Why go: For more than two decades, Irene Cuevas has reigned as the area’s pupusa queen, cranking out thick griddle corn cakes oozing with cheese and sided with the peppery cabbage slaw curtido for street carts, diners, and now this, her only full-service restaurant and bar. While Cuevas has sold the restaurant to her grandson and his wife, the Salvadoran kitchen is still cooking with heart.

What to get: Bean-and-cheese, pork-and-cheese, and loroco pupusas, the latter made of a flower bud that tastes grassy and fresh; sopa di pollo, as comforting a chicken soup as any; creamy, pork-fattened beans; a sweet-corn tamale de elote, steamed and served with a dollop of crema; tacos de lengua, with hunks of braised tongue spilling from two-ply corn tortillas; baleadas, a Honduran-style burrito stuffed with beef, avocado, beans, and cheese.

Best for: An introductory course in the variety and goodness of Salvadoran cooking.

Insider tip: The beef and chicken soups are available all week, but a special tripe soup is available only Thursday through Sunday and a traditional Honduran seafood soup made with coconut milk and conch is made only on weekends.

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