Atlacatl

Fifteen years ago, when this cantina-style restaurant first opened, Salvadoran was a fairly unknown quantity, and Columbia Pike was only just beginning to acquire its reputation as a stretch of adventurous eating. These days, with pupusas almost as common as tacos, Atlacatl can seem lost amid the jumble of ethnic restaurants that line this busy highway. But there’s a reason this early settler has had such staying power—make that two reasons: the consistency of its cooking and the wonderfully good value it continues to provide. Pupusas have always been the main attraction here, soft, warm, and cheesy bundles that are not at all greasy; they’re available in five different varieties, including the strong, woody herb, which tastes faintly of something that’s been smuggled across the border. The accompanying marinated cabbage is sufficiently spicy. Soups are meals in themselves—sopa de mariscos looks as though it could feed the entire table, and it’s actually the smaller of the two seafood soups, a glorious heap of mussels, shrimp, and half-crab in a shrimp-based broth brimming with onions and cilantro. At $7.95, it’s a certifiable deal. As is customary in a lot of Latino cooking, pork and steak dishes tend to lord themselves over the rest of the menu, with mixed results in this case. An asado de puerco is among the better choices; a thin, impossibly long strip of marinated pork, it resembles a whole trout on the plate, napped with some terrific beans and good rice—though even here you’ll probably find yourself wishing for a bit more juice and savor. The lengua en salsa de tomate and the chorizos salvadoreños, by contrast, are both swamped in a zesty tomato sauce. Although it might be tempting to say that they're presentation represents a bit of a relief from all that naked flesh, your bloated, gurgling stomach knows better.
—Todd Kliman, July 11, 2005