A new Salvadoran restaurant is an oasis in the middle of the Tenderloin

The city is expensive, but your next meal doesn’t have to be. In our weekly column, The $25 Diner, we hunt down the best restaurants where you can eat like royalty for a song.

There’s not much ambiance beyond a web of string lights at Estrellita’s Snacks — but there are excellent pupusas and a lot of love. On a small table pushed against a side wall sits a portrait of Estrellita Gonzalez’s mother, Maria del Carmen Flores, who started the business in 2005 via the Mission-based incubator La Cocina and retired in 2018 after suffering a stroke.

“When I feel troubled, I look at [my mom’s] picture,” Gonzalez says. “I feel a surge of energy and the motivation to keep her legacy going.” 

After two years at the Tenderloin’s La Cocina Municipal Marketplace, which abruptly closed in September 2023, Estrellita’s reopened in mid-July just four blocks away. Gonzalez stumbled upon the turnkey restaurant location while driving through the neighborhood and, with help from La Cocina, was able to land a lease. 

The Tenderloin should thank her. As I stepped out of an Uber on an uncommonly warm summer afternoon, the corner of Ellis and Leavenworth felt like a tranquil island in the middle of a stormy sea. Estrellita’s is situated next to the cheerful, whitewashed exterior of Azalina’s, the ambitious Malaysian restaurant that planted its flag proudly in the heart of the Tenderloin last year. Together, the two restaurants have turned this small slice of the neighborhood into a worthy food destination. 

The move into the 2,000-square-foot space allowed Gonzalez to expand her menu to include dishes from Oaxaca, Mexico, where she was born and raised after her mother fled El Salvador’s civil war. And even though I wasn’t raised on homemade enchiladas de mole con pollo ($15), Gonzalez’s luscious auburn sauce — generously ladled over corn tortillas filled with shredded chicken — made me wish I had been. A blanket of melted Oaxacan cheese balanced the delicately sweet profile of the complex mole, made with more than a dozen ingredients, including chocolate, chiles, peanuts and plantains. 

Of course, there are still her signature pupusas, which you can find everywhere from Bi-Rite to the Alemany Farmers Market. If you’re the kind of person who likes breakfast at any time of day, don’t miss the All-Star Breakfast Pupusa ($15), starring a single hand-formed pupusa that, torn open, releases a cloud of steam and soft masa cradling a comforting mixture of spicy chorizo, cheese and egg. I dipped each bite into the side of soupy black beans.

For a more traditional midday meal, the best deal is the plato pupusa ($20), which includes any two from 15 varieties, plus rice and a heap of sweet fried plantains. From the seven vegetarian and two vegan options, I chose the zucchini-and-cheese pupusa, served with a spoonful of curtido, the classic cabbage slaw accompaniment, which added just the right hint of acid. 

Asked why she chose to stay in the Tenderloin, Gonzalez says simply that everyone at the La Cocina food hall had asked her to. Plus, the location is close to the Civic Center Farmers Market, where the family-run company has been serving its pupusas and tamales for 17 years. 

Gonzalez says she hopes the growth of her business, from farmers market stands to a full-fledged restaurant, along with a bustling wholesale arm, will inspire others — the way her mother inspires her. “When your goals are bigger than your obstacles,” she says, “it’s possible to get where you want to go.”

Estrellita’s Snacks