I wanted to get lunch around Columbia's medical campus from somewhere other than a food truck, and this pupusa place looked perfect. It's a small no-frills restaurant with only a few tables, but it wasn't too busy on a weekday lunchtime and I got a seat. The woman serving me didn't appear fluent in English, but the menu has English and I was able to make my order just fine; she printed out a bill in English and showed it to me to confirm the items which was a nice gesture. I got two pupusas, one with loroco and one with chicharron, and both were served fresh and hot and literally bursting with cheese. They also came with a generous serving of a slaw/salad and a nice tomato-y sauce. The food was all spot on and incredibly filling, all for less than $9 including tip! That's even cheaper than some of the food trucks! I'll definitely be back when I'm in the area again. read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Loroco and chicharron pupusas - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

Everything was very freshly made and delicious! The beans that came with the maduros were especially delicious, as well as the spinach and cheese pupusa. The staff was very friendly and they played great music. Would highly recommend this affordable and tasty local spot! read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Maduros - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

See all

You feel like you're in a small resto in San Salvador. Authentic dishes. Nothing fancy. But highly interesting. Go and see.

My friend and I had dinner at this little neighborhood spot, serving El Salvadorian cuisine. It has a very chill and casual vibe. Of course I had to get the Horchata, but it was a darker, brown color. It was really yummy and to me, it tasted slightly chocolate-y. I also got the Pork Chunk and Cheese Papusa, as well as the traditional El Salvadorian breakfast. The papusa was a thick griddle cake with plenty of flavorful pork and melty cheese filling. The Breakfast included Eggs, Rice mixed with beans, sour cream, cheese, chorizo, maduros, along with avocado. This was very nicely plated and everything tasted delicious, and was well seasoned. The Chorizo was grilled perfectly and had some char marks. It was wonderfully tender and juicy. The maduros were soft, slightly sweet and oh so yummy! The eggs had tomato sauce on top with onion and peppers. I liked the way the eggs were cooked. The cheese was white, thick, with a mild taste. The rice mixed with beans was just okay since I'm not really a fan of that combination. The lady working here was very friendly and helpful, though mostly only spoke Spanish. Thankfully my friend knew the language. Prices were pretty reasonable. I would be open to returning and would like to try Pork Chop, Fish and Shrimp combination, or Steak. read more

See all

The papusas here are solid. Really big and the filling is great (not doughy at all). They're all $3 each and worth the money. read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

I'm a fan of both this place and its location. The meals delivered more than I hoped for. The entire staff treats customers with care. The interior design is tasteful. Adding this place to your plans is necessary. read more

I found options for every mood and hunger level. The team demonstrates exceptional hospitality. Their cooking reminds me how good food can be. Their drink menu deserves praise and their food menu deserves respect. I'm confident I'll return soon. read more

I don't think it is an understatement to say that this restaurant possibly offers the best value for your money in all of Manhattan in terms of how delicious, high quality, and affordable the food is. The pupusas are absolutely the highlight. They have abundant proportions, a heavenly fluffy texture, varied delicious fillings (chicharron, queso, loroco, beans, chicken) and are served with unlimited curtido and salsa. The incredible thing - each pupusa is ~$2. For 4-5 of these you will have plenty of food for 2 people with leftovers. The other food offerings are also delicious - the tamales, enchiladas and tacos are also excellent. The staff is very friendly, helpful, aaccommodating. The location is clean and comfortable. read more

Walked and felt like I was transported to someone's tias place. The smell of the food and music instantly hits you & you're ready to chow down asap because you know it's about to hit. The food did not disappoint. It was as expected. The pupusas were 10/10. They have cortido and a tomato based salsa that is not spicy (for me) but has a hint of spice. Very tasty if you're a sauce person. I drenched my pupusas in it with the cortido (cabbage) Tamarindo drink 10/10 Platanos 7/10 - were a little dry This place would have been the perfect spot to watch the World Cup. I wish I would have found it earlier. The service was great, super friendly and accommodating. They made sure to check in on us and the food was out very fast. Also super affordable! It's all home made and won't break the bank. Important for me as a grad student. read more

See all

This is a great hole in the wall, no frills, old school spot with authentic Salvadorian food. Food is made fresh, so be prepared for a long wait. Took forever to get the check too, don't come here if you're in a rush. ;) We shared a variety of things; cheese pupusa, bean and cheese pupusa, tamal de elote con crema (corn tamale) and platano frito con crema y frijol (fried sweet plantains). Everything came out delicious. I had never tried the corn tamale and it was such a good combination with the fresh crema (sour cream, but better). They also had jars with curtido (cabbage relish) and hot sauces for you to enjoy with your meal. read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Tamal de elote con crema (get this!), platano frito con crema y frijol, pupusa de queso y pupusa de queso y frijol (cheese and bean) - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

the pupusas are delicious I recomen this place. I recomen to order with time because take time to prepare. read more

Amazing pupusas Ordered cheese and frijoles and cheese and chicharrón along with jugo de chinola. Clean, amazing service and order comes with a side of slaw. First time and will go back. read more

Amazing pupusas!!!! Staff is super friendly and food is always hot! Music is always playing too so never a dull moment.

Don't let me be the first to tell you this is one of many Salvadorean restaurants in Washington Heights. According to the New York Times article, "A Salvadoran Renaissance On Dominican Streets." Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant is one of three Salvadorean restaurants within walking distance of Broadway (0.8 miles - or 15 minutes). With this said, allow me to explain why this place gets a bad reputation. Other's have mentioned, the wait times are hit or miss. If you are not one to wait for homemade pupusas, this place is not for you. I have phonedin order and waited, I have ordered there, and also waited. Just mentally prepare to wait. If you are willing to wait, grab a seat, place your order, ask for a beer ($3.75 - $4.00) and enjoy the 15-30 minute conversation with who you are with. I recommend getting a Negra Model (amber) or Modelo Special (lager). If you are alone, they have a jukebox to keep you entertained. I love how there is such a diverse taste music that is representative of Washington Heights. My favorite item on the menu is the pupusas revueltas (pork and cheese). The pupusa is equal parts cheesy and tasty. Each pupusa will run you $1.75. If you are starving, order three to four. My other favorite Item on the menu is the combination plate with platanos fritos, with sour cream ($7.00). This plate should be shared with someone. I hope the stated reasons will help you put up with the wait times and help you enjoy such a tasty pupusa. Don't forget to be adventurous and add both the curtido (slaw) and tomato based sauce. You are in for a hot treat. read more

I first came here around 2007 with my Salvadoran friend. Thanks to her I've been coming here since. The food is fresh and I delicious. The prices are great. And while you wait you can have a beer. The only con will have to be that they get crowded at times and I've had to wait around 30-40 minutes for a small order but it's understandable. It's a tiny restaurant so I usually take my food to go. This place isn't glamorous but the food makes up for all the bad. read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Pupusas de frijoles con queso. The best! - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

Hole in the wall place on broadway that serves Salvadorean food, eg. Pupusas! I was craving pupusas and happened on this place. Walked in and it has reggaeton to merengue, and other latin top 40s playing. A few tables inside and bar seating as well. Speaking spanish might help some at this spot, but Im sure they'd accommodate you just as well seeing as their menus are bilingual. The lady working the order station wasn't super friendly but def just did her job. No complaints and didn't have to stand around waiting to order. Okay, so for the food--I only ordered the pupusas (1 cheese and beans, one beans and pork rinds) and tamarind juice. The tamarind juice was sizable but a bit sweet (I don't tend to like sweet things though.) The bean and cheese pupusa was DELICIOUS. The pork rind one was decent. I love that they packed them with a side of the awesome red sauce and their cole slaw. Also, at a 1.50$ a pupusa, I can't beat that deal! Had to wait a good 10 mins for my order to come out but the music kept me distracted...I'll probably order ahead and pick up my order next time. Also, looked around to the tables and the orders looked GOOD and really hearty. I'll have to come back and try some of their bigger dishes next time. Check them out! read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Photo of the back of the menu--Pupusas! - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

There are ALWAYS nasty men staring at this place but the food is great! I recommend the carne asada lunch with arroz and frijoles. (Steak, rice, and beans) It comes with a little tomato and onion salad on the side. Yum! read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant in Manhattan, New York City: I am Salvadorean and do know my Pupusas and Curtido extremely well, but this restaurant is NOT, and I repeat NOT authentic Salvadorean food!! Pupusas are made with with some smelly tasteless cheese we don't use in El Salvador. Also, the Curtido is chopped or cut in million pieces and has nothing in it like typical Salvadorean spices like Oregano, Vinegar, etc. This restaurant does not sell Salvadorean food it is a DECEPTION!!!!. read more

Absolutely love it! Great service and even better food. My family and I have been coming here since I was a young girl and no matter where we live this is the place to come to for amazing Pupusa. read more

Pupusas. Just learn that world and learn to love them. They are crack, mixed with harina, frijoles, queso and other goodies, and damn, I'm a fiend. I'd literally smoke these things if there was a way too. They make them so well here too, with a great number of choices as to what to throw in there. I'd recommend the chicharron y queso, the espinacas y queso, or just the regular old bean and cheese. You can't go wrong. Be sure to smother them in the cabbage and salsa, as that combination is lethal. So good. So good, in fact, I've never really ordered anything else here. You really don't need to. I'm sure the other food is equally delicious, but I'd much rather order 15 pupusas, gorge myself, and then fall asleep in my chair for about a half. Mi gente de uptown, stop sleeping on this place. It's a gem! read more

Service is horrible! If your not a guy who is single and ready to mingle these waiters just totally ignore you. I had to constantly flag them down for everything. Water. Our drinks. Napkins. Forks. Knives. Check. My change. It was ridiculous. To top it off, it was pretty empty only two other tables with men. So if you're really cravin (pupusas) this go to 187th and Broadway or call and pick it up.by the way, it take them forever to make them so don't go there hungry. The service is much better and the food taste the same at 187. read more

Best Salvadoreñean restaurant from the 3 I know in the area. The food is amazing. The service is a bit slow if you are in a rush. But every single dish I've tried here is great. Any of the lunch specials or the seafood or fish, the pupusas. I always feel I'm outside in a different country. Very warm feeling. Go relax and enjoy a great salvadoreñean home-cooked meal. read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Pollo guisado con papas, arroz, ensalada. Y una pupusa de queso. - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

Confusing little joint. Functionally you have no idea if you're to just grab a seat and wait to be served or just stand there looking stupid until someone comes to seat you. Takeout is worse. There isn't any place in the joint conducive to an over the counter interaction. There is a bar that has 4 seats that takeout orders are conducted from but reaching over and handing cash and receiving food in between bar patrons is odd. The lighting is non existent but that is something you are well aware of while you're outside looking in. Their only light sourcing is the ambient light and the neon lights that run along the perimeter. Other than that its pretty obscure. The tables are squished so close together to the point there has to have been a fight or two in that joint just based upon space alone. The loud jukebox and loud clientele are a bad mix. I didn't realize I was in a night club. They had about 20 customers in there but still. It took 5 minutes of standing behind the seated patrons at the bar for anyone who works there to as much as acknowledge my existence. And after I ordered and asked the wait time for takeout, I was told 20 minutes. Look. I cook my own food in 20 minutes. A quesadilla doesn't take that long. The Chinese joint two doors down is half that amount of time. I want to know how they make their horchata. The sweetness was too heavy. Rice flour and cinnamon I tasted. I think they spike it with their own sugar. Something was off. The quesadilla was so-so. It's traditional - one tortilla on top of another tortilla with food in between. Not just one tortilla folded over which is good. But they smothered it on top with half sour cream and half salsa. Kinda like a half and half pizza. Also odd. Total time from entry to exit (for takeout mind you) was 30 minutes which is 3x as long as I'm willing to tolerate. You can tell they're trying and they mean well but I will not be returning. read more

The food was good and the price was fantastic. But the service was SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. So slow I knocked two stars off, which should tell you something. The food itself was solid and tasty. read more

Mi Paso Centroamericano Restaurant - Place is called Mi Paso, not El Paso - Latin American Near Me - New York, New York

See all

The food was good. Better than a lot of food I have had in the neighborhood... actually since I have been living in NYC. I have been feinding for some gallo pinto. The moro at the Dominican spots doesn't quite do it for me. The casamiento here was closer and it was good. It needed a little bit of salt, nothing I couldn't handle myself. I realized too late that mine and "the boy's" orders were swapped and he got my cheese pupusa. (How'd it take me so long? I am ashamed!) I noticed some remainder cheese on his plate (you know, that cheese that seeps out when the pupusa is on the griddle and gets all brown. ohhh yeah) and immediately upon tasting.... OMG there was the cheese. AMAZING cheese. I had his revueltas: one with beans and chicharron and the other with cheese and chicharron. The beans and chicharron was definitely better. *Definitely* going back for my cheese pupusa and will update based on my experience. The encurtido de repollo and the salsa were just okay. The encurtido wasn't tangy enough and the salsa was just meh. Oh and they charged me a grip for crema (sour cream). Probably would've been more bang for my buck if I'd ordered maduros (ripe plantains) with crema. In the end, this place was okay. If you have had homemade pupusas or just awesome pupusas on the west coast, you might be a little disappointed. But, I mean, it'll do. read more

Okay so i came with my best friend and we started with the ELOte con crema it was amazing appetizer, i had the tamarindo juice and it was delicious and refreshing, we had one chicken taco each and poured the elote crema leftover in the tacos and WOW AMAzing spectacular idea, and then we ordered more tacos lol....SO I WANNA MAKE ONE THING CLEAR, what makes this place special is that they take their time with bringing the food out. We ordered everything at once but it was brought to us one at a time which helped us not get as full as quickly! Def recommend 10/10 lowkey spot in the heights! read more

As previous said, hole in the wall but the food is priced so good and it taste great! This place deserves 5 stars, hard working employees as well. read more

Amazing pupusas and their chicken asado lunch special is delicious every time. Great portions

Yum! Great pupusas with all the usual trimmings of pickles and salsa. Nice and affordable too. They have all kinds of fillings including loroco (a flavorful flower) and can also make rice flour pupusas which are crispier on the edges. Beer is cheap and the ranchero / reggaeton blasts pretty loud. Try the plato tipico Salvadoreno to add some diversity in your meal (including some tasty eggs.) The waitress we had was nice and tickled at our halfways decent attempts to speak Spanish (if I do say so myself.) This place is steps from my girlfriend's work at the NY Presbyterian so why fight it? I see myself here at least once a month. read more

This place is awesome and has free delivery! The papusa's are great and the soups taste just like my abuela's. Everything is also priced well, one of the cheapest and most delicious spots. Our go to spot in the heights. read more

The place was good and 100% authentic but the wait time was way longer than any NYC dweller would like. I do rexommend you visit and have their famous pupusas de queso, cerdo y queso, frita...has their version or Orchata and was a bit dissapointed as it was watery. read more

See all

I don't live in Washington Heights anymore, but my fiancé does. More or less. Officially, his bed, his cat, and all of his things live with me in the Upper West Side. Unofficially, he's a slave to the medical training system and never leaves the hospital. Woe is me. "Is David even still alive?" my friend once said. "Unclear," I said. "Let's check the kitchen." So we strolled into the kitchen, where I peered at the edges of the sink and spotted a few flecks of those telltale signs of life: espresso grounds. "Using my deductive powers to analyze these coffee grounds," I said, trying to look exactly like Benedict Cumberbatch from Sherlock, "it seems that as of 4:00 this morning he was still alive and of sufficient physical status to operate the coffee pot." "This is sad," my friend said. "Your life is sad." Indeed it was. So I resolved to take time out of my busy schedule of unemployment and self-loathing to spend more time having lunch with David in the Heights. The bad thing about this is, of course, that I have to leave my apartment and expose myself to sunlight and the world of the living. But the good thing about this, it turns out, is El Paso Centroamericano. I have a special relationship with pupusas, and the bean and cheese pupusas here really hit the spot. They've got a good ratio of filling to tortilla, truly excellent curtido (the most important part, in my opinion), and tasty salsa. On top of all that, they're dirt cheap -- so who can complain? For the yummy food, friendly service, and great prices, they get four stars. But for making it possible for me to 1. visually verify that my fiancé is still a living person, and 2. use the words "Benedict Cumberbatch" in my review (how GREAT is that name!?), they most definitely earn the full Monty of all five stars. read more

PUPUSA! I am so happy this place is so close. They have delicious rice flour pupusas which I don't see everywhere, and really tasty spinach and cheese, chicharron, and chicken pupusas. The big jar of pickled vegetables on the table sealed the deal (although it does strike me as problematic depending on how clean the table before you was...). Pupusas are no longer my conclusion to a drunken night out, but I am just happy they exist and are accessible on most days. read more

cheap food. cheap beer. wish it weren't so far away, but when i visit friends in the neighborhood, i always want to stop by. the bean and cheese pupusas are my favorite. everything else is pretty standard though. still prefer the pupusas over the tacos though.... can't beat $2.50 coronas either! read more

Don't bother calling ahead to place your order for pickup. It's never ready which beats the point of saving time. Great pupusas but service needs to improve. read more

Are you looking for cheap, delicious home cooked food? If so this place is the spot, even my mom approves and she is central american. The pupusas are delcious, I always get loroco or just cheese. The sopa de res, tastes just like home and it is AMAZING. Ive also tried the tamales which are awesome. I think this place is a great place to order delivery (will have to call in to order, as there is no online ordering). read more

Solid joint. A special (steak) along with the pupusas (yes, you must try them) really the job after a full day of hiking. Cousin's salmon was terribly boring, and his veggies quite disappointing. The pupusas are godly, honestly, you could just fill up on these. Beans and cheese--yes. My rice and beans were fantastic, and the steak was nicely seasoned, so that brings this joint up to 4. Waitress was whatever, not particularly accommodating to us outsiders, but she was pleasant to look at. read more

Someone slammed this place for being small, how could someone judge a poor location when prices are soo reasonable. I go to this place about once a week, this place has the best lunch/dinner special in the whole city I can put money on that. The special has rice, beans, salad and either grilled chicken breast or steak all for 6 dollars. The best part of it is that is made on the spot, you will know is fresh if you go there a few times, it always takes between 20 to 30 minute to get your order and it is always very hot. Taste is perfect never too much seasoning. Attention / customer service is not the greatest but I won't penalize them for it because I think the 2 servers get overworked and not paid enough for it, and I am pretty sure customers do not tip at all. read more