Los Caballos Locos

Pupusas! I just like saying that word.
Seriously, this place is awesome and worth the trek to Front and Ritner for anyone in Philly. The menu includes dishes from El Salvador and Ecuador dishes (where the couple who own the restaurant have roots), and everything I’ve sampled has been delicious.
Ceviche, seafood soups, tamales, mofongos, empanadas, plantains with cheese, and of course, the pupusas. There are so many more dishes on the menu that I’m looking forward to trying, too.
What’s more, this place is BYO and crazy affordable. I’ve gone twice with a party of four, ordering multiple dishes, stuffing ourselves silly, and each time came away with a bill of around $ 50.
Philly, please go here.

Best Latin cuisine in Philadelphia! I feel like I am at my family’s dinner table. They cater and deliver! This is honestly the best food I’ve had in Philadelphia. I even called my Abuela (Grandmom) to tell her to drive over the bridge and check it out – so you definitely should too!

I’ve been working my way through the menu, and have yet to be disappointed. I usually just get a bunch of things from the appetizer menu to get some variety. The owners are really nice and enthusiastic about their food. They want you to try it all.

Excellent food and service! We had the chance to dine in this establishment tonight while in Philly. The place is not immediately inviting, but the great and courteous service makes you quickly feel at home. Being from South America, I found a couple of the dishes different from how they are generally done, but delicious nevertheless. The food is made fresh and the kitchen is open so you can witness the cooking process. The food took a bit long to cook, but it is the price one pays for made from scratch. We got a chance to talk to the owner and he is a very nice guy who is passionate about cooking good meals. This little restaurant has a big future!

I’m so glad this place is in South Philly, close to us. We order from here at least once a month or dine in. The owners run the restaurant and do the deliveries too, all while being super friendly and very helpful. I love the cerdo mofongo dish, yuca con chicharrón, cheese empanadas, and arañitas along with the Ecuadorian sodas. We have tried a few other items on the menu and they’re very good too. The portions are huge like dinning at any latino relatives home, it’s a cultural thing to feed you a lot at once. The food here reminds me of my mom’s cooking, which I miss so much since she passed away in 2001. They’re a BYOB so when we dine in we bring our beer or wine. The place is homey and cozy and always welcoming. Check it out if you’re in the mood for South American food or just some good home cooking. Parking is a little difficult depending what time you go, since it’s located in a neighborhood corner, but it’s worth the trip. Be patient if you order delivery from them directly or through GrubHub, as I stated the husband (owner) cooks and does the deliveries. Delivery fee is $ 2 and worth it and the wait.

This is a cute little restaurant, hidden in a small neighborhood.
As soon as I walked in, I immediately got that homey feel. We were welcomed with smiles from a young man and his father. The service was very courteous, attentive, and friendly.
We shared empanadas for the table and I could have ordered that for my meal alone. So delicious. For my entrée, I ordered chicken fajitas which were really good, but I kind of regret not trying something a little more different.

Nice little family restaurant in philly. Fresh ingredients, friendly staff, good portions. What more could you ask for?

The small shop in south east Philly sells Ecuadorian and El Salvadorian food. They also do delivery within a 10 mile radius!
Here, the pork pupusas were pupusa-​ey-​: meaning always satisfying– the combo of grease, masa, and some salty filling, but not the best around town. If we are playing favorites, Tamalex and Café Canela are my baes because of that thorough greasiness.

I was more impressed by the empandas. I tried the crab and the beef. Crab filling was good and also not one you see regularly, but the beef were maybe some of my favorites around town. The stuffing is a stewy mixture of beef and potato. Now that I know, I think there is a fair chance I will drunkenly order about a dozen of these for delivery in the near future. It wouldn’t be my worst idea.

What a great family and great story — you are treated as if you are family when you walk in! This is definitely a neighborhood gem and should be treated as such; go when you want a nice home-​cooked meal because they will not disappoint.
I’m glad I found this place and have been trying different items every time I go. They have sweet, savory, and spicy dishes… and all are delicious. Make sure you get an Inca Cola for the meal, or better yet, as a dessert/​to-​go. It looks like a mountain dew but tastes like a slurpee. It’s odd, but it’s so good and a nice sweet treat at the end of your meal!
Good luck to Los Caballos Locos… great family and great food, I hope they continue to be a neighborhood stalwart!

Fantastic neighborhood restaurant. This was a great find. If you are in the Philadelphia area and want Latin food, this place is a must. The place is cozy and very clean. The staff was very warm, friendly, and attentive. We ordered chicken and beef empanadas to start. They are a must have. The flavor explodes in your mouth. For entries we had chicken and beef skewers and chicken and shrimp in garlic sauce. This was on the best meals I have ever had. Can’t wait to go back.

This is a cute little spot in South Philly. The owners are super friendly and helpful if you have questions about the menu. I am not as familiar with this type of cuisine, so I was excited to go out and try something new.
Upon being seated, we were brought chips and a spicy orange sauce. The sauce had some nice heat to it, but flavor wise, it was kind of boring.
The menu had two types of horchata on it, an El Salvadorian version and an Ecuadorian version. These are both very different from the Mexican version of horchata. We enjoyed both of them. The El Salvadorian one was creamy like a Mexican horchata, but had a flavor similar to barley or oatmeal. It is made from a seed. The Ecuadorian version in contrast, tastes similar to a red hibiscus tea. It’s fruity and tangy and lime gives it that tartness. It’s made from many different herbs. It’s not creamy at all.
There is a picture of a fried whole fish on the menu with a little side salad, but I didn’t see it written on the menu. They do have it, and the type of fish changes depending on availability. The choices that night were red snapper and tilapia. It was a no-​brainer for me to choose the red snapper. My husband ordered some kind of meat dish.
The amount of food that came out from the kitchen was insane. We really should have split a meal, but I had no idea. My fish was huge and nice and crispy. I liked how it was cooked, but it could have used some salt in the batter. It came with a pretty good sized bowl of side salad. The avocado on it was good, but the dressing tasted like bottled Italian dressing. Then there was a side of plantains or possible bananas that I really enjoyed. A side of yellow rice came with it as well. I am hard to impress with rice though and this was overcooked. Also, it came with black bean soup. The beans were pretty flavorful, but the one dish that was a little too salty. My husband’s entrée came with all the same sides.
We were stuffed and I didn’t even fish the sides. It was physically impossibly. My meal was $ 24, which isn’t bad when you consider how much food there was, but no one needs that much food. I would rather have had half of less of the portion size and paid less.
There are a lot of other things on the menu I am interested in trying, so we will be back. I think I will order a couple of small things a la carte next time instead of the meal.

This place was great. The wait was a bit long but the staff was amazing and brought us out a free empanada to try. The salsa is SUPER good (spicy) but I couldn’t get our server to reveal the secret ingredient; they really should bottle/​sell it. I got the shrimp tacos and they were delicious. Had to take one of them home because I was so stuffed. The staff also gave us free flan and some warm cider like drink (not sure what it was, but it was good). We will certainly be back!

Girlfriend and I went here today after seeing a lot of people raving about it on Facebook. We were the only table there at the time and were seated quickly. The menu is pretty extensive and there were multiple things I wanted to try. We were given chips and salsa to start. The salsa was amazing and very spicy. We ordered Guac, shrimp tacos, chicken and shrimp platter and an empanada. Our waitress brought us over an extra empanada on the house which was very nice. Shortly after that our food came out and it was absolutely delicious. We were both stuffed and turned down desert but she brought us some anyways on the house. Everyone there was very friendly and personable. The only critique I could give was the pricing on some things was a bit outrageous. The chicken and garlic shrimp dish I got was $ 27.50, which unless you are getting a whole chicken and/​or some jumbo gulf shrimp, the price point doesn’t make sense. However, the friendliness, the «on the house» items and the food itself made up for that. We will return without a doubt!

We shared like 15 menu items. Great: chicharrones, mofongo, tres leches cake. Not good: quesadillas and burritos had weird fillings, and pupusas were kind of dry and the slaw wasn’t great.
BYOB. Probably better as take out!

I was cautiously optimistic about this place. I love Latin American food. But it’s new and only has a few reviews and I’m picky.
Announcement: there is nothing to fear here. In fact, there’s only much to love.
LOVE the staff. Couldn’t have been any friendlier or more helpful. It’s a family operation and they make you feel at home. They also sent our comp apps and desert.
LOVE the menu. Ranges from things you might expect (empanadas, tacos, tamales) to the more exotic (pupusas, mofongos, plantain fritters). They also have American food for the kids, including hot dogs and Mac n cheese, and an amazing drink selection of fruit smoothies — many tropical such as soursop and passion fruit. And horchata. Salvadorean and Ecuadorean. (Don’t ask me the difference.)
LOVE the food. Low prices. Huge portions. All homemade. With love. We had pork tacos, a chicken tamale, beef and cheese empanadas, sweet plantain with beef and cheese and skewers. The plantains blew us away. Sweet, tender plantain with salty ground beef and queso fresco offered a variety of flavor a and textures that melded perfectly. The homemade tortillas of the tacos complimented the mounds of tender pork with onion and cilantro. And these weren’t tasting portions of tacos, God bless ‘em, these were old school, big-​ass tacos. Skewers were also enormous. They were well seasoned, cooked perfectly and I couldn’t decide if I likes the chicken, shrimp or steak best. Luckily I didn’t have to as you get one of each. Homemade chips with a spicy sauce that preceded the meal almost made me unable to try every dish we ordered as they were delicious.
LOVE the location in Whitman off the beaten path, the comfy dining room and the fact that they deliver within 10 miles and for just $ 2!
LOVE that it’s BYO. We brought a flask of rum and added floaters to our fruit smoothies. And, as always, BYO kept out tab down.
It just opened a month ago so it’s a hidden gem. For the moment. Go now, thank me later.

What a treat! This neighborhood hole in the wall has a friendly, family staff and delightful food!
I came here for a late breakfast and got the huevos rancheros — delightful and unique compared to the myriad Mexican food places nearby (way more plantains).
While our food was being prepared the staff provided is with cheese empanadas, and surprise flan at the end!
Great food and even better people. Be sure to check it out.

Great new place for Latin American food, not necessarily Mexican. There’s tons of Mexican restaurants in the area, so I was happy to find this spot that serves some traditional dishes from Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador. I was looking to celebrate Independence Day with pupusas. They have pupusas here, they were very good!
Also, there was excellent customer service, our server Patricia took excellent care of us. It’s a casual spot but it has nice seating.
I also saw that they do catering.

This place is game changer for the neighborhood. We got some take out tonight and the food was absolutely delicious. I’m really stoked they moved in and I’m newly smitted by southern Latin food. The family who owns it also seem very sweet!
I think this place is exactly what the neighborhood needed!

What a gem! We stopped in for lunch today and I am so happy we did. The small dining room is bright & clean and the staff were very friendly from the moment we walked in. We decided to order several appetizers to share, everything was fab! We had empanadas, pupusas and Aranitas (plantain fritters served with an incredible tangy sauce). Everything was delicious. If it had been socially acceptable to lick the plates we probably would have. We also had a delicious horchata like drink made with corn and a perfect flan for dessert. Amazeballs. Can’t wait to go back and try more off the menu.

So happy to have Los Caballos Locos open in our neighborhood. There isn’t much in Philadelphia by way of Ecuadorian and El Salvadoran food — but this place is the real deal. The food was delicious — we tried pupusas, empanadas, the El Salvadoran steak and the chicken nachos (they also have food that you would find in more typical Latin American/​Mexican restaurants — like nachos, tacos, burritos etc.) We were really impressed by it all, and especially enjoyed the homemade flan at the end of the meal.
A tiny family owned restaurant — we were really made to feel welcome with friendly service and recommendations. The food was a great value and was so good that I’m looking forward to our next meal here!
Heard they also do take-​out and catering.
Very highly recommended in the Whitman neighborhood!