Salsabor is a Salvadoran restaurant on Venice, just east of Western. Unmetered street parking. Been there for years, lot of seating. Service was a tad slow when we were there for lunch but they were busy, so that's a good sign.
Here's the deal: I know Salvadoran cuisine has other things besides pupusas but I've yet to come upon a Salvadoran dish that's anywhere near as enjoyable as pupusas. Under the right circumstances, a good pupusa hits many of the similar notes as a good slice of pizza: the softness of the masa and cheese, the savoriness of the fillings, instead of acidity and umami from a tomato sauce, you get it from the cortido and salsa roja, plus the cortido adds a nice textural crunch to contrast against everything else being soft.
Practically every cuisine in the world has some kind of "dough wrapped around fillings" and on that scale, Salvadorans came up with a solid, top tier example.
Alas, the pupusas experience at Salsabor was rather mid. The biggest problem was that the cortido — which comes in a self-serve bowl to each table — was way oversalted. I have no idea if that's normal there or if that day's batch was accidentally oversalted but either way, it was palate-killing. And ironically the revuelta pupusas (beans, cheese, pork) tasted under-seasoned so eating them by their own wasn't super enjoyable either because the dish needed more salt but the cortido was like solving a drought with a tsunami, even when used in moderation. The salsa roja here didn't do much to help either. 6/10
I assume maybe this was just an off day but regardless, this wasn't awesome.
My wife got the stewed chicken plate. That was pretty solid: the chicken was properly seasoned, not overcooked, and tasty. The black beans were delicious, especially when smeared on that thick tortilla. It wasn't the kind of plate that I'd go out of my way to order, personally, but it was good overall. 8/10
by soulsides
Dining and Cooking