Mi Chalateca

If my mom was from El Salvador this is how her cooking would taste like. Strongly recommend, pretty much everything you order will taste like it’s made by professional chief with years of experience.

The service was on the slow side, but friendly, and the freshness of the food more than made up for the wait.

We love their pupusas. I’ve had all of them. They are all too good to pick a favorite. They have some tasty food. The meat and potato dish is one of our faves. The horchata is always good.

Got excited to fund an authentic and family owned Salvadoran restaurant near work today. Service was a little slow for a workweek lunch but the wait was absolutely worth it. Will be back soon for sure, although probably during dinner hour.

Everything made from scratch.
The tortillas are thick corn chewy crispy goodness.
Pupusas are excellent.
The Molcajete is 5 stars. Get it and some pupusas and share it all with your friends.
Ok, I will admit its not 4 star décor, but the food took me away to another world. some of the other stuff on the menu is just good like tamales, but the molcajete is fantastic.

Always great popusas. I’ve been here many of times, seems like it’s always busy. Parking kinda sucks but the food makes up for it!

Been coming here for years, best pupusas around. Pretty clean for a hole in the wall. Service is friendly and attentive. I’ll drive past several other salvadorean places to come here.

Please go and get your grub on some pupusa deliciousness. Authentic and extra yum!
Mi Calateca is a hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant that anyone in the vecinity of or passing through Federal Way should check out. I give it 4 stars because I reserve 5 stars for places with great décor, fancy food and complete dining experience. This is in no means to take away from the authentic deliciousness this restaurant offers, but it’s definitely a casual place.
I had a hankering for Salvadorean food — namely pupusas. This place was recommended and we had passed by several times. Since our first visit a couple months ago, we’ve revisited 4 times and are going with friends again tonight.
FOOD SUGGESTIONS: All pupusas are all good, but our faves are the revueltas and zucchini with cheese. Also, place an order for yuca frita. The fried yuca is amazing here and cheaper than other pupuserias. Eat up lots of the curtido (served with pupusas). .. and don’t be afraid to ask for refills. It’s just THAT good!

I really loved the papusas that we got there (especially the jalapeño and cheese). The staff was super friendly too. There was a lot of food that looked good so my family and I will be back to try other dishes!!!

$ 2.50 for each pupusa??? Man that’s too much! I mean they were kinda good but I’ve had pupusas before for less that $ 1.25. The place is ok but they need to lower the rates. It’s almost as expensive as ihop. Come on.

Used to eat there two to three times per week for almost a year and really enjoyed the lady that served us to the point that we would give her tips in the 35% mark in cash so she wouldn’t get taxed on those. We were there on 2÷5÷2015 and as usual we paid with a card and we tipped cash, we eat out maybe five times a week so I do keep my receipts for at least 10 days or until they settle with my bank and this was no exception our total was $ 54.74 for a quick appetizer and we tipped her $ 18.00 cash… To my surprise the charge to my card was $ 59.74 which is $ 5.00 in easy money. I can deal with bad service, not the best food but never with someone stealing from me. It’s really sad because I would even tip the cook and kitchen help. For Christmas the server (only lady that works there) even received a present from us for Christmas. We will never eat at this place again.

The atmosphere isn’t swanky or anything. It’s rather sparse, simple — matter-​of-​fact. It appears to be clean.
The service here has always been good. I love the pupusas, but the tamal (pork) left something to be desired. I tried it and then gave the rest of it to my dining partner. My dining partner had the chicken in cream sauce. It was really delicious. All-​in-​all, I would recommend this place. Yum!!!

First I’m writing this as I’m in the restaurant
The lady is on her phone talking about the tele novels with her cuñada wtf
Didnt offer me water
Still waiting to pay
The food is good but
The lady is still on the phone
Stop being on the phone!!‘
She most have alot minutes on her phone
Yo hablo español y entiendo todo lo que dice
Profavor sakate el dedo y ponte a trabajar

After seeing the reviews, we decided to stop here and try the tamales. Service was friendly and the décor was sparse and basic but everything was very clean. There is some bakery case in the front near the door full of dangerous delicious-​looking Latin pastries.
We tried the pork and the chicken tamales. The chicken was not very good and I think it was just a dud because all of the filling had been scooted to one side and corner of the tamale. There also wasn’t very much chicken. The pork filling was delicious, so much so that even the slice of potato (?) inside was really flavorful. The outside of the tamale was really rather soggy.
I’d get it again in a pinch, but there is better El Salvadoran food in Bellevue if you’re up for going that far.

I don’t go to many Salvadorian places often but Mi Chalateca is probably the best one that I have been to!
I was strongly encouraged to get a tamale here through a friend and so I did. It was very good!
Yet I was still hungry and so I got their Chile Relleno dinner and it too was quite good!
All ingredients here are nice and fresh which always makes the dining experience go better!
The service was astute and friendly!
Whenever I am in the mood for Salvadoran I know where to go!

Great service, very friendly staff and not to mention the food is excellent! I’d recommend this place for everyone the try, one particular dish enjoyed was the tamales.

OMG SO GOOD! Very authentic! their pupusas are THE BEST!!! You can taste how the bread/​torilla is HOME MADE. Their tamales are VERY tasty too!!! It is SO good!

Best pupusas ever! Try the corn tamales and the chicken tamales too! :)

Went here off a recommendation of someone I work with. The pupusas were very good! The tamales were off the hook!!! Also tried another dish that had potatoes similar to french fries and meat with veggies. That was also good. Will be back here for sure! Good service and great food!

One of my coworkers who is Salvadoran recommended this restaurant to me. She assured me this was the real deal. Her family eats here every Saturday afternoon.
The atmosphere is a bit crowded, hectic, and very busy. There is one very motivated gentleman running the dining area, taking the orders, serving food and attending the cash register. He is constantly hustling, but be prepared to wait a little bit for your order.
As to the food, simply excellent. If you haven’t experienced these unique flavors, start with ordering the Pupusas and Tamales. From there sample the soups and all the unique flavors