Valencia Street Pupuseria and Bar: Sarita's Grill & Beer

Sarita's Grill & Beer, at 995 Valencia St, is one of the newest pupuserias in the Mission, and one of the few on Valencia Street. It opened in January 2024 in the space that had been Biriani House, and before that Dosa. The owner, Natali Juarez, was 21 when she opened it, and her family runs the place with her: her mother and her sister Raquel cook, and her sister-in-law Ana works the dining room.

Mission Local covered the opening in January 2024 and told the story behind the name. Juarez came to San Francisco from El Salvador at 13, and the restaurant is named for her niece Sara, who died of cancer in 2021. The family had cooked for years before taking on a lease of their own, and the Valencia Street room became their first full restaurant.

Juarez told Mission Local that she wanted to stand out and did not want to just stick to the basic stuff that everyone else has. That ambition shows on the menu, which runs from a $4.85 pupusa to a $38.99 botana platter for the table. When Mission Local's reviewer, Maria C. Ascarrunz, came back in March 2024, she called the restaurant a full family affair and described the dining room as cozy, yet rather elegant, with the family moving between the kitchen, the tables and the bar. The Infatuation has since added Sarita's to its 2026 guide to the best pupusas in San Francisco, listing it at this Valencia Street address.

On the restaurant's own Toast ordering page, a single pupusa is $4.85. The combos are where the menu gets practical. Two pupusas with beans and rice are $16.99, two pupusas with chicken soup are $17.99, and two pupusas with beef soup are $18.99, which makes a filling lunch on a foggy Mission afternoon. Every round comes with curtido and tomato salsa, and the handmade pupusas are the dish the official website calls its highlight.

For first-timers, the soup combos are the most distinctive order, because they turn a pupusa stop into a full sit-down meal. A bowl of broth alongside two pupusas gives the table something to share between bites of cheese and chicharrón. If you want a larger soup on its own, the hen chicken soup, served with rice and salad, is $19.99, and the 7 Seas Soup, the Salvadoran seafood soup, is $21.99. Both are priced on the same official ordering page as the pupusas, so you can plan a whole order before you leave home.

The bigger plates show the family's range. Yucca with pork, the classic yuca con chicharrón, is $14.99. Salvadorian enchiladas, the flat fried-tortilla version topped rather than rolled, are $10.99, and pasteles, small chicken and potato pies, are $9.99. Sarita's Special is the plate to share between two people: chorizo, beef, chicken, shrimp, vegetables, casamiento and tortillas for $28.99.

The botana, at $38.99, is the party platter on the menu and the order for a group sharing beers at the bar. For drinks beyond beer, horchata is $4.99, and atol de elote, the warm, thick Salvadoran drink made from sweet fresh corn, is also $4.99. The Toast menu also lists an item called crazy corn at $4.99. Note that some dishes, such as the pan con pollo, can show as out of stock on the ordering page on busy days, so order early in the evening if you have your heart set on one.

The beer in the name is not decoration. Mission Local described a bar where you can eat, have a beer and watch the game, which makes Sarita's one of the few pupuserias on this stretch of Valencia where a group can settle in for a full match with food and drinks in the same seat. The bar counter also suits solo diners who want a quick round of pupusas without taking a table.

The restaurant opens its doors at 11 am, so the bar works as an early lunch spot as well as an evening one. Ordering ahead is straightforward: the official Toast page offers pickup and delivery, with a $0.50 takeout charge and a $0.25 bag fee added to online orders. When we looked in October 2026, the page quoted pickup in 30 to 35 minutes, which is about how long it takes to walk over from either Mission BART station.

Valencia Street is one of the Mission's main walking streets, lined with bookshops, cafes and bars, and the 900 block where Sarita's sits is a busy stretch of restaurants and bars from lunch onward. A short walk north brings you to 826 Valencia, the nonprofit writing center whose Pirate Supply Store sells eye patches, spyglasses and other pirate goods to fund free writing programs for young people. Its storefront is open from noon to 6 pm every day, so it fits before an early dinner.

Heading south, the San Francisco Public Library runs a temporary Mission branch further down Valencia while the historic Mission Branch is renovated. Valencia's restaurant history also runs deep: El Majahual, a few blocks up the street, served the neighborhood for 23 years before it closed in January 2016. The 24th St Mission BART station is about a third of a mile from Sarita's, and 16th St Mission is a little over half a mile away.

Sarita's Grill & Beer, 995 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110, in the Mission. Opens at 11 am. Pupusas $4.85 each, served with curtido and salsa; two-pupusa combos $16.99 to $18.99; 7 Seas Soup $21.99; Sarita's Special $28.99; horchata and atol de elote $4.99. Online pickup and delivery through the restaurant's Toast page, with a $0.50 takeout charge. Nearest BART: 24th St Mission. Email for catering and group questions: saritasgrillbeer@gmail.com, as listed on the official website.