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Tita's Pupuseria
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
17 reviews for Tita's Pupuseria
I don't know what led us deep into the heart of the oasis that is Buttonwillow. Maybe it was the incongruous signs for the Indian Buffet just 90 minutes outside of Los Angeles (or 5 hours from home). I mean really- Indian buffet 5 hours from home? Either way, as we determined that Starbucks or Taco Bell wasn't going to do it for us- we found Tita's.
Tita's is a classic tacqueria- except they also happen to have amazing Pupusa's. On many subsequent visits, we enjoyed the Pupusas con frijoles as well as the pupusas con loroco, or just the plan pupusas con queso. They were all excellent pupusas, and a great change from the typical tacqueria food.
The kids enjoyed their bean and cheese burritors and quesadillas- and I also tried the fish tacos which were generally very good. If only they used cabbage instead of lettuce...
The best part, though, especially given the location, are the aguas frescas. On different visits they always had Watermelon and pineapple. At other times they had tamarindo and some other flavors I don't recall. Also- the horchata was awesome.
It's a great find- and since if you're passing through on the way to LA- or back to SF- it's nice to have a destination to look forward to.
i'm sorry this place is so far from home, but at least now we know where to eat!!
we stopped in for their breakfast burritos (bacon and huevos and chorizo and huevos), i know breakfast burritos don't count, but these were good! i'm not a fan of beans, but these were tasty (or thats what i keep telling myself)!
on our next road trip in three weeks, i hope to make reservations, cuz i dont want to have tita's pupuseria on my mind and come to find out they're closed for christmas vacation!
An interesting experience. Stopped here on the way up to San Francisco and was satisfied. It is a mobile truck so I tempered my expectations, as their dinning area is a make shift covered area in a dirt lot, with random tables.
The food was amazing. The clientele were mostly local farm workers, some of which were friendly enough to explain some of the menu items to me. A tad on the greasy side, but understandable for where I was. Worth a visit if you make the trip from LA/SD to SF often.
I ate at the truck last night, which was right along Tracy ave in a dirt parking lot just north of the entrance to the 5N. The tacos were incredible - the carnitas was some of the best I've ever had. I'd never had a papusa before, but I definitely will have one again if they're close to as good as what I got from Tita's. Oh yes, and they have Mexican Coke, made with sugar instead of corn syrup. The only drawback was that they park their truck at this little covered eating area in a dirt lot (it's quite a setup) and an RV pulled into the lot and dumped its sewage tank while we were eating, which did not smell nice in the evening central valley heat. I guess it's the price to pay for eating a truck. Damn you inconsiderate RV driver!!!
I bought land in San Luis Obispo County (sight-unseen) in a place called California Valley...a stupid move that I thought I would regret forever. Then on the way down to it, I discovered Tita's Pupuseria...ahhhh, a salvadorian oasis in the middle of the desert. This place more than made up for the bad land investment.
Now I make a stop here just about every time I go to my land (not very often) or so-cal (a bit more frequently). Everything on the menu is awesome. Try all the pupusa that they offer. I usually pick up a stack of some lorico (sp?) and the pork and cheese stuffed ones. These are the bomb! You don't know me, but you gotta trust me on this. I ask for an extra heap of the pickled cabbage cause I can eat a bowl of that stuff all by itself.
They also have great breakfasts. The usual mexican restaurant breakfast plates but in huge portions. Get the corn torillias with your breakfast. They are hand made by a fat girl, so you know they are good.
Saturday nights they would bbq out in the parking lot and the tacos are super good and super cheap. If you are on the 5 around that time, stop in, get yourself a few beers and a couple of tacos and get back to driving. You car is not the only thing that need refueling about halfway from LA to the Bay.
Enjoy.
Ok so now I'm all confused, I couldn't find the Tita's Pupuseria (for the taco truck), next to taste of India, so I looked around and this address is the closest location. I think everyone is confused and leaving yelps on the wrong ones. I'm guessing this is the thread for the taco truck, and Tita's Pupuseria Restaurant is for the restaurant (uhhm...right?)
Anyways, we were passing through, driving back from Nor cal, so a week of binge eating and Christmas celebrations and mountains of baked goodies. Of course, I had already eaten breakfast at 11am, In-n-out at 12:30p, and then at 3p was again hungry for.... something. The drive down wasn't too bad, but the taco truck provided a nice break from long languor inducing drives down the straight I-5.
Hello taco truck, you look so delicious, are you a mirage on the long strip of nothing that is I-5? Chorizo taco. All the stinkin' way. Tumbleweed blowin on by.
Tita's Pupuseria--just off the I-5 at the Buttonwillow stop--serves up Mexican and El Salvadorean food. I really dislike Mexican food, but even I thought Tita's Pupuseria was good. Everything tasted wonderful, and every other single table was full of patrons who seemed to be enjoying their food as well.
The menu has a little something for everyone. If you take after me and don't like Mexican, they have salads, burgers, and breakfast plates (I got the bacon and eggs, which were delicious), apple pie, and cheesecake for dessert. If you like Mexican/El Salvadorean, you can choose from anything from the standard tacos to seafood to soup and Latin American pastries for dessert. Tita's selection of Mexican beers and soft drinks is also quite extensive, although to Jen S.'s disappointment, they don't serve horchata.
Not quite the amazing culinary experience I had secretly hoped for, Tita's serves as a great pit-stop on I-5 for filling, cheap, *real* food made by people.
The restaurant may take awhile, try the taco truck a block down instead. You can also drink a beer while you wolf down your gigantic, super filling pupusas. Just trying doing *that* at Carl's jr.
Pupusa up!
We were heading home on Mon 3/17/08 and wanted to go somewhere to eat dinner. Our plan was to eat at In-N-Out in Kettlemen City, but I saw the sign that said Pupusas, Ice-Cream. I'm so there. So we got off I-5 and found Tita's which is on the Left side.
It's a restaurant, but you can also get to-go. We decided to eat there. FREE chips & salsa. I didn't try the chips, salsa to me was kinda blah.
I picked pupusa revuelta (cheese & pork) which is a Salvadorean specialty. It was ok, though didn't taste or see any pork. It was kinda burnt on the side which I don't appreciate so made my friend take it.
Also comes with a huge tub of cortida (Salvadorean coleslaw) and a mild tomato like sauce.
I also got a lengua taco which was fine. Nothing special.
Friend also got a pupusa-a squash & cheese one he liked better than mine. I found it fine. He picked carne asada taco I think and he liked it.
Our total was $9.75 or so before tip. Service is Slow though. Don't eat here if you're in a hurry.
This place is truly an oasis of some bomb ass food in the middle of buttfuck nowhere! After my last stop here in Buttonwillow I noticed this little joint, but it was only after I had already picked up lunch. This time I was with my Spanish speaking cuzo, so he helped make this experience a little bit smoother.
The chips were fresh, and the salsa was of medium spice. Now coming from only trying pupusas at one location in the bay area, I had no idea what I was getting into here. So I ordered what I usually do, one pupusa with beans and cheese, and a pork and cheese one with a side of beans and rice. Little did I know that the pupusas here are mutant sized! The bean and cheese one was off the hook, the pork one not as tasty, but I'm not knocking down any stars for that because I still rolled out of this place full! They also serve jarriscos, which is liquid fruity sugar in a bottle, but so, so good!
They also serve ice cream here, but we were way too stuffed to even think about that option. Tita you have officially won my heart over as the best location to get my grub on while driving to L.A!
Me amo Tita's! I think other folks do too, but since this location (the one closer to I-5) wasn't on Yelp yet, people mistakenly put their reviews in for the other one.
After a disappointing dinner the night before at the Willow Ranch, our dining options for this town dwindled. Should we bite the bullet and go to Denny's, or hit the restaurant back at the TA Travel Center, which was pretty much the same as Denny's, sans families and more truckers?
My hesitance to eat at Mexican eateries has good reason. I'm allergic to garlic and onions, and I can't stand cilantro, even in the remotest parts-per-billion quantity so this leaves a lot of their flavors to the satisfaction of other people more fortunate. There are exceptions like Juan's Place in Berkeley where I can get my food on without drowning in pico de gallo but the places are few and far between, not to mention I have a hard time paying $4 for little tacos that have little more than seasoned beef and a squeeze of lime. but I digress- we were hungry and I we refused to suffer another meal at a crappy dining establishment being treated worse than sewer rats.
After countless jokes about Tita's pupusas and a twiste pupusa (the signage had a missing r and s for their twisters, I guess a type of shake they make) - heheheheh- we decided to give this place a go. Even though I work close to the Mission district in San Francisco, I've never had a pupusa and my over curious palate said the time was right. My reasoning to JR was this- we drove into the town of Buttonwillow proper to see if it had any better dining options (it didn't)- they had another Tita's there as well, and they also had a roach coach too. I figured if they were successful to have three things going on at the same time, they must be pretty good.
We walk into Tita's and the young lady tells us to have a seat if we were dining in, which we were. it was pretty quiet around 7:30PM with only two tables of about 4-6 folks. My eyes keep bouncing all over the menu because I'm hell bent on eating a pupusa if not two, and something else authentic like lengua (tongue), cabeza (head) or sesos (brain). they didn't have sesos so I settled for lengua as it's usually tender, flavorful and not greasy as with other cuts of meat. JR ordered the three enchiladas roja, which he got one of each (beef, chicken and cheese). Our server was very helpful in asnwering a few questions I had about the food.
We also ordered a pork and cheese and also a cheese and vegetable (which tasted a lot like nopalitos-cactus) pupusa to try. JR said he tried pupusas a little while back, in Richmond on San Pablo somewhere and he said it wasn't anything to write home about.
It was too quiet and I like music with my food so I decided to throw some money into their jukebox and arbitrarily pick songs. Roger's method was to pick songs based off of sombrero size- mine was the size and number of chins (double, triple) and we seemed to fare well. The restaurant was filled with jovial music as we nibbled on our chips and beer.
Our food arrived and I nearly had a heart attack- the lengua burrito, which I had them NOT put their spicy salsa OR pico de gallo, but added lettuce and tomatoes and it came with beans and rice, was the size of a football. I shit you not. As I sat contemplating how I was going to eat this all, the pupusas showed up and I cried mercy.
The lengua was tender, not greasy at all, and not overly seasoned- just how I like it. I'm used to eating it braised and sliced, and this was chopped which I think I prefer. I also think it would serve other people well to have it with the salsa as it was a little on the bland side, but I can't take the heat!
The pupusas were great- slightly crisped where the grill had touched their sides leaving little grill marks, and tender and not too fluffy or bready. The cheese and pork oozed delicious meaty flavor and the cheese and El Salvadorean vegetable one was also very tasty and savory. It was served with this shredded pickled cabbagy carroty slaw which you put on top and a little squeeze bottle of mild tomato sauce- deeeelicious! JR said these pupusas were much better than the ones he had previously.
There was no way in hell I had room for dessert but their display case by the cash register with all different sorts of sweets was twisting my arm in a bad way. I didn't give in but next time I may not be so successful.
Browsing their menu I also noticed they served breakfast. What a shame we didn't overcome our hesitance and eat here the day before since the money we spent at Willow Ranch was a waste, but then again I'm glad we ended our stay at Buttonwillow with a delightful meal.
Thanks Tita, we'll be back for your delicious pupusas and other foods next year when AFM racing hits Buttonwillow again!
Viva Tita's!!! Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai!
I have to agree with Mortiche on this one. Wow! What a fabulous surprise!
In my effort to try something new and different and definitely better in the way of food on my I-5 drives, I decided to try out Tita's. I always figure bad Mexican is better than a fast food place any day. Lardy refried beans and layers of toasty cheese can make up for a lot.
I was thrilled to see that they also had pupusas. Our Salvadorean friends had treated us to these tasty concoctions a while back but ones I tasted after could never compare. Enter Tita....
When we first sat down, we were presented with the usual basket of chips and bowl of salsa. The chips looked store bought and stale and at first the salsa seemed bland. I prepared myself for a mediocre meal. But I was happily mistaken, the salsa flavors built one on top of the other with each chip. It didn't matter that the chips were second rate. The flavor continued to build into a fabulous crescendo of deliciousness that only allowed me to pull away when my mouth was completely burning with heat. I would have been happy with just that experience.
And then our entrees came...
Hubs got two pupusas, and I got the special, two tacos with rice and beans for a grand total of $10. Eat that you fast food bastards! I got one carnitas taco and one carne asada. The meat was perfectly seasoned and savory. We had planned to share, but I only gave Hubs a couple bites. My tacos were too good.
The salsa was so good I bought a cup of it to go. And now I'll have a little memento of our trip to the fabulous Tita's. When it's gone, I will eagerly await our next road trip.
I never wanted to take I-5 on my way to So-Cal because I thought that there is NOTHING to eat. Well, I decided to ask my fellow yelpers and this is what they recommended. It was great and I am so happy to have found a place to eat off of I-5! I am actually looking forward to my next trip!
I don't have to say much more because everyone else has already covered it. Good food off I-5? Not gross Micky D's? Go there. Now.
I never thought I'd look forward to the long drive between San Francisco and San Diego, but I'd almost make the trip just to stop at Tita's along the way. In a wasteland of mediocre food, Tita's is an oasis of deliciousness. On our first visit, we ordered pupusas and fried yucca, and although the wait was long (about 20-30 minutes), it was totally worth it. [Even my grumpy, impatient husband agrees.] The food is very fresh, and all of our food (except the delicious curtido) was made to order. Curtido is one of my favorite things ever, and so when our pupusas came with a big tub of the stuff, I was in heaven. The salsa on the table was watery and simple, but don't be fooled: it was fresh and a delicious, even delicate complement to the rest of the food.
The place is bright and everything is clean, and the service is friendly. The owners are especially nice and made us feel very welcome and well cared for. This place is a perfect example of some of the things I love so much about California's international culture: great food, great people.
Ordered a burrito and a beef soup.
The portions are huge and the taste was decent!
Some of the lunch entres were pretty expensive as well ($10-$13).
Points taken off for a broken toilet.
Like everyone else, we stop here for veggie burritos on the drive between Northern California and Los Angeles -- it's the best road food between the Grapevine and the Bay Area, honestly; we only eat the veggie burritos but they are huge, delicious, with wonderful rice and delicious hot sauce. I always have to insist fiercely on HOT sauce, as they look at my white boy face and think I can't handle the spice. But truly, I can...
I love this place. During the summer I work at a lab at Boswell company and I love this place for lunch. I usually take my own lunch because it's more cost effective but when I feel like treating myself, I eat here. I absolutely love their burritos. They are sooooo good. Everyone has pretty much covered this place. It is a great alternative to all the fast food around this stop, like McDonald's and Carl's Jr. The only reason I knocked of one star is because they can be slow at times, very slow. I was almost late for work one day but eh, next time I'll just get there earlier.
