La Palma Supermercado – St. Paul, MN

D.Rough and I have talked about eating here for a really long time, mainly because it’s near a liquor store we frequent. Sad but true. We weren’t even sure what we were walking into, but we knew Las Palmas was a Mexican grocery store with a restaurant inside. 

Thankfully, we found it pretty easily in the back of the store. There are lots of menu items on the boards above the counter, but there are also some items in the small cafeteria line that you can see that might not be on the boards, so make sure you take a look there.  A lot of people in line seemed to be ordering some sort of soup, but I didn’t see it on the menu, so it might be a daily special or something.

We got an order of Papusas with some papaya salad on top, which were pretty amazing. They’re a small tortilla stuffed with cheese and you can put whatever sauce you want to on top. They’re sort of pan fried quickly and they’re like a Salvadoran grilled cheese. We love these things anyway, so we might be biased, but these are really good.

We also got two tamales. They’re a little different than Mexican tamales, but they’re equally good. The corn-mush outside (technical term) hides a delicious chicken-filled interior. We saw a lot of people eating these things, so you know they’re quite good at making them here.

I got an enchilada Salvadoreña, or a Salvadoran enchilada. It’s sort of a cross between a tostada and a Mexican enchilada. Picture a fried flour tortilla that’s been dipped in red enchilada sauce. I’ve never had these before, but I’m glad I tried it. I’ll definitely be back to try these things again. 

We also did a taste test of two different pineapple sodas. We discovered Jarritos really knows what they're doing. It was significantly better than the competitors. But I'm willing to do additional field research...

 

Overall, we were really pleased with our food here. It’s weird to eat in the back of a supermarket, but it’s pretty easy to pretend you’re in a restaurant, since they’ve got it decorated nicely and you can keep a close eye on what everyone else is eating. They also have a taco Tuesday special, which doesn’t excite ME, but I know other folks really geek out over taco Tuesday. 

It’s worth the trip!

www.supermercadolapalma.com