Casa Linda Salvadorian Cuisine

f fantastic pupuserias and Salvadoran restaurants to choose from. It's one of the many things I miss about living there, and it's been years since I have had the chance to have Salvadoran food again. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered that in the northeast suburbs of Dallas, Salvadoran food is now in abundance. I quite literally came home from an appointment in the area giddy with excitement, and I made a plan to come back with my partner as soon as possible to introduce him to all of the best Salvadoran dishes. At first, it was hard to decide which restaurant to try first, since there are now so many to choose from (!!!), so I decided to narrow down my options by searching the menus for one of my favorite dishes - pechuga con crema, an incredible creamy chicken dish that I have been craving since I left DC. Casa Linda Salvadorian Cuisine was the first place I came to that had both a great average rating AND pechuga con crema on the menu, which sealed the deal for me. And I am so very happy to report that it more than lived up to my expectations. The pechuga con crema was every bit as good as any I had back in DC, and you literally cannot beat the prices here. I don't think you could have this good a meal for this price point literally anywhere else in Dallas, heck, maybe not even anywhere else in this STATE. For under $60 (pre-tip) we were able to FEAST on five pupusas with various fillings, a full order of pechuga con crema, a full order of carne asada (both of which came with homemade tortillas in addition to various sides), two aqua frescas, AND a dessert. That's an insane amount of food, and we brought home enough leftovers for at least 2-3 more meals for both of us. The carne asada and pechuga con crema were both delicious, the beans are some of the best I've ever had (I'm not much of a bean person, but I would happily eat these every single day, they're that good), the homemade tortillas are the perfect texture, the pupusas are bursting with flavor and served with delicious cabbage slaw and some kind of tomato-based salsa, and the aguas frescas are fresh and sweet and clearly homemade. Which brings me to another point - literally every single item on the menu (with the exception, I'm sure, of the ice cream with dessert) is made by hand and it SHOWS. The passion fruit and hisbiscus aguas frescas we had were so fresh and flavorful that I had downed half of mine before I bothered to come up for air, it was just so freaking refreshing after being in the Texas summer heat. Everything we ordered was clearly fresh and made that day, and all the flavors worked together seamlessly. It was truly a joyous dining experience. And the staff is so friendly - I was amazed by how well we were treated from the second we sat down. The owner, Blanca (I hope I got that right) even came by to see how we were doing, and we ended up having a fantastic conversation with her. It's clear that she loves what she does and she's fantastic at it. This is 100% going to be a regular dine-in and take-out spot for us for as long as we live within driving distance, and I honestly don't think you could find a better place to get your Salvadoran fix. Just be aware - the food here is addicting, and once you've had it for yourself, you're going to crave it all the time. Don't say I didn't warn you. :) You're welcome.