La Hola Beto's

Extreme seafood poisoning... Sufrí una intoxicación alimentaria extrema por los cangrejos azules. Unfortunately I have to rate this a 1 star because of the extremely serious seafood poisoning I sustained from my meal. I have a picture of the menu showing the meal I ordered. I got the blue crabs stuffed with shrimp. There's two La Hola Beto's restaurants in San Salvador. And this review is for the one that's one this street: Blvr. Sergio Viera De Mello. It's to the south west of the city. Whereas the other one is in the centre/centre north of the city. I had a flight to Guatemala 10 hours later. I started vomiting on the plane. When I arrived at Aurora Airport I was in the bathroom screaming at the top of my lungs every time I vomited. And had the nastiest diarrhea in the world. It would kill someone if they smelled it. I was in there for hours. My girlfriend had to contact airport staff to help me. I was delirious, speaking nonsense, off-balance, light headed and felt like I could die. Airport staff gave me injections and tablets to fight the infection. They put me on a wheelchair while they escorted me through boarder control to Guatemala. I had diarrhea for around 36 hours. It was the most dire experience I've ever felt in my life, no joke. All from their crab dish. It's sad because I enjoyed the flavour of the dish. I liked the restaurant, and the waiters. They told me La Hola Beto's is a family chain of restaurants that no longer work together at all. Each place has their own different menus and management. Their family had a separation. When I tried to suck the meat from the blue crabs, sometimes I would get this extremely salty taste that was a disgusting taste. The shrimp filling also had a suspicious crackle/crunch/super hard bites to it sometimes which was weird. Maybe parts of carapace, or sand. The sauce was delicious, rice seemed fine. Something in the crabs gave me a serious novovirus. BOTH tripadvisor's two listings of La Hola Beto's share the same street address of only one of the restaurants. This means both restaurants are sharing reviews from customers at either restaurant at random. It's overlapped. The one I was sick at does not have it's address listed/specified. So check Google's reviews for more specific reviews. How do I know it was this meal that made me sick? Because I got the novovirus from this meal, and that's caused by shellfish like crabs. I know it was the novovirus because it is highly contagious causing other people near you to ALSO start to become sick with vomitting and diarrhea. (Though not as insane as me but still very bad) My girlfriend then became very sick after being exposed to me, and her mother (who we hadn't seen in 4 months) also became very sick exactly the same way/symptoms the next day after I met her while I was still sick with the novovirus. (Probably occurred from sharing water bottles or similar) The only thing I ate the whole day was some pache in the morning. (Some potato with chicken) (Yes I didn't eat 10 hours during the time I ate the meal and I started to become sick) It's a shame because it seems like a great restaurant. I'd give them a second chance maybe, but of boy they owe me a lot for what happened to me. Their staff better be aware of this and clean those blue crabs properly and ensure that dish is prepared safely, and the crabs & shrimp are fresh. Happened September 2024. See my pictures for more info.

One of the best seafood restaurants in El Salvador. They have everything from ceviches and paellas to pizzas! The owner personally oversees the management, and top quality of the food and service. La Hola Beto’s is a “must have” if you want to experience delicious Salvadoran seafood! This restaurant has been in business for decades. Highly recommended!

Went in to sit slightly above the road to have a beer during sunset, but looking at the big menu of delicious seafood options, I couldn't help ordering guashimi. I'm glad I did since the marinated fish cuts and the mini toasts with butter were really tasty.

Excelente servicio y comida. Wao. Hay que volver

The variety of different ceviche in the menu! Blew me away! Fantastico!

Don't be deterred by the chest looking exterior sign this place is a gem! The service is friendly and the food is interesting and delicious! Make sure to try the crab stuffed with rice! Almost all seating is outdoors and beautifully decorated. The crowd is local and very chill. La Hola is not too be missed!

Location was nice, very big space for big groups, parking lot was an issue, staff were very nice and super friendly; however, we waited over 1 hour and 40 minutes for our food, it was super slow, and the staff didn't know how long we would wait, quality was not the best but good, prices were super high vs quality. I don't think I might come back.

Visited this restaurant twice during our stay in San Salvador! The food is sooo good! I would definitely recommend visiting this place!