La Salvadoreña

It's early days yet for La Salvadoreña on Nicholson Road. Earliest day, in fact, as I popped my head into the building (formerly Willy's Chicken and Waffles) about two minutes before their grand opening began at noon. While the brick-and-mortar is new, La Salvadoreña has been delighting Baton Rougeans with family-run food trucks for years now (as well as a short-lived location in Tickfaw). 

Now that the Latin restaurant neighbors LSU, I reckon the co-eds won't waste time crowding in. The offerings are cheap, the service is speedy, the Mexican Coke is the syrupy jolt you need before afternoon classes. I never thought I'd be mad I graduated, and yet ...

My pupusas and tacos arrived before I could fill up on corn chips and salsa, with a separate plate bearing hot sauces and curtido (cabbage slaw to be strewn haphazardly over the pupusa). The meal is easy to customize, and the impressionable diner could be forgiven for feeling like she is the real artiste here. After all, I did hit upon the divine balance of just one pupusa alongside two plump carne asada tacos (the meat of my choice). And who but moi could drizzle hot sauce so evenly?

But La Salvadoreña's modest majesty reveals itself in the crisp pupusa's yield of pork cracklins and cheese within, in the corn tortillas fresh and dimpled with a heap of carne asada, and in the thin but piquant hot sauce, those potent drips that heighten every bite.

Get there before the rush—and if you make it to the restaurant today (October 26) like I did, they're serving free pupusas after 3 pm—or wait a few weeks as the menu flowers into full bloom.

Details. Details. Details.

La Salvadoreña Restaurant
3285 Nicholson Road
facebook.com/LaSalvadorenaRestaurant