Pico-Union Pupuseria With Bulgogi: La Pupusa Urban Eatery

The Instagram bio sums it up in four words: not your regular pupuseria. La Pupusa Urban Eatery, at 1051 W Washington Blvd in Pico-Union, folds Korean bulgogi, al pastor and vegan cheese into its masa, sells a 15-inch heart-shaped pupusa for $36, and still keeps the revueltas and loroco that the founders grew up eating. It describes its food as traditional Salvadoran cuisine with an added Los Angeles modern twist, and the menu backs that up line by line.

The About page introduces the founders, Juan Saravia and Stephanie Figueroa, as Angelenos raised by immigrant families. Their food story runs from Sonsonate in El Salvador to the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s, when an abuela sold food from a cart and became, in their words, a legend at El Liborio, the Latino market in the neighborhood.

Square, profiling the business, explained that Juan's parents had run an earlier restaurant bought from his uncle before the couple launched La Pupusa Urban Eatery on their own. The Infatuation describes a history spanning multiple decades, locations and generations, now run by a husband-and-wife team who moved the family business into a larger space. Hoodline listed it among the new businesses in Pico-Union in February 2018, already at this address on Washington Boulevard.

The Infatuation, which rated the restaurant 7.7 in its review and included it in its guide to the best pupusas in Los Angeles, tagged it as perfect for lunch and for a serious takeout operation. That matches how the business is set up, with scheduled online pickup, delivery and catering trays, and an Instagram account with more than 80,000 followers where the couple posts specials, new fillings and the occasional giant pupusa being cut into wedges.

On the restaurant's online menu, a single pupusa costs $5.00, and that base price covers the classics: queso, queso con loroco, chicharrón, revuelta, frijol, squash with cheese, jalapeño with cheese and spinach with cheese. The fun starts with the upgrades. Chicken or al pastor with cheese adds $1, carne asada or shrimp with cheese adds $2, Salvadoran chorizo adds $1.25, and the cheese and bulgogi filling, the one that best explains the urban in the name, adds $3.

Vegan cheese is a $1 swap, so a plant-based eater can order the same round as everyone else at the table. There are also 50-cent add-ons such as mushrooms, garlic, pepperoni and extra loroco, so a regular can build a combination nobody else has ordered. Ask for curtido and salsa on the side if you are taking them away, so the masa stays crisp.

The showpiece on the online menu is the Corazón pupusa, a heart-shaped round 15 inches across, priced at $36. The listing warns that it takes 30 minutes to prepare, so order it ahead for pickup or ask for it as soon as you sit down. It is made to be cut and shared, which makes it the obvious centerpiece for a birthday or an anniversary lunch.

The restaurant has also become known for La Mamasota, a giant pupusa that The Infatuation called a ten-pound pupusa pizza and that one profile measured at 18 inches across. It is not listed with a price on the current online menu. For parties, the site sells catering trays: 15 pupusas for $60 or 30 for $120.

Beyond the griddle, the pan con pollo is the dish the restaurant puts in its own site description next to pupusas. It is $16, a Salvadoran chicken sandwich soaked in a rich sauce, and it is a full meal on its own. Yuca con chicharrón is also $16, and the plantains with beans and Salvadoran cream are $12, as are the three empanadas de poleada filled with custard and served with beans and cream.

Mornings bring a traditional breakfast plate for $20, and the online menu lists sopa de pata, a beef tripe soup, for $18, but only on weekends, and it can sell out. For drinks, aguas frescas are $5, and a glass bottle of Kolashampan, the bright pink-orange Salvadoran soda that tastes faintly of cream soda, is $4.

Tuesday is the one day every official listing agrees on: the kitchen is closed. The rest of the week is served from late morning into the evening, and the restaurant's own Square ordering system and its Instagram bio are the places it updates first, so plan around them rather than an old directory listing if you are crossing town for a heart-shaped pupusa.

Online orders for pickup and delivery run through the official site, with about 30 minutes of preparation time and scheduled pickups allowed up to 90 days ahead. The pickup note asks customers to show up at their designated time. Payment is unusually flexible for a pupuseria: the online store takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Cash App. Saravia told Square that his parents' generation preferred cash, and the couple set out to make their restaurant easier for everyone.

Toberman Recreation Center, a city park and community center, sits just around the corner, a useful spot to eat a takeout box in the shade. A few blocks north, the Alvarado Terrace Historic District preserves a row of early 1900s mansions facing a small triangular park, one of the most handsome blocks in central Los Angeles and a reminder of the neighborhood's life before it became a Central American hub.

If you want more Salvadoran food after lunch, the El Salvador Community Corridor along Vermont Avenue is about a mile west, lined with pupuserias, bakeries and shops selling goods from home. It is a better bus ride than walk from here. To arrive without a car, Metrolink's directions suggest Metro bus line 33 to the Venice and Union stop, then a walk of about 0.2 miles.

La Pupusa Urban Eatery is at 1051 W Washington Blvd, Suite G, Los Angeles, CA 90015, in Pico-Union. Phone (213) 749-4573. Closed Tuesday. Online menu prices: pupusa $5.00, Corazón heart pupusa $36, pan con pollo $16, yuca con chicharrón $16, aguas frescas $5. Allow 30 minutes for the Corazón, since the online menu lists that prep time.