La Carreta - Montréal

I absolutely adore this Salvadoran restaurant that specializes in pupusas. They also offer a variety of other dishes like burritos, enchiladas, and churros. It is a family-owned establishment that has been serving customers for over 15 years. It is the top spot in town for authentic Salvadoran cuisine, with friendly and welcoming service. While the service may be a bit slow due to the high volume of customers, the food is well worth the wait. It is definitely a must-try for anyone craving this type of cuisine. Plus, it is affordable and delicious.

This restaurant offers a diverse menu with a mix of Pan-Latin dishes and continental staples like burritos, enchiladas, and tamales. They also feature Salvadoran specialties such as fried yucca and pupusas. The flavors are on the milder side compared to other Latin American cuisines. The prices are very reasonable, with pupusas priced at only three dollars each. Despite a clear separation of starters and mains on the menu, the pacing of the meal was inconsistent, with dishes arriving at random intervals in no particular order.

Salvadorian home cooking. Family owned. Under-the-radar, low-profile type place. Colorful but simple decor. Smiling service. Simple, unextravagant, flavorful food. Worth a try if you are in the neighborhood.

Located in the area of Little Italy and La Petite Patrie, this restaurant specializes in the authentic cuisine of El Salvador and they are amazing. For the past three years in a row they 've been voted #1 Best Latin American 2013, #1 Best Latin American 2014, and #1 Best Latin American 2015 in Cult MTL 's annual poll. And with good reason!<br/ <br/ The restaurant itself is decently cute and moderately spacious with a simple look to it and a pretty patio outside in the front. The décor is nice, with bright rusty red painted walls, and regionally appropriate decorations and art. It feels authentic and certainly isn 't too flashy. We were seated at an airy table by an open window which felt ideal. I have had some experience with Salvadoran food in the past. There is a restaurant in Edmonton that I used to frequent called Acajutla that specializes in the same thing, so I was interested to see how some of my favourite dishes would stack up. The service was friendly even though they barely spoke any English and all of our food arrived in a timely manner.<br/ <br/ First things first, Horchata Rice drink with milk and cocoa $3.00) was on the menu. One of my favourites! I have spoken about horchata before, and to my pleasure this was the best one that I 've ever had! Horchata is a milky nut drink from Latin America and it tastes very delicious. In the past, I have found that sometimes this beverage will be quite watery. But not in this case! This horchata was full flavour! The nutty flavour was strong without being too much and I became aware that this is probably the closest that I 've ever had to what this drink is supposed to be. They also have several other beverages on the menu that sound equally as interesting. <br/ <br/ The menu is quite large and there are plenty of photographs to help guide you through. I knew right away that I would require for my meal to feature the pupusa one of the greatest and yummiest foods. However, there was a whole array of many dishes to choose from. One section of the menu was called 'combos ' where they had put together various plates of mixed items, and this seemed like the ideal way to order, allowing a variety of items to be experienced. I chose the Combo Enchilada $13.00), which was perfect because I was leaning towards getting an enchilada as my main dish in the first place. This combo includes a meat, bean, or avocado enchilada I chose meat, but I wonder if they would let you choose more than one), as well as a pupusa and yuca fries. Perfect! I have to say, I loved every single thing about this plate. Every part of it was the best that I 'd ever had. The enchilada itself was a bit different from the rolled Mexican versions that I am more familiar with. This one was made up of tender, well spiced meat mixed with deliciously stewy vegetables carrots, turnips, potatoes), with a sprinkling of of perfectly salty cheese on top. All of this was laid atop a crispy golden fried tortilla. The textures were excellent and I loved the bold flavours. This was simple but very good. I 'm generally never too thrilled about yuca fries, as I usually find them dry, dense, and way too starchy. Not so in this case! While they still exhibited the usual qualities of yuca, I found these ones to be especially tasty and not completely dried out. Saving the best for last, the pupusa. I thought that I knew my pupusas, but clearly I had not experienced this one. La Carreta makes eight different versions to choose from and I selected the Revuelta Con Todo type pork, cheese, beans) for my combo. All of their pupusas are served with cabbage and a spicy tomato sauce every place serves them with some sort of variation of this. The cabbage slaw is fermented with red chillies and vinegar, so it 's a little bit like coleslaw. The soft and chewy tortilla has the fillings stuffed inside, and then you add your own accompaniments to your taste. I have to say, this is the best pupusa that I 've ever had. The tortilla was slightly crisp with a bit of bite, but the outside gave way to the pillowy inside where the pork, cheese and beans were discernible enough for me to tell that they were all there. The flavours were so, so wonderful. I loaded on a bunch of cabbage and hot sauce, and every single flavour played a role in creating every single perfect bite. Everyone must try one of these savoury and delicious treats!<br/ <br/ We managed to save some room for dessert and simply had to get a Churros con Dulce de Leche Stuffed with caramel cream $2.50). I 've had several churros in my day, but this one was different because instead of drizzling a topping like chocolate) on top, the topping was already stuffed inside, almost more like a donut. The batter and dulce de leche was very sweet and yummy, however they served the churro cold, which I felt was a misstep. If it had been warm and freshly made, I 'm sure that it would have been incredible.<br/ <br/ I will come back to this place forever. Not only was the food incredible, but the prices were very low. You can 't get much better than that! Do yourself a favour and get to know what Salvadoran cuisine is all about. La Carreta is an incredible example of how delicious it can be.

I've had some pretty amazing South American food but never tried from El Salvador. Their specialty here is Pupusas which is like a mini thick pita filled with a thin lining of filling. Options were chicken, chicken and cheese, pork, and bean.You then add a dollop of their coleslaw and a healthy drizzke of their tomato sauce on top. I also added some hot sauce to spice things up. This combination is a winning formula and taste sensation!My other favourite was the chicken and shrimp rice. My GF described it best as the El Salvadorian version of the Yeung Chow Fried Rice. It had strips of chicken breast, nice plump shrimps, and crunchy veggies. Add some hot sauce and you're good to go.For a nice drink to cool you down, try the Horchata, a chocolate rice milk beverage. Comes in a pitcher and perfect for sharing.They have a nice patio for those who enjoy dining outside. Make sure you come hungry as the portions are quite generous. Oh, and I have to mention that the servers are also super friendly!