Reina's Restaurant

Very Salvadorean taste, it's nostalgic because it looks and tastes like a homemade with love meal 💛

Hidden spot in SF for local Salvadoran taste and atmosphere. Pupusas are all great and soup are delicious. The place is busy with a lot of takeout orders so service tends to be slow. But people are all nice.

Salpicón is a well-known dish with many Latin American origins like Spanish language itself spoken with their own distinctive accents as well as vocabularies by Mexicans, Columbians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans and even Brazilians (você fala brasileiro o portugues 😊) Salvadoreño Salpicón is a dish served cold, with finely chopped beef seasoned with pepper and salt, warm rice, frijoles, salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and carrot (or rábano) with handmade tortillas de maíz gruesas y a mano (my favorite 😊). After comparing several locations in the City including popular Balompié Café I am strongly recommending Reina's Restaurant located in Croker Amazon neighborhood (on Mission across street from McDonald's) that was actually referred by an acquaintance who is native of El Salvador in his 70s (“El Carlito Guapo”) whom I met at the famous Stones YMCA. Enjoy it! PS I was there for lunch again last Sunday afternoon the place which is rather small was packed with guests. Having waited more than one hour and a half my food finally came very last after even people who came in after I placed my order not sure because I’m not a regular or look Asian. More importantly, the familiar chopping sounds resembling Chinese cooking method faded out after a few rounds. Nowadays everything seems to be “un tiro al aire”…Try to avoid weekends.

Great place to eat, great staff, great location, good prices. I can eat here all the time. Music and friends. It's perfect. Only down side parking is hard to find. A cross from McDonald's on mission street

My beef milanesa $14 (thin cut, breaded and pan fried) was delicious. If you dine-in, it comes with free chips and salsa and two pupusas. That was a lot of food because the plate already comes with beans, fried potatoes, rice and a salad. My favorite part is dipping the pupusas into the beans and rice, then taking a bite of the beef. This was a good lunch.

Delicious pupusas. Music could be lowered to enjoy a conversation however great customer service

The pupusas are very well served, great size and with plenty of filling. The curtido which is the "salad" that you put on top was very tasty and the salsa as well. I am giving 4 stars because I have had pupusas elsewhere in the city with have a a better flavor all around, for the same price, but they are open on Wednesday and the rest of the week, which my other go to pupuserias are not. We didn't try anything else in the menu, but I saw a couple of other people's plates and they looked very well served and tasty. On a side note they do bring you chips and salsa, which I thought was quite nice! (Just beware as the food itself is very filling)

HORRIBLE SERVICE!!!! THIS IS THE TYPICAL PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOREVER THEY TAKE TOOOO LONG FOR EVERYTHING AND THE FOOD IS NOT GOOD AT ALL WE ORDERED TWO PUPUSAS EACH AND WE HARDLY ATE ONE THE TASTE WAS AWFUL NO FLAVOR AT ALL EVEN THE CHIPS AND SALSA WERE A DISAPPOINTMENT I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT

As I was saying, I've been going to Reina's for a couple years now when I get a Saldadorean cuisine hankering. Especially the tasty pupusas! But the last time I ordered out some pupusas, I was perplexed on how substandard they were? A pupusa has plentiful ingredients inside like beans and cheese( these were hollow like a burnt out tree trunk! ( huh?) Anyways , there's always an off day like the cook broke up with their partner, someone forgot to order cheese, or there wasn't enough beans in the world. Or maybe the cook is lactose intolerant? I really like this place so I forgive them once( I actually called them and complained about it, just to let them know what's going on! They offered to pay me back; I refused) I like to support local restaurants, but quality is vital.

Amazing Salvadorian Food. Great service too. My favorite was the popusas and the fish soup.

Definitely the place for pupusa lovers like me! Reina's is a small, unpretentious Salvadorian restaurant with a surprisingly BIG menu! I'm slowly working my way through their menu, but so far, my favorites are their bean & cheese rice/arroz pupusas and their Sopa 7 Mares/7 Seas soup.

The people at Reina's are amazing. I got there when they first opened and I was promptly seared. As I was ordering, I realized they were vegan and unfortunately, I was not in the mood for that.I excused my self and said I will comeback another time and they were so understanding. The restaurant is clean and simple. Fits their style.?

Food is decent but be careful they over charge you for your food if you don't pay attention. They did this twice in a row and they didn't realize I noticed.. just raise your prices instead of stealing from people smh

Came here for lunch today with friends. It was busy!!! Customers kept coming in. My friend M arrived a few minutes before me, he heard a guy said table for 8, so he grabbed a table before it filled up again, and the table wasn't even clean yet LoLs Parking is hard! Street parking only! Lucky for me, I parked across the street and it was free, no meter (literally in front of McDonald's) Other wise, it's residential parking, those streets are narrow as they're a one way street. Lots of residents who live there are already parked there. Or park a on lower Mission st, which has a lot of meter parking. The lady who took our order was really nice. Didn't rush us to order, brought our food out in a timely matter. She and a young guy came to check on us a few times, making sure we have water and enough napkins. We enjoyed our time talking, laughing and eating, they didn't ask us are we done yet or try to get us to leave even tho we were done with our meal. Their menu is Spanish AND in English. Lucky for me, my friend Z speaks Spanish, so she helped us ordered. - free chips & salsa (salsa is fresh, median mild spicy) - 3 horchata drinks - fried plantain, fried yuka & fried pork - shrimp cocktail (however they didn't display the shrimps on the rim, they used bay shrimps instead) - cheese pupusa plate - carne asada with shrimp plate All plates were extremely delicious. It was non stop scooping and chewing. Very flavorful. My carne asada was a bit chewy, but I managed to cut them into small pieces and wrapped them in my flour tortillas with my beans and rice. Their tortillas are thick! Fresh cooked on their skillet. I was able to split them in half, but be careful as it is hot! We finished 95%, had some left over fried plantain and fried pork. My friend took those home. Total came to $100 (before tips) Money well spent!

My beef milanesa $14 (thin cut, breaded and pan fried) was delicious. If you dine-in, it comes with free chips and salsa and two pupusas. That was a lot of food because the plate already comes with beans, fried potatoes, rice and a salad. My favorite part is dipping the pupusas into the beans and rice, then taking a bite of the beef. This was a good lunch.

The pupusas are always great and empanadas the best need to try the 7 mares soup its amazin

Great food, excellent taste and good prices, the staff is very courteous and helpful when ordering to go or dining in, I would recommend this place wit family and friends.

Reinas Coming from a Salvadorian Family with a passion for good pupusas this spot is good! The wait time can get ridiculous but These ladies are working hard to put out quality food. It gets kind of hectic inside and i prefer takeout from here.

This joint is in the outer mission and has been here for some time, you know it's legitimate. I don't have much new info to offer - only they tell me that the mixed (bean, cheese and pork) pupusas are very popular here. I've had those and the chicken one, would definitely consider buying a dozen for a roadtrip/ day outing!

Great breakfast options, pupusas and siete mares sopa!! Best pupusa place around. I've tried other pupusarias but pupusas are never consistent. Servers are great and knows everyone that comes in. Small place but still good for family size of 8-12. I recommend revuelta pupusas and loroco with rice masa and don't forget the 7-sea soup.

This place has horrible customer service! Prices online are complete different then they are when you call in. I explained to the person answering the phone they need to honor online prices. It is CA Law that Pricing is Accurate. This can lead to massive fines. I would know, i deal with Pricing Accuracy everyday & know the logistics. When asking for the manager the person answering the phone hung up on me. Don't bother coming here! Not worth the rudeness & incorrect pricing.

The pupusas here were delicious! I also had the pan con pollo which was good, but a little salty. They give you the sauce on the side which is helpful since I believe that's what was salty. Overall, a good Salvadorean spot to check out in San Francisco.

This place serves authentic papusas. It seems to be a staple item for them and I can see why. Asides from the papusas, I have tried their yucca fries and chicharrones. Both were very good, partly cause anything deep fried is tasty in my book. Haven't had the chance to try anything else, but you can't go wrong with ordering their papusas!!

I thought this was gonna be good. I ordered 2 cheese pupusas with rice and beans the take out is bad not enough beans way to much cheese in pupusas omg it was just all bad lol dammmm

It took me a while since a friend suggested I should give this place a try, don't know why I waited that long, it may not be the best atmosphere but they are very attentive and friendly, the food has that very Salvadorean taste, very delicious and the portions are just about the right size, I'll come back more often

This is "the beer", second to none! Great with siete mares soup or whatever you desire

This place they should be close ,Only eat here if you wanted to end in ER with a several food poisoning, Rats,roaches Poor hygiene

i waited more than thirty minutes for only four pupusas it didn't look too busy people that were here were already eating and had their food ‍

Pupusas de harina de arroz. A little more chewy than corn. Love them. My kids also love the beans and rice here. Really good and consistent food.

I just tried ordering food to go at 8:50 because it said they closed at 10 and as soon as I step in the lady tells me they're closed. If that's the case they definitely need to update their hours

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Great customer service and delicious food. The pupusas are to die for! Love the platanos and get their special 2 pupusas and a soup. Highly recommend

They have the best pupusa in the city hands down. I love going here during the school year because they not too far from my job. It always smells good and they make your pupusas fresh!! Family owned business and they treat you so nice when you go in. They have a variety of dishes but I've only eaten their pupusas. They are never empty and always have ppl inside and their plates always look good!!

This place has a bad customer service. The lady answering the food is so rude. I tried prefer multiple food and she tried hanging up so quick mentioned she had to get to other customers because she was by herself. It does. It give her the right to be rude on the phone plus when I picked up the food the pupusas were all falling apart and the meat was not cooked through it was raw. Never going there again.

Siete Mares Soup is to die for, best flavoring and I add crema with it. Has shrimp, crab and fish. I order to go because its messy to eat. Best hangover cure or even just because. Call the order in and expect to wait but its always worth it.

So where do I starts: Food: Bomb anything you get here is definitely worth it (if it's Salvadoreño food). Do not come here and order a burrito, wrong place for that... Service: ehh so so but the food is worth it trust me Cleanliness: As clean as a hole in the wall restaurant at will be Price: Definitely not hipster-ed price yet so it's still affordable until "they" move in ;) Overall if you want some good Salvadoreño food you should definitely visit this spot!

I heard about Reina's from a Lyft ride from a local who was born and raised in this area. In this area, there are many immigrants from Central American and they have heavily influenced the food in this area. By no means is this place fancy but this place has the best pupusas in the city IMO. My first experiences of food from El Salvador was when I was living in Los Angeles and I absolutely fell in love with pupusas. Good pupusas to me are first of all HOT all the way through, slightly crispy on the outside, cheesy on the inside, not too heavy with masa on the edges but pretty even with ingredients through the middle - and that's the kind of pupusa you're going to get with Reinas. I hear all these people with the bad service and sanitary issues - meh. I'm a foodie first and everything comes second. I didn't see anything and the service was great. No problem. Standing with this local business.

Never had I had such tasty and authentic Salvadorian food in the Bay Area. Not only was it good, it was affordable for the large portions they have! Ordered the plato tipico and an order of platanos fritos, both were delicious!! Super loaded with food and flavor. The owner, Reina herself, came to help our table and was very welcoming. Highly recommend this place.

Best pupusas in SF? Really? I liked Reina's, I did, but "best" is a term I don't use lightly. It was a very standard Salvadorian restaurant: good food, cheap, loud music, ok service. Pupusas were about $3 for dinner and the horchata was $2. I would definitely go back when I want to have pupusas but I wouldn't go as far as saying they were the best.

You don't come for the burritos! I'm new to the Mission district when it comes to food but it couldn't be helped since I was craving for a good burrito. I'm also a total nub when it comes to authentic Mexican style food too; All I know is Tacos, Burritos, Doritos, and Crunch Wrap Supreme -- that's it! Evidently, my girlfriend brought me to Reina's to attempt to change that perspective and introduce me to some Salvadorean food. Grilled Steak Tostada - http://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?select=1yQLC5PT43Kacx8E76fb_A&userid=5jUlCtMCI9Z7poi1vHq6cQ We started with a Tostada (your choice of chicken, grilled steak of ground beef) and it was huge! (see picture). Grilled steak, lettuce, pico de gio, avocado, and cheese crumbles everywhere. You couldn't even see the tortilla! But despite the mess, it was very fresh and delicious. Pupusas - http://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?select=I4Cc00XwtcHpka7jcNoSXg&userid=5jUlCtMCI9Z7poi1vHq6cQ This was my first time trying Pupusas so I didn't know what to expect. My girlfriend said it was like a taco.. but better. When the dish arrived, it resembled more like a adult size Lunchable (make it yourself food). Two big corn tortillas, which were stuffed with fried pork and cheese within, refried beans, rice, and a caggabe salad, but combined together, WOW! -- the savory pork, melty cheese, crisp salad, creamy beans, all wrapped in a warm tortilla blew my mind on Central American food. Burrito Super - It's what I came here for in the beginning, right? Your choice of beef stew, pork stew, or shredded beef, with the standard rice, beans, guac, and sour cream; the burrito sure was super in size, but it was just a-okay and the stewed beef was a tad plain. My girlfriend told me not to order a burrito from the start but I wanted to play it "safe", and in the end, she was right. LISTEN TO YOUR GIRLFRIEND, GENTS. Reina's serves up some good Salvadoran eats, and this being my first time, I've become a fan! Each dish is overwhelming huge, lots of flavor and freshness, and I can't argue with a bill of (slightly over) only $20. The Horchata wasn't much to my liking though, tasted too rich and "corny" but maybe that's just me. Chips and salsa are also complimentary with your dine-in visit (the salsa was bomb! It was so good I wanted to drink the stuff, really!). I'll sure be back when i need a Pupusa fix!

Try This place is a must go to restaurant. Rei and her staff treat everyone like family. The food is ALL made from scratch so it is fresh, fresh, fresh!! The chili verde is to die for. Tacos, burritos,tamales,etc are a must. Their seafood selections are all mouth watering .Breakfast dishes are a platter of eggs,salad,cheese, beans,rice and tortillas and I have never finished my plate. Run to this restaurant. 6/21/2020 this place is still one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. There breakfasts are a super value and the food is GREAT. Large selection of Latin dishes so no matter what you order you will be pleased at the amount of food you get. Reina will be your wait person and her gregarious nature is infectious. Great lady!!

If I could give 0 stars I would. My parents who barely ever go out because of their busy schedules had decided to take a trip to SF & try out this restaurant. When they got there the waitress didn't pay attention to seat them after 5 minutes and seats them as a table & 10 minutes later she says they have to get up because she forgot that table was reserved. She seats them at another dirty table where none of the previous customer's plates had been picked up. After waiting for another 10 minutes my mom asks the waitress to please clean their table and she proceeds to tell my mom to "calm down"... on which earth is it ok to respond to a paying customer in that way? My parents got upset & left because they were not about to pay for bad customer service. We will never go back here again for sure.

Never had anything else but the papusas. The older latin lady at work told me about this spot, so it has to be good right? Papusas are theeeeeeee best here. Never over cooked, juicy tasty meat and cheese inside, & the dough is not overwelmingly thick. Its the perfect papusa. My fav is the pork and cheese. 10 papusas for $22.... Once a week, my son loves them. I cant speak on the other food, but it cant be bad, this place is usually packed on the weekends.

Big Delicious Pupusas. Two are enough to fill me up with a lot of curtido and salsa and to drink a KolaKhampan. Oh yeah and I cant live without their refried beans with melted cheese with Chips.. mmmmmHmmm ALWAYS Satisfied.

julio 31 2023 fui a cenar y el servicio pésimo empezando por las mesas no limpias y mi orden duro mucho y lo que pedi me salió muy salado super salado muy falta de servicio tenia que pedir las cosas y pedí maduros fritos estaban bien quemados viejos y me los sirvieron con frijoles y crema los pedi solos y al devolverlos me los dio en otro plato embarrados de frijoles y las cocineras no les parece cuando se le explica de el plato se burlan de uno y hablan muy mal desde la cocina pésimo servicio para regresar atol de elite sabia maicena con elite de lata con azúcar no lo recomiendo

Loved going here, food was always good service has always been crap. Last night i was there with a family member, took around 30-45 min to get our drinks and our food took almost an hour. They seem to not care about you as a customer. I was a huge fan of the food but after last night, they have lost me as a customer. No sense of urgency! Horrible service, food is not what it used to be! Adios reina! Y adios a su horrible servicio!

One of my favorite spots. This place is about as authentic as it gets! Their pupusas are awesome and their sopa de gallina is to die for. Try their plato typico if you want to sample several of their specialties. I am getting hungry writing this review. Treat yourself to a meal here!

Reina's has really gone downhill. Their food used to be good but the quality has gone down. The yucca I had was not fresh but frozen, the pupusas were cracked and had no cheese, a revuelta should always have cheese. The empanadas were not fresh at all and came out all soggy. The only thing that was passable was their beef soup. Also, someone in the kitchen was cleaning the plates with her hand and filling cups with ice with the same hand. Bathroom was not a welcoming sight nor the roach crawling on the wall. Proceed with caution, t

Generally the food and service here is pretty good, however recently, the cooks started adding chili spice to the salsa and curtido cabbage mix. I dont remember it being spicy, and definitely not as spicy as it is now. Salvadoran food is generally known to be refreshing and have cool and savory flavors and generally is not spicy. Today I called Reinas restaurant to advise them that the salsa and curtido cabbage was exceedingly spicy and the woman who answered the phone hung up on me. When I called back again, she had a bad attitude and said in Spanish "En El Salvador no usamos chile pero aqui si" which roughly means in English, "In El Salvador we dont use chili, --but here we do." How rude. All I wanted was an option for salsa and curtido that reflected the taste of El Salvador, and if I could not...then could they create an optional mild salsa and curtido. Instead what I got is attitude. I doubt that I will be back to eat at this dump. Its not worth it with all the Tums I've had to eat to stop the burning from their overspiced condiments. The bad attitude has added two extra stars reducing it to 1 star for review.

Horrible place, very small, the waiter we got paid very little attention to us. I ordered a shrimp cocktail and there was mold on the crackers. When I went to pay I showed her and she just smiled and threw it aside. My daughter had also ordered a hot chocolate and she kept forgetting and brought it until she was halfway done with her food.

Mouth watering flavors! Sabroso. Our familly always orders pupusas and platios and burritos. With an authentic and fresh taste, you will be coming back over and over again. This is THE spot. Muchas gracias al personal por el sevicio y por su trabajo para hacer la experiencia feliz

As I was craving pupusas so badly for weeks, I needed to get my fix-up this weekend. My friend suggested to go to Reina's, and we all went there last night. It's on Outer Mission/Balboa Park-ish neighborhood that I almost never go to eat. The restaurant was full of native-looking people, so I knew I could expect something good and authentic. We ordered vegetarian pupusas, chicken tamales, chicken turkey sandwich, deep fried shrimp, and corn soup (cornflower drink). Way too much for 3 people, and we killed them all. It was SO good, and the total was around $40, and it can easily feed 4 people for that amount of food. It's definitely not a fancy-schmancy type of restaurant to take someone out for the first date, but it's a place for good Salvadorian food. Also, if you want to have meaningful or serious conversations over meal, Reinas may not the the place as their juke box is so loud that you can't hear much of others. I've heard their Mexican variety is not as good as Salvadorian. Salvadorian variety is recommended at Reina's. I would given 5 stars if they had sangria! (They have non-alcoholic ones though) Update: Who cares about drinks... Reinas was the best Salvadorian I've had so far. 5 stars.

The food was good I had the chicken soup and it was very flavorful but the reason I'm not giving it more stars is because the restroom was disgusting and it didn't look like they were gonna do anything about it which made me think of how my good is prepared

I came to this area to as usual go to McDonalds after getting off the 14 bus(it's near Guttenberg St) to rest and have a short eat-drink break, but I saw Reina's right across from McD's and wanted to try it out. It's pretty spacious with big tables, lots of lights, and a large tv with lots of families who dine here. They accept CC's. I did not see any roaches. They did NOT discriminate against me - I'm asian. The bathroom was as clean as it could be when you compare it out in the outer mission with other restos. They first served LOTS of yummy thin crunchy just warmed chips with salsa sauce that was pretty mild which I finished off quickly with my jamaica agua fresca. Their cheese pupusas were thick and fluffy and warm and FILLED with creamy cheese!! YUM!! (you have to order a minimum of 2 pupusas). I could tell that they had really great homecooking because the usual mexican coleslaw that came with the pupusa was soft and tasty & not too hot, not hard and chewy & hot that you usually find near Mission & 30th St. I couldnt eat anymore and so I had my mexican super burrito to go--they gave me LOTS more chips with a BIG cup of their tasty salsa sauce--later when I had space in my tummy to eat it, I found the filling was too soft and mushy which tasted mainly like bland rice. The service was friendly & fast!! I would definitely go back to Reina's rather than McDs. I would try the other El Salvadoran dishes in addition to the cheese pupusas and stay away from the mexican food.

These reviews are all lies I went to eat there for the first time today and not only did I receive bad service but as I took my first bite of food I saw a mouse coming out the kitchen and the waitress did nothing she straight up ignore that there was a mouse running around and preferred for us to leave then apologies at that point I was soooooo grossed out!!!! That I just wanted to run out of that place as fast as possible!!!!!

Whenever I crave pupusas and don't feel like driving far, I get my fix here since it's literally down the street from my house. I always order to go, but on those several occasions where I came in before my food was ready, I got these vibes from the lady working the front of the house that I'm not welcome. She gives me nasty attitude whenever I talk to her. At least the cheese pupusas are pretty good. It's a good thing I've never found a roach in my food.

I went on Sunday July 15, 2018. The only food that taste good that day was the pupusas of Chesse and the pupusas of cheese with beans. Their horchata & tamarindo drinks had no flavor they were watered down. sopa de pata had no flavor to watery. Siete mares tasted gross it had to much crema in the soup. Zucchini pupusas didn't taste good. They were short staffed & you could tell that the person who made the food was not Salvadorean. Too bad that was my favorite place for soap de path. Frugal, C the coleslaw that goes on top of the pupusas is called curtido and it's Salvadorean coleslaw not Mexican that we put on top of our Salvadorean pupusas.

This restaurant makes me feel conflicted. Their food, in particular their pupusas, is all great but service is remarkably bad. Have eaten there and few times and have done call in orders, both with bad service. Stood around waiting forever to be acknowledged the last time I called in.