Kendall Pupuseria Open 8 am Daily: Rinconcito Salvadoreño

Out in southwest Kendall, far from the Little Havana pupuserias that get most of the attention, families on SW 137th Avenue have their own Salvadoran kitchen. Rinconcito Salvadoreño, at 15924 SW 137th Ave, calls itself a taste of El Salvador in the heart of Kendall, and it runs a long day: open from 8 am to 10 pm every day of the week, with breakfast, pupusas, seafood soups, cold beer and soccer on the television all under one roof.

The restaurant's own description is plain about what it wants to be: a Salvadoran neighborhood restaurant that feels casual, generous and culturally rooted, with pupusas, soups, seafood, breakfast, beer, Latin music and sports on TV. It is a sit-down room with table service, so plates come out to you instead of being called by number at a counter, and the menu is long enough that a family can order breakfast plates, soup and seafood at the same table.

It is also a place people find on the way home from somewhere else. One testimonial on the official site starts with a family who came in after spending the day at the zoo, which makes sense, because Zoo Miami is only a short drive from this stretch of 137th Avenue. Rinconcito does not publish an opening year or a founding story, so the best way to understand it is through what it cooks.

The live online menu lists the classic pupusa revuelta, filled with chicharrón, cheese and beans, at $5.15, the same price as the plain pupusa de queso. Loroco con queso, with the green buds of the Salvadoran flowering vine, is $5.70. The menu tells guests to feel free to order extra curtido or salsa and to say how they like their pupusas cooked, so ask for them well done if you like the cheese crisped at the edges.

Two house variations are worth trying once. The pupusa loca stuffs chicharrón, chicken, cheese and beans into one round for $6.20, and the pupusa ranchera turns a cheese pupusa into breakfast by topping it with fried eggs and sauce, also $6.20. The homepage describes the pupusas as handmade fresh every day, cheesy and crispy, with specialty combinations alongside the standard revueltas, beans and cheese.

Pupusas also come as a combo, which the homepage describes as fresh handmade pupusas filled with cheese, pork, beans or your favorite combination and served with curtido and salsa. For a table of four, order a mix of revueltas and loroco plus one loca, then add a bowl of soup for the middle of the table, and you will have a fair sample of the kitchen without over-ordering.

The biggest bowl on the menu is the mariscada salvadoreña, a seafood soup the menu describes as fruits of the sea with shrimp, prawns, crab and shellfish, priced at $20.65. It is a weekend-lunch kind of dish, rich and creamy, and it pairs naturally with a couple of plain cheese pupusas for dipping. The tamal de gallina, a hen tamal wrapped and steamed, is $5.70 and makes a lighter order.

Because the doors open at 8 am, breakfast is a real meal here. The menu covers both Salvadoran and American breakfasts, along with Honduran-style baleadas, and drinks run from café con leche to batidos and fresh juices. A medium horchata, the rice and morro seed drink Salvadorans drink with almost everything, is $5.15.

The smaller items make it easy to graze. A baleada sencilla, the Honduran flour tortilla folded over beans, cream and cheese, is $5.70 on the online menu, and a café con leche is $3.10, which makes a cheap morning stop on the way to work. For dessert the menu lists tres leches at $5.15, a soaked sponge cake that is a staple of Salvadoran bakeries and a sweet way to end a plate of salty pupusas and curtido.

The most practical deal on the homepage is the cantina meals to go: five homemade meals prepared fresh daily, available for takeout or delivery at one price of $60. The weekday cantina menu pairs one main with two sides, and the printed menu asks you to call 15 minutes before you come to pick it up so the food is ready and hot.

Beyond the cantina, the restaurant runs its own online ordering for pickup, offers delivery through its site as well as the big delivery apps, and accepts table reservation requests through a booking form. Daily specials rotate on the online menu, so it is worth a look before ordering; on Thursday, October 22, the specials were three pupusas for $13.50 and a bowl of sopa de res for $15.50.

The official hours are simple to remember: open daily from 8 am to 10 pm, including weekends. That wide window makes Rinconcito one of the easier pupuserias in the county to fit into a day, whether you want an early breakfast before work, a late lunch after a morning at the zoo or a late dinner when a match runs long.

Big soccer matches are the obvious time for a crowd, since the restaurant leans into sports on TV and serves beer. If you want breakfast, arrive in the morning: the pupusa ranchera with fried eggs is the dish that makes the 8 am opening worth it.

This is suburban Kendall, so the neighborhood stroll is short and practical. Country Walk Branch Library, part of the Miami-Dade Public Library System, is a few minutes north on foot, a cool and quiet place to sit with kids for a while before or after the meal.

If you want to round out the outing with another Latin kitchen, Casavana Cuban Cuisine on SW 152nd Street is a short drive away if someone in your group would rather eat Cuban. Farther south, Zoo Miami is the big draw of this part of the county, and the restaurant makes a natural stop on the way back north after a day among the animals.

Rinconcito Salvadoreño is at 15924 SW 137th Ave, Miami, FL 33177, in Kendall. Phone (786) 573-0343. Open daily, 8 am to 10 pm. Prices on the online menu: pupusa revuelta and pupusa de queso $5.15, loroco con queso $5.70, pupusa loca and pupusa ranchera $6.20, mariscada salvadoreña $20.65, cantina meals to go $60 for five. Metrobus Route 137 runs along SW 137th Avenue.