A tasty, inexpensive way to fill up is with pupusas, tortillas stuffed with cheese, beans, and/or pork. Pupusas La Fuente is conveniently located downtown on Calle La Leona. Pupusería Paseo Universitario, on Boulevard Morazán, has a bit better atmosphere, while our favorite is
Pupusería El Patio (also on Boulevard Morazán, across from McDonald’s), with great pupusas, tacos, and baleadas. Depending on the restaurant, pupusas cost US$0.70–1 each—two is a light meal, while eating four requires a hearty appetite.

Penny-pinchers can also find a good deal at El Establo (Av. República de Chile 781, tel. 504/239-6016), with soups, sandwiches, meat dishes, and so forth, for US$2–4.

A perennial favorite among budget travelers for its low-priced Honduran standards is La Terraza de Don Pepe (8 a.m.–10 p.m. daily), on the second floor of a building on Avenida Colón, three blocks west of the parque. If you go to eat there, don’t fail to take a look at the colorful shrine by the bathrooms, where in 1986 the statue of the Virgen de Suyapa, Honduras’s patron saint, appeared wrapped in newspaper, after being stolen some weeks earlier from its church. Breakfasts are a steal at US$1, while lunch or dinner of chicken, steaks, shrimp, and the like will set you back US$4–6. There’s karaoke on the third-floor terrace 6–11 p.m. on the weekends.

Repostería Duncan Mayan, a block and a half off the park on Avenida Colón, is, despite the name, not a pastry shop but a relaxed diner-bar popular with both locals and a few foreigners, who crowd the 112-year-old establishment’s many tables, tipping their Imperials until the 10 p.m. closing time. The food here, though just the usual steak–pork chop–chicken fare, is well prepared and hearty, and will set you back US$5–8 per meal. There is live music Thursday–Saturday. A second branch has opened in a restored colonial home a few blocks away.

One of the longest-operating upscale traditional Honduran restaurants in town is El Patio (tel. 504/221-4141, 11 a.m.–midnight daily or until everyone leaves), near the eastern end of Boulevard Morazán, not to be confused with its sister pupusería down the street. Here the kitchen serves up choice cuts of beef (US$8–15), pinchos (US$12), and tasty anafre, a great hot bean-and-cheese dip, in huge portions, all in a cavernous restaurant decorated in Mayan kitsch, with servers wearing traditional Honduran costumes.