Pupusa Quest: Balompie Cafe

Welcome to Balompie. This restaurant is officially in the running for Aretha's #1 Favorite Pupuseria!

I didn't remember that I'd been here with Edher before on one of our first dates. I was distracted and nervous about ordering "the right thing"— I didn't want to make any faux pas! This time when I went to Balompie, it felt like the real first time.

Why did I like it so much? Combination of the food, variety, staff, location, and interior.

Location: It's located on 18th St between Capp and Van Ness, so super easy to find and right next to a million pub transpos.

Interior: Lots of tables. The middle of the restaurant is set up "family style" with 7 tables all placed together in a row. Big windows.

Food: Hands down, one of the best zucchini pupusas I've eaten yet. Subtle flavor but the cheese tastes more yummy w/ the zucchini than without. Trust me, it's amazing— and I'm mostly a meat eater. I also liked the beans and cheese, and the plain cheese was good, too.

Variety: This pupuseria has a larger variety of pupusas than other restaurants— that was fun!

Edher ordered the Camaron y Queso, Pescado y Queso, and Mariscos y Queso. He liked them all — (Disclaimer: Edher likes everything.) I found out that I don't like seafood pupusas— but a shrimp burrito can bring me to my knees.

Mariscos Pupusas

The beans and rice were fine, but honestly after three pupusas I was so stuffed I couldn't really enjoy them. I took them home to-go!

Beans & Rice 

The Staff: I developed a HUGE crush on our waitress. She was nice and laughed at all my dorky jokes. She made me feel cool instead of an awkward gringita. We were the only people in the restaurant so we got to talk to her a lot; I told her about my Pupusa Quest and she thought that was hilarious.

I'll be back soon!

Also: most people on Yelp also agree this place is pretty awesome.