The building contains a Latin American grocery store and a Peruvian/Latin American restaurant. There’s a glass display case with mozarella and a few other items as you walk in. The seating area is very tight. By tight I mean, the entire seating area is 10×10 (and this space includes the cash register and display case). The max capacity of the restaurant is 16. I was the only white person there; all the other customers were Mexican.
I ordered one steak taco, one cheese pupusa, and a shrimp burrito. I could’ve just ordered the burrito because it was so !@#$ing huge.
I ordered the pupusa simply because it was cheap and I’d never had one before. It comes with a side of curtido (think savory coleslaw). The cheese pupusa reminds me of a cheese-filled pancake. The coarse corn tortilla and curtido balance out the smooth texture of the cheese. This dish came with a side of red salsa which was pretty mild.
The steak taco was delicious. The meat was lightly seasoned and warm. The only other toppings were chopped onion and cilantro. You’d think it would be boring because there was no tomato, salsa, cheese, etc. but it tasted great. The soft flour tortillas were warm and soft. Best steak taco I’ve ever had.
The taco and burrito came with a little plastic container of green salsa. It looks like runny guacamole and I was afraid to try it at first, but man is it good. It cranks up the heat nicely.
The restaurant offers other dishes as well. Some of them come as combos with fries (which I thought was a little odd). I didn’t see a single “nacho” dish on the menu. When I went, they had a special that looked like a rotisserie chicken which a side of spiced apples.
The service is slow but friendly. I had to walk over to the grocery store side of the building to buy a soda. I bought a bottle of “Tamarind Drink.” It is by far the strangest juice drink I’ve ever had. I still can’t figure out if I like it or not.
Despite the service, I give El Jardin a solid 5 out of 5 for fixing the best authentic Mexican food I’ve ever had.