Part of a series of restaurant recommendations offered in The Stranger’s 2017 Guide to Food and Drink (International Edition).

Guanaco's Tacos Pupuseria

Don't be distracted by the tacos in the name. You are eating here for the thick stuffed corn cakes from El Salvador called pupusas. Like the bruising older brother of a Mexican taco, the disks come stuffed with your choice of cheese, chicharrones, and any number of other options, including the most traditional, loroco, an edible flower bud. The best way to eat them is with plenty of curtido, a tangy cabbage salsa that cuts through the thick pancake, and in a chair at the bare-bones U-District restaurant while telenovelas play on the TV overhead. NAOMI TOMKY

Salvadorean Bakery & Restaurant

You'll need to studiously avoid the two heaving pastry cases on either side of you as you order your meal at the counter of this White Center bakery. Focus! Before you can get to those tres leches cakes and strawberry empanadas, get yourself a proper meal of pillowy pupusas stuffed with chicharron, salty queso, refried red beans, or nutty loroco flower buds. Breakfast plates come with fried plantains, and there's a full list of sandwiches, grilled and stewed meats, and soups for lunch and dinner. The plato guanaco—a pupusa, a tamale, sweet plantain, fried yucca, and red beans—is a boon for the indecisive. JENN CAMPBELL