small items. The hostess and waiter really didn’t seem to care about us and downplayed our thoughts and concerns as if it wasn’t their problem. Again, the food here is great and you should most definitely give it a try. I just wanted to voice my disappointment about the lack of service, courtesy, respect for restaurant patrons and in general, kindness. If you go here, I’d highly recommend getting take out instead and if you dine in, I am giving you the courtesy to let you know it will take a long time to get your food. This was my first and last time ever going to this place. Hopefully they treat you with the respect and kindness you deserve and that you and your family’s order doesn’t get skipped and ignored like we were. I hope enjoy the delicious food, which is truly the only positive, good and highlight...