Lupitas Carniceria & Tortilleria

I was so overwhelmed the first time I went here.
Tortillas — get in the tortilla line, ask for how many pounds of tortilla’s you want and they go get them fresh and put them in a basket.
Meats — get in the meat line, same deal. I’ve had both the barbacoa and the carnitas — they are both really good.
Cheeses — I haven’t figured this one out quite yet, but definitely check out their selection!
Sauces/​Salsas — available at the register when you check out.
Drinks — get from the coolers on your own.
I don’t speak Spanish, so this is always an adventure for me, but the workers definitely try to help me out and are good at understanding my pointing and hand gestures for how much cheese I want.
This is a DIY take-​out place and by that I mean, go here to get parts of your meal, take it home and assemble it.

This is a take out deli. Very good and very affordable but keep in mind it is a deli. It isn’t a place to sit and eat. I order ready to eat carnitas, homemade soft corn tortillas, queso fresco, and I get a few salsas. It’s really cheap and the food is really good.

Yo quiero tortillas.
There is nothing better than driving aimlessly looking for a place to eat and scoring big time on a new spot that is pure awesomeness. Yes, that was my experience with Lupitas.
Walking in, it’s a cross between a little mini mart you’d find in Mexico with chips de sabor and bottles of Jarritos sodas in coolers lining the walls and a butcher stocked with fresh cuts of bacon, chorizo, and marinated chicken. They also carry queso fresco (white crumbly cheese) and queso Oaxaca (which is white string cheese). In the last deli case, there are giant slabs of pork rind. Talk about plenty for a midnight snack.
Behind the counter, you are greeted by the employees who mainly speak Spanish, but the smiles on their faces need no interpretation. Friendly. They are efficient and will get you in and out with bags of food in no time. If you don’t speak Spanish, don’t worry, just point to the photo of what you want and do your best to communicate.
They have cooked and ready carnitas or barbacoa. The barbacoa is tender beef with juicy and flavorful pieces that fit nicely in the fresh, made-​to-​order corn tortillas. The carnitas are marinated mix of meats. I didn’t get the carnitas this time around, but I plan to return and try it all.
To top it off, when you go to the cashier, they have two mini fridges stocked with fresh salsas: verde, chipotle (I can’t remember what the name is exactly, but it is comparable), pico de gallo, and a very hot red. They also have some cactus salsa/​salad. I got a few of the salsas and they were the perfect spicy flavor to top off the meal.
Like another reviewer said, none of these things are put together for you. No, they don’t have any side dishes, unless you grab a bag of chips. But after my first visit, I realized, they don’t have time for sides… they save all their energy on doing what they do well… tortillas, meats, and friendliness.
This place is perfect if you are going to host a party and need great meat and tortillas… just in time for Cinco de mayo.

At just a dollar a pound, this are the best and freshest tortillas that you can find in Charlotte. Forget store brand tortillas, these is where the local Mexican community buys the equivalent of their daily bread. Having grown in a household where tortillas were made fresh by hand by either Mom or Grandma, I would say my standards are pretty high. The tortillas here are made in the same style as they are sold in Mexico City, made from a dry corn flour, mixed and then baked. I prefer tortillas made from (Nixtamal) corn kernels that are cooked and cured with lime, then ground into fresh corn masa that is used to make tortillas. However, this will have to do for now until Mexican food in general evolves in Charlotte, and we can find Tortillas and authentic Mexican food as it is available in places like California. You can also find a few ready to eat meat classics such as carnitas, barbacoa, and chicharrones. Just know that these are sold individually by the pound as take out. You can definitely build yourself a nice lunch or dinner by making your own tacos at home.

Given the 100% positive ratings on Urban Spoon, I was really looking forward to getting take out from Lupitas. I walked in and it seemed like it had a lot of potential. So I ordered everything on the menu… all THREE things… Carnitas, shredded beef, and chicken. I also ordered some salsa and tortillas. When I got home and opened the boxes I was disappointed to find that they were boxes of meat and nothing else. I mean, No sides of any kind. No rice. No beans. No veggies. It’s a good thing that I had ordered the tortillas or I wouldn’t have even had anything to put the meat in.
This wouldn’t have been a big deal if I hadn’t woken up a handful of hours, violently ill from what I had eaten. Being up all night with intense cramping from bad food is not an experience that I care to repeat. I won’t be back.

I love this place. I can pretty much feed my family for a little over $ 20 and still have leftovers. The tortillas are made to order and the meat (s) you choose are also cooked to order. Everything is seasoned perfectly. Just a word of warning. If you don’t like spicy or super hot don’t buy their salsas.

This place made our day. We were driving through town and only stopped after seeing «Tortilleria» to hopefully pick up some fresh tortillas for dinner later on. Amazingly, they make fresh tortillas seven days a week. For about a dollar a pound (roughly 14 tortillas). Are you kidding me? We felt like we hit the jackpot. Disclaimer — we live in Charleston, SC which despite a rockstar food scene has NO good Mexican. We started looking in the deli cases and before you know it we were being offered samples of Honduran cheese (salty and tangy and feta-​like) and carnitas and barbacoa. And by samples of the meat I mean whole tacos on their tortillas with homemade salsas brought to us by my fantasy adorable Mexican grandmother. There was a bit of a language barrier but I hope she understood how happy she made us. I think I started to cry — we haven’t had Mexican good since leaving Southern CA (did I mention there is no good Mexican in Charleston?!?). We immediately bought a pound of the carnitas to-​go ($ 7 — another ridiculous bargain) along with the house-​made salsa verde. We also took home a chunk of Oaxaca cheese at a price that should make Whole Foods ashamed of themselves for what they charge for the same product. Lupita’s is essentially a take out place within a deli so don’t go if you’re looking to eat –in. That being said the premises were exceptionally clean and didn’t have that old meat and grease smell a lot of groceries have. All of the staff were exceptionally helpful, friendly, and patient with our terrible Spanish. You could tell they took pride in what they were offering. They should. They rock. We drove our goods back to home, reheated the carnitas in a tiny bit of the manteca we bought, topped them with the salsa, and had an absolute taco feast. We’re already looking for an excuse to go back.