Best Mexican and Salvadoran restaurants in California

At the most visionary Salvadoran restaurant in California, Anthony Salguero refashions his culture’s version of the beverage chicha, fermented with corn and pineapple, into a sticky, intricately sour-sweet glaze for grilled and braised chicken. He shaves cured, smoked egg yolk over herbed guacamole as a play on the boiled eggs that often accompany Salvadoran-style guac. He serves a half Dungeness crab with tools to extract the meat and a side of alguashte, an earthy seasoning of toasted pepitas, to accentuate the crab’s sweetness. Nicaraguan chancho con yuca, a slow-cooked pork stew, is the inspiration for a walloping pork chop marinated in achiote, grilled above glowing almond logs and poised at an angle, like a rakishly worn hat, over braised yuca and red cabbage.

Salguero ran Popoca as a pandemic-era pop up in Oakland before finding a more permanent home (brick walls, pale wood floors, shadowed lighting) in the city’s downtown. While he focuses on reimagining the traditions and possibilities of Salvadoran cooking, he doesn’t abandon El Salvador’s national dish: The pupusas are exceptional, made from several versions of masa using corn he buys from Mexico City-based Tamoa. Fillings change with the season: Jimmy Nardello peppers, minced lengua, oyster mushrooms. A dense yet fluffy blue-corn variation spilling chopped shrimp and oozing white cheese particularly wowed. In each case he grills the pupusas so their edges become crisp and fragrant with smoke.

In your glass? More new horizons: Popoca’s team of bartenders pull Salvadoran flavors (coconut, tamarind, chiles, sweet spices, even black beans and plantains) into boozy new contexts.