A Guide to the Best Pupusas in Los Angeles : Eating Out: There are about 250 Salvadoran restaurants in greater L.A. Most are modest in style, but all feature an array of dishes, highlighted by <i> pupusas</i> .

The El Salvador Cafe stands in a grove of banana palms in a decidedly untropical location--the eastern part of downtown Los Angeles where concrete, not exotic foliage, is the norm.

This is the city’s oldest Salvadoran restaurant, founded 30 years ago. Now that the Salvadoran population has grown to approximately 500,000, it is only one of hundreds of places where you can get pupusas.

The greatest concentration of Salvadoran restaurants is in the area that extends west from San Pedro Street in downtown Los Angeles to Western Avenue and north from Adams Boulevard to Sunset Boulevard. More than 100 are located in this central zone. The total in greater Los Angeles is about 250.

Most pupuserias are modest places, located in neighborhoods where Latinos congregate. Often they serve Mexican food in addition to Salvadoran dishes; the juke box will be loaded with Mexican pop hits, and it may be necessary to speak Spanish if you have any questions about the food. Always there will be Latino families, and rarely do you find anyone from outside the culture. Decorations tend to be similar--posters, photographs and murals of El Salvador; artificial plants and flowers; woodcarvings, straw items, earthen pots and other crafts.

Pupusas are the big sellers, but there is plenty of other food. Anayas Salvadoran Restaurant, one of the more ambitious places, can produce at least 160 dishes. Even the tiny Pupuseria La Teclena No. 2, on a quiet corner of 11th Street, offers a substantial assortment of food.

Salvadoran beverages that go well with pupusas include ensalada , a fruit juice drink garnished with diced tropical fruits and shreds of lettuce. Others are chan con limon , made with chia seeds; cebada , a barley drink; rice-based horchata , and tamarindo , made from dried tamarind pulp.

The following list suggests places that serve pupusas in Central Los Angeles, along with two non-Salvadoran restaurants that serve them. The pupusas range from $1.25 to $1.80 each, which includes the cabbage relish, curtido, and tomato salsa. Two pupusas plus a beverage make a good light meal.

Anayas Salvadoran Restaurant, 1101 S. Vermont Ave., Suite 102, Los Angeles; (213) 381-7582 or 7584; open Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, to 11 p.m.

Anayas is a large, well-run restaurant that caters to families and, therefore, serves no alcoholic beverages. The kitchen is spotless, and there is a conscious attempt to eliminate fat from the dishes. Thus the pork meat for chicharron is thoroughly drained after frying. The Salvadoran drinks here are very good, and there is a list of typical desserts to try after the pupusas.

Cafe Cuscatlan, 2200 West 8th St., Los Angeles; (213) 384-3020; open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Gil Castro, a veteran soccer coach, owns this restaurant, which has a decided sporty flavor. There’s a function room where soccer clubs meet. And since Castro promotes the annual Miss Salvador contest, the walls of that room are hung with photos of past winners.

Pupusas here are made with fresh masa rather than the dry instant masa used in many restaurants. A cheese and loroco pupusa was fairly bursting with loroco, and a chicharron pupusa was also generously stuffed.

Cuscatlan, one of the older Salvadoran restaurants in Los Angeles, moved from its old spot on 7th Street to this location just a few months ago.

El Izalqueno, 1830 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 387-2467; open Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday to 11 p.m.

The regular pupusas are fine here, but for a change try the rice flour pupusas. Ask for them stuffed with beans and eat them with the mild tomato sauce provided by owner Isabel Vega. Vega is from the city of Izalco, which is noted for its neighboring volcano, also named Izalco. The restaurant is riotously decorated in Salvadoran style with hanging plants and artificial parrots. If you haven’t eaten too many pupusas, try the wonderful empanadas de platano-- banana fritters stuffed with custard and sprinkled with sugar.

El Palermo, 4136 W. Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 386-5279; open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday through Sunday to 11 p.m. Closed Monday.

This stretch of Beverly Boulevard is clustered with pupuserias and a Salvadoran bakery. El Palermo, at the corner of Mariposa, might be mistaken for an Italian restaurant, but it is genuinely Salvadoran, as the posters and flags inside indicate. The pupusas are appetizingly browned and made to order, so the service may seem slow. The intensely sweet ensalada is garnished with tiny bits of pineapple, unpeeled red apple and cashew fruit.

El Salvador Cafe, 531 E. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 745-8704; open daily from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

When this restaurant opened some 30 years ago, it was called Santa Rita and located on Main Street. What has kept it the same is the ownership. From founder Lydia Gutierrez and her daughter, Teresa Solombrino, both from La Union, the restaurant has passed to Teresa’s daughter, Yvette Solombrino. Yvette has purchased this corner of Pico Boulevard, just west of San Pedro Street, and so the location should remain secure.

Some things are missing here. The cheese pupusas don’t contain loroco , and they don’t serve the drink called ensalada. But the tamarind drink and Salvadoran-style horchata are prepared from scratch. And a little yuca goes into the chicharron. The cafe is small and cheerful and attracts a lively lunch crowd.

El Santaneco Restaurant No. 1, 2601 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles; (213) 748-3885; open daily from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Ceiling fans rather than air conditioning cool this unprepossessing restaurant at the corner of Adams Boulevard. The pupusas are nice, although there’s not much loroco in the cheese pupusa. And the Salvadoran tamales are wonderful. Wrapped in banana leaves, stuffed with chicken, olives and garbanzos, they’re unbelievably light. As in Mexican restaurants, you get chips--very good ones--and salsa with your meal.

Other Santanecos are at 1601 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 733-0875. Also at 482 E. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 745-7430. The Washington Boulevard location leans strongly toward Mexican food.

La Ygriega Restaurant, 3555 West 3rd St., Los Angeles; (213) 487-6560; open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

This neat little spot is named for the owner’s hometown. White tablecloths overlaid with blue give a fresh look, and the eclectic decorations include ivy, Christmas lights and a teapot clock. The top price for a pupusa is $1.40 for cheese and loroco. Pupusas with other fillings are $1.25. In some restaurants the curtido and tomato sauce are mildly seasoned. Here they are very spicy. Instead of ensalada , you get fresh lemonade. And on Sundays there are specials such as chicken tamale.

Parkway Grill, 510 S. Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena; (818) 795-1001; open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner nightly, from 5 to 11:30 p.m.

Pupusas aren’t on the regular menu but appear as occasional specials. The curtido that accompanies them is classic, but the fillings are imaginative concepts by executive chef Hugo Molina, who was born in Guatemala of Italian-Jewish parents. Molina guarantees the Parkway will have pupusas today.

Papaturro, 4109 W. Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles; (213) 660-4363; open Wednesday through Monday from noon to 12:30 p.m. Closed Tuesday. Also at 1133 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 666-7290.

The waiters here wear Papaturro T-shirts, a sign that the restaurant is well established, although it’s not very fancy. Pupusas come heaped on a communal platter and you transfer them to small plates not much larger than the pupusas. That makes it hard to eat without scattering food on the table. Ensalada is available only on weekends, and occasionally the restaurant runs out of horchata. But there is always at least one genuine Salvadoran drink: Pilsener beer brewed and bottled by the Cerveceria La Constancia in San Salvador.

Pupuseria La Teclena No. 2, 1443 W . 11th Street, Los Angeles; (213) 746-2510; open daily from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. A new outlet is Teclena’s Flores, 149 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 749-1406.

La Teclena is located in a residential area that incorporates some small Latino businesses and a school. Although it’s close to downtown--a block east of Union--it seems miles away and has a pleasant neighborhood feeling. An interesting touch is the addition of ayote-- shredded squash--to the chicharron pupusa. The tall, pineapply ensalada is wonderful. But the cheese and loroco pupusa contains so little loroco , so finely cut, that it is hard to spot with the naked eye.

The new Teclena’s Flores at 149 W. Washington Blvd., near the L.A. Mart, is advertising a bargain-- pupusas for 99 cents.

(Under separate ownership are La Teclena No. 3, 1903 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 389-2809. Also No. 4, 2500 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 480-9011.)

Texis, 3087 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 737-1434; open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Friday through Sunday to 11 p.m.

Texis is not a misspelling of the Lone Star state. It’s the name of a town in El Salvador.

Texis’ chicharron pupusa has a great browned pork flavor. There are also cheese, bean and mixed pupusas for $1.25 each. Orders are taken at the counter fast-food style, but the pupusas are patted out in the traditional way, and it takes a wait to get them. They come with heavily seasoned, spicy curtido and mild tomato sauce.

The restaurant is in a mini-mall at the corner of Western Avenue. Plain but efficient, it serves a workaday crowd and offers Mexican food too.

Other locations: 2411 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 738-0743. 698 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 387-8890.

The Palm Court, 11111 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles; (213) 479-1400. Pupusas available at breakfast Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.; at dinner beginning Sept. 13.

Serving pupusas for breakfast is a natural, although that’s not the way it’s done in El Salvador. The Palm Court’s morning plate is an appetizing presentation that includes three small pupusas , two eggs, fried diced potatoes, charred tomato salsa and a little fruit for decoration. The goat cheese, ricotta and sun-dried tomato filling is not just trendy, it goes well with the pupusas and indicates how versatile these corn cakes can be.

El Usuluteco No. 1, 4021 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 663-9919 ; open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Also at 1320 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 482-4464.

The black bars that protect the Beverly Usuluteco may make you think the restaurant is closed, but go right on in and enjoy some tasty pupusas. The cheese filling blends Mexican-style ranchero cheese with Jack, and the pupusas come out thin and crispy. The ensalada here is one of the best, made with sparkling water that is boiled, dosed with orange juice for color and finished off with lots of diced fruit--apple, mango, jocote --and shreds of lettuce.

Aside from the food, you’ll be intrigued by the surroundings. The outside of the building is painted brilliant orange, and the high-ceilinged interior is done up in strawberry pink and peach. Red booths add still more color. And it’s always a holiday. The decorations include Christmas tree balls suspended from tinsel trim and a sign that says, “Happy Thanksgiving.”

(The Usulutecos are owned by brothers Victor and Jorge Ortiz, who also own Atecozol at 2530 W. Temple St., Los Angeles. Their mother, Lila, manages the Beverly Boulevard branch.)