El Zocalo

I cried. Can’t believe this place is shut down. My late night grub spot is gone. This is total Bull Shit. I’ve been eating here since i was a baby. Hope the owner gets hit by the 14 mission bus that stops in front of business. BULLSHIT!

Since it is the Day of the Dead, it is an appropriate time to acknowledge and mourn the loss of one of my and Jamie W.‘s favorite places for a cheap, satisfying meal, El Zocalo. Over 35 years in business, it was open until 3 in the morning, not that we ever went that late (much), but it was reassuring to know it was there should we need a late night pupusa. I was thinking of buying one of those skeleton dolls and gluing back the internal organs to celebrate their menudo, but maybe that would be too much, right? Now admittedly, El Zocalo didn’t quite serve the best menudo in town (…I tip my sombrero to Mexico Tipico for that) — but there was no argument in my mind that they had the best pupusas, especially the combo lorico and cheese ones, and the freshest curtido (photo:
).
And where else could you get an iceberg and tomato salad with homemade thousand-​island dressing all over it? I loved that $ 5.95 plate of Ensalada El Zocalo when I was feeling guilty about my girlish figure (photo:
). Combining that with that $ 9.95 oblong bowl of Menudo (photo:
) on a Sunday night always hit the spot. Jamie always got the $ 10.50 El Zocalo Combination plates because it was an obscene amount of food (photo:
), especially after devouring a basket of their chips with their spicy salsa. Sure, you’re thinking there are hundreds of places exactly the same in the Mission, but true El Zocalo aficionados know what a great loss its absence is on the cheap-​eats, late-​night dining scene. We’ll miss the mamacitas who smiled at us like we were Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin at the Hungry Heifer.
Don’t cry for me, El Zocalo
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild meals
My mad pupusas
I kept my menudo
Don’t keep your curtido…

Bummer to see it closed. :(
I used to enjoy coming here and it was always busy.
Always felt authentic to me. This will be a hard act to follow for whatever will fill the space next. I saw that they were steam cleaning the kitchen when I walked by today.

CLOSING forever in 2 WEEKS.
Thank you El Zocalo for making great food with love.

Unfortunately this is more epitath than review because El Zocalo is closing soon due to the retirement of the owner.
I have always really liked El Zocalo because of it provided among the best pupusas in San Francisco at rock bottom prices. 2 people can eat 5 pupusas for about $ 10 and be wholly satisfied. The diner like settting has a lot of old school character that will die with its closing.
Its replacement by Emmy’s Spagehtti Shack is a sign of the times and perfecltly encapsulates the changes to the neighborhood. A great hole in the wall El Salvadoran restaurant replaced by a popular hipster restaurant.
I wanted to encourage people to visit and eat the pupusas here before it closes its doors forever. — The pupuas are much better in person and hot off the grill.
One more place for great cheap eats bites the dust. I will defiinitely miss this place.

One of the best and most nourishing sopa de tres mares in town! There is a agua fresca called arrayan, ask for a sample.

A great dive restaurant with high quality food at reasonable prices. Friendly service to boot. And it closes at 3 am, a rarity for SF.

Don’t play music on the juke box, it is impossible to hear. Otherwise, the service is just ok.
4 stars because the food is amazing. Some of the best Pupusas in San Francisco. Worth it!!!

The pupusas are excellent! Their about ad thick as a finger and loaded with cheese and beans and other great fillings!!! We weren’t impressed with the service. However there was only one waitress. but my point is don’t schedule just one person on a Sunday afternoon! Well just my thoughts, but this is the place in San Fran to get some Salvadorean food!

Stopped by here for a late lunch. Not fancy inside, but the staff was friendly.
They have a few TVs so I was able to watch a World Cup game for a bit, but in Spanish.
Food was delicious, served quickly. And it was pretty cheap: tamale with salad, and a coffee (which the waiter came and refilled), chips, and salad, for $ 5.95.
I will go back next time I am in that neighborhood!

Came here for a pupusa and menudo fix, and it didn’t satisfy me to come back again. I felt the pupusas were greasy and flat in flavor and I’ve have menudo much better elsewhere. The rest of their menu seems appetizing and the restaurant itself is welcoming, spacious and great for groups after a night in the city. I would come back and order something else but I’m not in no hurry. Still looking for a decent pupusa in the city without going to Daly City/​So. San Francisco where I had better.
Best thing about this place is that’s it’s open til 3am and adds more variety to late night eats.

El Zocalo Resturant has been a foundation and the Mission district for well over 10+ years. The food is always been consistently good and the Decore has kept the same authentic & classic Hispanic look and feel at this location.
With a classic feel of this restaurant you also get the classic taste and flavor profiles. They have all of the traditional classic Hispanic foods such as: a variety of enchiladas, salsas, quesadillas, all kinda of burritos and what their famously known for, their $ 2 pupusas. Unlike majority of the restaurants in this area, that cook their foods in large portions in order to keep up with their demands, they use that as an excuse to skimp out on seasonings or herbs and spices leaving their foods bland and tasteless. Ella Zocalo doesn’t do that! They maintain loyal customers by keeping their standards high by making sure every dish served is filled with flavor and cooked correctly.
Unfortunately in keeping in that authentic theme, I feel that they should change their interior or décor. Update things such as the walls, the lighting or even the table people sit at, in order to keep it fresh but still maintain the historical aspect. I feel that if they made a few updates here or there, that the people who are unfamiliar with the Resturant would be more enticed to come in and eat. Thereby expanding their customer base to not just their loyal customers.

My family has been coming here since 1981! And this place has always looked the same, the quality of the food hasn’t diminished either.
Two pupusas will fill up the average person but ordering a third one and asking for a container to heat up for breakfast the next day never hurt anyone.
The pupusas are greasy enough, I would recommend eating here before a night of drinking!

Hadn’t been in over 15 years since when I lived in Glen Park. Place was the same, and for nostalgia, I ordered my favorite enchiladas verde with the highly seasoned ground beef. The first two bites were so salty, and I like salt, but wow. Then it settled down once the yummy verde sauce smoothed over my palate.
It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but It’s consistent and brought back tons of fun memories had there, and filled my stomach with yummy goodness.

Full disclosure: I was about 17 sheets to the wind when we arrived around 2:00AM.
Nevertheless, the place was lit-​er-​ally popping off, which was very surprising to me. Doesn’t anyone sleep anymore? We had walked down from Cortland after a birthday outing and were in dire need of some pupusas.
Our waiter was friendly, and we ordered quickly after sitting down. Salsa and chips were brought over and we munched on those for a while. The red salsa was bomb, super spicy, the chips were good too, but no salt, after adding some they were great: fresh, warm, and crunchy.
Now, since we were rounding the very wee hours of the morning, old Crys was a lil’ sleepy, and the food took *kind of* a long time to come out, so I wasgetting grumpy and was consdering taking a nap on my friend’s shoulder. Once the food came out, we were stoked.
I got one Queso pupusa and one Chicharon with beans and cheese, plus beans and rice on the side.
These pupusas are the crack, they were fresh and extremely hot. We had to wait a while to eat them but once we began eating, we were in pupusa heaven. The cabbage slaw was crunchy and light and I piled it high, dripped some of the liquidy red salsa over it, and made my pupusa like a taco.
Knocked off one star because of the crazy long wait, and the restaurant is not very clean, but win some, lose some, right?

Only 3 stars because the food was actually good.
However everything else was gross.
Walked in there and it has a very strong smell of a nursing home (which i dont mind but not when i want to eat something)
The place is actually pretty dirty, stuff on the tables and floors
As I ate my burrito I was expecting to spend the night in the bathroom. Luckily that did not happen. The Super Burrito was actually decent.

Good place to try when looking for a late night bite.
I always get the same thing here — a cheese enchilada and a chile relleno. It’s usually pretty good, but the last time I ordered it the cheese inside either item wasn’t melted enough making my dish fairly cold. I boxed it up for later and it was ok.

Great place for pupusas!
Food:
+Revuelta– pork, bean and cheese pupusa– honestly i couldn’t distinguish between the two types of pupusas i got but they were both delicious, cheesy, and warm
+Pollo Con Queso– chicken and cheese pupusa– don’t forget to put on that pink sauce and cabbage slaw!
+Jarritos– $ 2.00/bottle
$ 2.00/pupusa; minimum order of 2
Service:
Very friendly, but laid back (aka kind of slow)
Ambience:
Large café, nothing fancy. But I like having meals under $ 5 so who cares. They asked us if it would be ok to blare Mexican music. We said sure.
–Hungry Hungry Pongy

My husband and I have been coming here for many years now. He introduced me when we were still bf and gf many years ago and now we have our son asking us to get pupusas every time we are in the city.
We don’t eat anything else here but their pupusas. So bomb! Their chicharon pupusa is my fave. And we always order 10 to go to eat for the next few days ;) I enjoy their horchata and when it’s available my husband gets their pina fresca.

I came here with my boyfriend on a Friday afternoon at around 5pm. Parking around the Mission area is always difficult, so give yourself plenty of time to look for a spot! El Zocalo has open seating and very friendly staff which is always nice! Our menus were brought to us, our orders were taken, and our food. well it took longer than expected, but when our food arrived, it was piping hot and absolutely delicious! My boyfriend and I ended up getting 5 pupusas and a melon drink.
Cheese Pupusa — Definitely one of the top pupusas I’ve ever had! Their pupusas are loaded with cheese, not too oily, and very fresh.
I didn’t get to try the Pork and Cheese pupusa because I gave it to my sister. At $ 2 a pupusa, you definitely cannot go wrong with El Zocalo!