Pupusería San Sivar’s puffed-up pleasures

PHOTO by RICK POON

Even if you can’t see them, chances are the staff at Pupusería San Sivar can see you. That’s partly because of the two-way mirror that feeds into the kitchen, but it’s mostly just a simple fact of the lunch rush, the staff spread thin by eaters packed in for the restaurant’s peak hours. And so when you take a table, just send your eyes up to the TV and wait.

It’s inevitable that you’ll end up looking over at all the other diners, each table crowded by stacks of cafeteria-style plates scattered around the outer edges. It’s not a sight that’s always comfortable, but it’s one that at least builds up hunger.

But the real benefit of all that time at the table is that it allows ample chance to look over the menu. As its name suggests, Pupusería San Sivar focuses on the pupusa, a Salvadoran specialty ground out of masa and stuffed with everything from pork and chicken to cheese and vegetables. While those charred discs are the namesake of the restaurant, they’re not the only way to fill up. Still, the pupusas (each one a meal of its own for only $2) dominate most orders.

In fact, nearly half of the restaurant’s menu is taken up by the things. What makes the pupusas remarkable isn’t just variety—it’s that each one fluffs up in the same style as a flour tortilla, lightened to the point that they might as well be injected with air. It’s with that puffed-up edge that the pupusas are able to fare so well as a meal of their own, never greasy but always filling. The chicken and cheese and pork and cheese are both excellent, crisp little circles flattened out just to the edges of the plate. Some of the proteins get lost when you add in other ingredients, however, with the chicken, for example, sometimes buried under beans. The alternative is the squash and cheese pupusa, an even lighter option that trades shredded bits of chicken and pork for the tender snap of squash.

On their own the pupusas can lack some of the heat and variety found in other ends of Latin American menus, reminding unfamiliar eaters of either quesadillas or gorditas. That’s why the curtido is at the table, a pickled cabbage relish served in overflowing earthen bowls. Without curtido, the pupusas would still be excellent, weightless things that are a certain pleasure. But shove the tongs into the curtido and you’ll pull out the perfect complement—it gives the doughy discs both texture and heat, rounding out the meal in a way that no solitary pupusa can.

Even with such a good opening offering, San Sivar has a number of other excellent options. For finger food, there’s the chicharrón with fried yucca. The chicharrón is exactly the kind of deep-fried pork rind you’d expect, served here as blackened hunks that are impossibly crunchy. Alongside the pork is some yucca, big blocky spears of the root fried up in what almost eat like your favorite fries.

There are combination plates, too, including a plump order of Salvadoran chorizo. But the best way to finish at San Sivar is with an order of fried plantains, which come caramelized with such a sweet, dark skin that they seem all but brûléed. The plantains make a relatively starchy end to an already starchy meal, but they’re the sweetest and best way to wind down at San Sivar.

By the time you eat your way through all those dishes, your own table starts to get cramped, filled up by all those empty vessels once holding pupusas and plantains and all the other elements of a great meal at San Sivar. And so you, too, gather up your plates and stack them up in a neat little pile while you wait again for the bill, eyes almost assuredly aimed back up at the TV.

PUPUSERÍA SAN SIVAR 1940 HARBOR BLVD | COSTA MESA 92627 | 949.650.2952 | OPEN SUN-THURS 9:30AM-9:30PM | FRI-SAT 9:30AM-10PM | FOOD FOR TWO $5-15

Tags: costa mesa, Food, pupuseria san sivar, Restaurants, salvadoran