La Carreta

A seemingly Pan-Latin menu peppered with common continental staples – burritos, enchiladas, tamales – also features notable Salvadoran specialties such as fried yucca and pupusas.

Flavors are more subdued than ones typical of other Latin American nations. Expect hearty, maize-based fare that is very easy on the wallet. Three-dollar-pupusas? ¡Si señor!

Although the menu clearly separated starters from mains, pacing was rather all over the place; plates arrived randomly in incoherent batches separated by long pauses on occasion.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Go for the pupusas!. The tamales were good, but not my favorite place to have some. I had the fried plantain and it was really sweet and soft like mashed bananas, not what I thought it was going to be, but still good with a dash of their spicy sauce. I like the yucca but beware, it gets your belly full quite fast! ;) I had the pupusas with pork/cheese/beans and the one with chicken/cheese. I prefer the chicken one. Be sure to put a lot of tomato salsa and cabbage on it! :) Tasted as good as in the kitchen of Salvadorian families I went to when I was younger (except in my memory they were more cheesy). Nice little place too, near the big windows and not too loud! Recommended!

A Go To Place. This is one of my go to's - it's Salvadorian cuisine but it's really tasty, filling and almost a cheap eat depending on what you order. The pupusas are what I usually get with a plate of fried yuca and to drink either cebada or horchata - on this particular visit I had horchata which is a cinnamon type flavoured drink, as for the pupusas they come with different filling but I like the cheese, pork and cheese, pork or cheese and chicken ones but there's other good stuff on the menu too!