mole-mole-best-mexican-food_michael-novak_q6caqy Where to Find the Best Mexican Food in Portland — Tres moles from the Mole Mole food cart.

Portland’s rich, varied, and vibrant Mexican food scene deserves more attention than it gets. Quality taquerias and mercados have long simmered guisados and pressed tortillas across the city, but in recent years, the scene has blossomed even more. Quesabirria carts, mariscos pop-ups, and artful tasting menus have landed around town, expanding the range and regional representation in Mexican dining.

Yet as the food scene has grown, so has the federal government’s aggression toward the people behind it. Donald Trump’s reelection was propelled by his promise of “mass deportations,” and in 2025 we’re seeing that play out daily. So, as you’re trawling the spots on this list in pursuit of chiles rellenos or mole verde, consider looking up some of the organizations fighting for Portland’s Mexican American immigrants as well—the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization and Pueblo Unido are two good places to start.

Antojitos and Tortas / Birria / Burritos / Larger Fare / Tasting Menus / Postres

Antojitos and Tortas

guero-torta-best-mexican-food_michael-novak_wxfpyo Where to Find the Best Mexican Food in Portland — Güero is all about the torta.

Güero

Kerns

At many taquerias, tortas are an afterthought—not at Guëro, the bright and cheery sandwich shop on East 28th Avenue’s “Restaurant Row.” Here, they’re the focus. Newcomers should start with the carnitas—juicy, slow-cooked pork, peak-ripe avocado, pink pickled onions, and chile mayo with a whisper of smoke and heat, all loaded onto a fluffy, fresh baked telera bun. Meanwhile, the hamburguesa—two beef patties stacked up along with avocado, ham, gooey American cheese and queso botanero, grilled onions, peppers, and chile mayo—ranks among the best burgers in the city.

Ki’ikibáa

Madison South

Opened in 2022 by former Angel Food & Fun chef Manny Lopez and his wife, Suny Parra Castillo, this Yucatecan restaurant zeroes in on regional specialties like panuchos (thick fried masa tortillas stuffed with black beans and topped with a choice of meats) and custardy tamales wrapped in banana leaves and served with tomato sauce. The move is to grab a couple antojitos, plus comforting frijol con puerco (black bean soup with hunks of stewed pork) or relleno negro (inky-black charred pepper stew with turkey and egg) to round out your meal. Keep your eyes peeled for specials like blood sausage.

La Osita

Mill Park

A food cart tucked in an unassuming lot, La Osita specializes in Mexican breakfasts with a Pacific Northwest touch. You can find smoothies, coffees, and a variety of breakfast items including a chorizo (or soyrizo) breakfast burrito. But you’re here for the signature brunch tacos: fried egg and a whole strip of Applewood-smoked bacon on a lightly crisped corn tortilla, garnished with melted Tillamook cheese, pickled onions, and pico de gallo.

Tito’s Taquitos

multiple locations

Tito’s Taquitos exemplifies the Portland food-cart-to-brick-and-mortar narrative, beginning as a lone cart in a Southwest Portland parking lot before expanding with counter service restaurants in Beaverton, Multnomah Village, and Swan Island. The foundation of its success is its namesake: crunchy, hand-rolled taquitos filled with creamy potatoes and topped with things like carnitas, shredded chicken, and chickpeas al pastor. But everything here stuns, whether it’s the delicate tacos on hand-pressed masa tortillas, or larger fare like tamarind-glazed ribs available at the Beaverton and Multnomah Village locations. Don’t skip the aguas frescas of the day or the berry-topped tres leches cake.

BIrria

Birrias Tamazula

Gresham

Tucked into Gresham’s charming historical district, Birrias Tamazula vies with Los 7 Hermanos for the best goat birria in the Portland area. A slab of meat comes slow-cooked and falling off the rib bones, nestled in a warm consomé. Co-owner Anthony Herrera uses a generations-old family recipe sourced from Tamazula, the gaminess of the meat balanced with rich and bright broth, tingly with chile. A basket of fresh-made corn tortillas, delicate and airy, is necessary to sop up all that broth and cradle tender shreds of meat. The Baja-style shrimp tacos and aguas frescas also impress, and there’s a full bar for margaritas to pair with your meats.

Birrieria Los 7 Hermanos

Gresham

If you’re going to specialize in one dish, you’d better do it right—and Los 7 Hermanos delivers. This modest, brick-walled shop makes its birria de chivo the way it’s been done for generations, slow-cooking goat meat in a rich, buttery, chickpea-loaded consommé with plenty of corn tortillas. Deeply tender and aromatic, pair it with a michelada for the ultimate hangover cure.

Burritos

El Burrito Azteca

Arbor Lodge, Roseway

First-timers to either location of this casual burrito counter shop have a myriad of options to choose from, like fry-stuffed California burritos, breakfast burritos including a standout machaca (beef and scrambled egg), and fajita burritos. But if you’re here, why not go all-out with the Super Azteca? It packs in a whole chile relleno along with refried beans, rice, pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole, and a hefty portion of the meat of your choice into a freshly steamed tortilla; we’re partial to the carnitas.

Pinches Burros

Cully

In a country that has popularized the fast-casual, build-your-own burrito shop (looking at you, Chipotle), having a little guidance can be a blessing. Hidden behind a nail salon in the Cully area, Pinches Burros—whose name translates to “stupid donkeys”—fills its burritos with a specific set of salsas, beans, and other accompaniments that enhance the primary protein. Carnitas teams up with avocado sauce and chorizo–refried beans; chicken tinga gets whole beans, chipotle lime mayo, and sour cream; and the shop’s take on a choripapas burrito (chorizo and potatoes) comes with a combination of refried beans, chipotle lime mayo, and tater tots in lieu of the typical fried potatoes. Vegans, take note: Pinches makes its soyrizo in house.

Smart Donkey

Richmond

For creative, well-executed burrito combinations, look no further than Smart Donkey. Owner Oswaldo Bibiano, the chef behind the late, great Autentica, covers a remarkable spectrum of burrito styles within his lone food cart on 52nd Avenue. The chile rojo is a saucy, spicy delight stuffed with pork in red chile sauce, while the Zumpango is loaded with Guerrero-style shredded beef barbacoa. There’s a Baja burrito with fried fish, iceberg lettuce, and crema picante, plus a vegan option, El Guapo, filled with seasonal vegetables and avocado sauce. We’re partial to the Uruapan, which comes with Michoacan-style carnitas—in other words, slow-cooked simply in lard for better browning and pork flavor. Pro tip: A daily happy hour gets you a margarita for five bucks, and the cart is surrounded by a sizable covered patio.

Larger Fare

Chelo

Concordia

After years of pop-ups and residencies, chef Luna Contreras has settled into the former Dame space with her playful, artistic, veggie-forward concept, Chelo. It’s named after her grandmother, who not only taught her how to shop at markets and cook while growing up in Mexico, but supported her as a trans kid. The menu highlights local, seasonal produce in a shareable format, the menu split between small and larger plates, as well as mariscos. Ready yourself for the likes of duck confit with compressed pineapple, shrimp quesadilla with spring peas, steamed clams with chorizo verde, and NY strip roast carne asada, along with wines and drinks. It all goes down in a homey, window-lined dining room.

La Mixteca Oaxaca

Hillsboro

For pizzalike tlayudas that rival what you’d find on the streets of Oaxaca, it’s well worth the drive to one of La Mixteca’s two Hillsboro locations. Atop the massive, super-thin tortilla, find aciento (a pork rind paste), black beans, stringy Oaxacan cheese, cabbage, radishes, and classic tlayuda meats ranging from carne enchilada (marinated pork) to cecina (steak) to chorizo. Should you need an appetizer while you wait, may we suggest the super-crunchy chapulines (grasshoppers) with lime and chile? They pair great with one of the house margaritas.

Mole Mole

Concordia

Mole Mole’s presentation is unsurpassed by any other food cart—and rivals some brick-and-mortar restaurants, too. Dishes arrive on custom ceramic dishware from Puebla, hand-painted with the cart’s name. Rice comes mounded in a pyramid, and the mole-enrobed whole chicken leg is adorned with a fresh orchid. The flavors are even more impressive. Anything you pick from the massive menu spanning multiple regions of Mexico, from soups to burritos to mole plates, is likely going to be a hit. Favorites include mole rosa, a pink mole made from walnuts and beets and served over wild salmon or chicken, and the mole verde enchiladas stuffed with the protein of your choice. Around the holidays, keep an eye out for its faithful rendition of chiles en nogada, a stuffed poblano pepper drenched in walnut sauce, finished with ruby-red pomegranate seeds.

Astral

kerns

Sharing an ultra-minimalist space with Duality Brewing, Astral, from chefs John Boisse and Lauren Breneman, is an excitingly ever-changing approach to Mexican cooking, supported by gorgeous seasonal produce and an exceptional pastry program. One week, they’ll take sugar-sweet snap peas and give them the esquites treatment; the next, they’ll wrap beef in fig leaves for barbacoa tacos. On a whim, they’ll run something that would be silly if it weren’t ridiculously tasty, like reinterpret the menu of San Francisco institution House of Prime Rib through a Mexican lens (see: loaded baked potato flautas). And, as a former pop-up, they love to cook with friends, whether that’s Kari Shaughnessy from wine country’s Hayward or the gang behind two other compelling Mexican pop-ups, Adán Fausto (Mariscos con Onda) and Diego Palacios (Machetes PDX).

Tasting Menus

metlapil-best-mexican-food_Brooke-Jackson-Glidden_dhqtde Where to Find the Best Mexican Food in Portland — Kautia and Jose “Lalo” Camarena serve mariscos and masa at Metlapíl.

Metlapíl

kerns

After wowing Portlanders as executive chef of the Mexican fine-dining restaurant República, Jose “Lalo” Camarena, along with partner Kautia Camarena, brings Sinaloan seafood and Oaxacan masa snacks to a residency at the event space Che. On Thursdays and Sundays, diners can find à la carte mariscos, but it’s the supper club on Fridays and Saturdays where Metlapíl shines. Over the course of about two hours, strangers chat as plate after plate of seafood lands on the communal table. Masa, hand-ground with a stone metate (mortar) and eponymous metlapíl (pestle), appears throughout the menu, from crisp tostadas bearing raw hamachi scaled with carrots rings, to edible bowls cradling delicate scallops and charred corn. An evening’s head turner might be tangy aged masa mixed with potato for crab gnocchi with confit tomatoes. The dessert courses are left to Kautia, tart and earthy hibiscus sorbets and a judiciously sweet pan de elote based on her grandmother’s recipe.

Lilia Comedor

South Portland

Newly occupying the former De Noche space on the North Park Blocks, Juan Gomez’s dishes come out like works of art, boasting hyper-seasonal, local ingredients that change by the day: chanterelle tinga, chalupa-fied with braised cranberry beans; spot prawn ceviche with ground cherries and green peaches; Chinook salmon “a la brasa” in a clay-red stone-fruit-marigold mole with purple sprouting broccoli with black trumpet mushroom escabeche. A seat at the chef’s counter affords an up-close view and chance to enjoy the tasting menu, which lands somewhere between $90 and $110, depending on the week. If you can’t score a tasting menu spot, no worries; à la carte meals here are hardly a compromise.

Republoca-mexican-food_o6lzk6 Where to Find the Best Mexican Food in Portland — República’s quesadilla with salsa macha.

República

Pearl District

República describes itself as a “Mexico-forward” restaurant, serving seven- and 10-course tasting menus from chef Dani Morales. But it’s more than dinner—it’s also a story-rich glimpse into the culinary traditions of Mexico. A meal might include tortillas made from fresh, multicolored masa; annatto-rubbed sablefish with peach and epazote, or sweet corn husk meringue with lacto-fermented raspberries. Dishes arrive with narratives and history lessons, including how Indigenous ingredients came to meet Old World elements. República and its related restaurants have greatly contributed to Portland’s evolving food scene, delving deep into the cultural and culinary world of Mexico and Latin American countries. But also, meals at República are just as much about the personal histories of the chefs involved, whether inspiration or recipes come from family members or the annals of precolonial Mexico.

Postres

Ice Queen

hosford-abernethy

When it’s hot out, nothing hits quite like paletas do. The classic Mexican summer snack is essentially a fresh fruit popsicle—while at times made with yogurt or milk (more like ice cream on a stick), the ones at Ice Queen are entirely plant-based and vegan, and they sport a wide variety of oft-rotating flavors. You might find hibiscus-mango, strawberry shortcake, roasted pineapple, or watermelon tajin. Rebecca Smith started Ice Queen with a Yeti chest and a dream; you can now find her frozen treats artfully displayed at her Hosford-Abernethy shop, as well as in stores throughout the state.

Libre

Richmond

This sultry dessert bar comes from restaurateur Ketsuda “Nan” Chaison, working closely with pastry magician and business partner Gabriella Martinez. Chaison handles the bar, bringing her many visits to Mexico City to play with a deep roster of mezcal- and tequila-based cocktails. The house old-fashioned, a mezcal number spiked with strawberry cheong and corn liqueur, is a good place for newcomers to start. But Martinez’s daring and playful desserts make Libre a destination for nondrinkers as well (and there’s an NA drink menu). Always visually stunning and impeccably balanced for sweetness, dishes might look like mole creme brulée and bone marrow ice cream, strawberry tres leches with cornflakes, or a Biscoff cookie cheesecake with cinnamon toast ice cream. Need something savory? Find sweet corn empanadas, shrimp ceviche, and mixed nuts with grasshoppers on the menu too.

Ome Calli

beaverton

Mexican frozen desserts are egregiously underrated in the United States writ large, and Ome Callí’s SW Canyon Road heladería covers a ton of them. The ice cream case is filled with flavors like chocolate-chipotle and mamey and corn and cotija, not to mention guava and soursop and tamarind-chile sherbet. Paletas are even more inventive here: The passion fruit pop comes studded with pieces of cucumber, a refreshing palate cleanser when being walloped with tropical acidity, and the sapote popsicle has the fruity depth and creaminess that’s often compared to chocolate pudding. Portlanders, bring a cooler and stock up before you head home.

Tany’s Cafe con Pan

wood village

Strolling through the aisles of this tong-and-tray model (see: Oyatsupan, 85C) panadería, east Multnomah regulars will peer into pastry cases, delicately placing bubblegum-pink strawberry besos (soft cookies sandwiched with jam, then showered in coconut) or Neapolitan-colored payasos (shortbread cookies) on their plastic trays. Tany’s has a delightfully wide selection of galletas, pan dulce, and conchas on this side of the Willamette, including flaky orejas (Mexico’s answer to the palmier) and Mexican wedding cookies. A highlight: the conchas rellenas, stuffed with fruit or whipped cream, which eats like a fluffier cream puff.

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