El Chalateco Tropicana

Stopped in after a long time being here in the past. The place looks cleaner and better. The service is gods and food is ok. The beer is ice cold. The only problem is after paying I noticed the server gave me a high bill and did not include a breakdown of items purchased. The prices are too high.

Came on a Friday on a whim since we were in the shopping center for something else. Saw "pupusas" and it was a MUST. It's a large shopping center so there is plenty of parking. There is also plenty of traffic so be careful when you are driving around in there.this place has some outside tables if you want to dine al fresco. There are plenty of tables inside. We were greeted and seated right away. Was met at the table with menu's and drinks were ordered. I ordered water, husband ordered a michelada and son ordered an horchata. When the drinks arrived so did out complementary chips and salsa. Husband's michelada took a minute because they were grilling the shrimp it's garnished with. I ordered a mix of chicken, cheese and chorizo and potato quesadilla gus. These were perfect in size. I actually took home 1.5 of them because the chicken one was filled with shredded chicken. Only got through 1/2 of the potato and chorizo one. Son ordered 2 pupusas (mushroom, cheese and calabasa). Husband ordered 2 cheese and 1 chicharon and cheese. The pupusas are couple with the typical curtido and salsa roja. The pupusas are also huge. We'll be back. We get pupusa cravings and at least we know where we can get them that is on the path of our way home.

I visited Chalateco with my coworker for dinner. I did like the ambiance and customer service was very kind. I did not like the food. I chose Tamal Salvadoreño and it was very dry. I got some Tortilla Soup and it was to salty in my opinion and tick. I got Consomé de pollo and it was good. I got Plátanos with Lechera and they were delicious. I got a Pineapple Michelada and I was upset because the taste in the beer was terrible. We call it quemada. This happens when you have a beer in the cooler and then you take it out and let it get warm then you'll take it back on the refrigerator and it gets these nasty taste like the peeling of a lemon.

The service was bad, at first it seemed like there was only one waitress for the whole restaurant. But we ordered and got our food. My husband finished his pupusas and ordered one more. We waited, we asked the waitress, she said they were working on it. Fifteen minutes later we asked again & she said "it's coming up", twenty minutes later, hubby said, gets go, forget it. We went to the register to visit pay & made sure we didn't get charged for the last ppusa we never received.

This place is my introduction to Papusas during my college days. They use to give you the jar of curtido. Came back to try it out after so many years away. I think the original location I use to frequent is no longer there. Food is still good. They have a variety of stuff from different areas of South America. Different flavors from Mexican food.

My friends and I were hanging out and I was craving papusas. I hadn't eaten here before but my friends said it was pretty good. They have a good menu offering if you want a burrito, gorditas tacos etc...I was impressed by their service. They packed each person's order individually and labeled it with each person's name. We ordered on Doordash via the group order option. What we ordered:Chili Verde wet burritoTacos:lengua, asada and al pastorPapusas: squash with cheese, mixed, fried pork rindPlain sopeChicken GorditaSide of riceUnfortunately I didn't capture pictures of everything as we were quite hungry and inhaled our food. From what I ate personally, I thought the food was good but would not be on the top of my list to go back to for papusas or tacos. I think they could definitely step up their game on the tacos.

The pupusa is 5 star worthy but my lengua/carnita burrito is underwhelming at best. Is it because I requested no beans on the burrito? I'll never know because I won't order that again. I came with 2 friends who swear by their authenticity. I don't disagree as I certainly enjoyed a crispy on the outside pupusa with a warm and melted cheese filling. The accompanying slaw is like Mexican kimchi that partners well with the pupusa.So why rave so much about a Salvadoran street food? It's the salvodoran pancake of a snack. No, it's not tortilla but it's flat like one. It's like when you go to Chinese restaurants and you order onion pancake. It's the saving grace for me. I saw the prices of other dishes and I'm floored. I don't think I can justify spending $25-30 per person for a sit down meal for this type of cuisine. I might be able to get away with a $15-20 meal if I just ordered these pupusas.Without getting into much detail, I probably made a mistake ordering burrito. They have plenty of options here as their menu options cover the entire Salvadoran/Mexican spectrum (at least from my limited knowledge). You know a burrito is average when you bring half of it home, and I'm looking for sauces to put on it.

Amazing and the price reasonable for the pupusas ! The rice flour ones were delicious and filling ! I ordered take out and it was ready timely.

Food is okay. Overpriced, there also aren't prices on the menu and the receipt doesn't have itemized prices so it feel very dependent on what you look like. I paid 30$ for what seemed to me as two "side orders" I wasn't expecting for it to be so much. Maybe inflation is a thing here too... but I've gone to plenty of better spots where the food is better tasting and not overpriced. The restaurant itself is dirty and most of the tables had trash on the floor around it. It could use a nice makeover too, I think that would help add value to the restaurant. It gives cheap food, bomb food vibes, but it's actually overpriced food, mediocre food.

First of all we have been to a lot of "Chalateco" restaurants and they have been great , but this one in particular, I ordered half a dozen of oysters they didn't bring limón for that every other place gives us limón , we ordered enchiladas , camarones empanizado and sopa de mariscos , they didn't give us the covers for it no spoons or forks , also the soup in the picture looks really good and they normally put atleast 2 legs of crab on my order , the only put the crab bone no meat , it was the worse experience besides them taking like 1 hour to serve us really bad ! Will never go back