Skip to main content
There are people who will tell you Portland lacks for good Mexican food.
They're wrong, of course. The city has a few spots with great budget taqueria fare (Santa Cruz, Angel Food & Fun, Taqueria Portland), solid midrange bougie-Mex (¿Por Que No?, Stella Taco, Mi Mero Mole) and a few fantastic high-end restaurants (Taqueria Nueve, Nuestra Cocina). Pick up a copy of our Restaurant Guide, out today, and you'll find all our favorites—from dives with $1 carnitas tacos to a place that hand mills masa in house to fry up chips for $16 guacamole.
But Portland's Mexican offerings are lacking in a very specific way: We don't have any really good sit-down family Mexican places. I'm talking about those decidedly outmoded places with comfy booths, free chips and frozen margaritas in oversized glassware. The kind of place you get a chimichanga or chile Colorado and a bottomless soda.
Given that my wife drags me around the corner to the bright pink La Bamba on Southeast Powell Boulevard once a month, I was pretty excited about the prospect of Rocio's.
Rocio's comes from Rocio Meza, daughter of a San Diego restaurateur who ran one of those vaunted institutions de enchiladas. Her new spot opened on Southeast Gladstone Street in July, looking very much like the sort of updated take we need here—more sophisticated environs and slightly more upscale ingredients.
It certainly looks the part, with a wall of tilt-out windows, stylish mission chairs and a handsome, oversized, X-shaped modern chandelier hanging over the middle of the room. But, after three visits covering most of the menu, I'm disappointed.
That starts with the complimentary salsa, an orangish-red concoction that tastes canned even though it's not. But better to stick with it than upgrade to a fruit ceviche (since removed from the menu) which, on our visit, amounted to a bowl of underripe mango in a bracingly sweet juice.
The disappointment continued with the cocktails. A Mexican coffee had as much flavorless foam as fluid, and gave me nothing but flat bitterness. A margarita tasted like something you could make with a bottled mix.
The best and worst things on the menu are the $3.50 street tacos. Though the best tacos usually cost $1 or $2, I'm fine with $3.50 street tacos provided they're packed with flavor. But only the carne asada gets close to the standard set by places like ¿Por Que No?. It was smoky, fatty and delicious, topped with finely chopped cilantro and a brightening green salsa. A fried-fish taco was also tasty, though it needed more acid to contrast with the thick breading and creamy sauce. Among the others, overcooked chicken tasted a lot like the overcooked carnitas, and crispy-shelled tacos with shredded iceberg lettuce had nothing to recommend beyond nostalgia for Taco Tuesdays past.
They're trying to branch out, though. Elotes—a cob of corn cut in half for $4—tasted green and undercooked. It was covered in way too much cheese with no hint of lime or salt.
As far as larger and pricier entrees go, it's hit and miss. Pork chile verde ($14) in a tomatillo sauce was flat, salty and, through much of my meal, without tortillas. I did like the mole chicken ($14), a super-chocolaty and rather sweet sauce that complemented a moist half-chicken. Double down on sweetness with buñuelos con helado, a plate-sized round of fried bread with lots of honey and a generous scoop of ice cream ($5).
Then again, you can get good desserts at La Bamba, too, along with a burrito Michoacan that I prefer to anything at Rocio's. We were there just a couple nights ago; we cannot escape it.
Order this: Carne asada tacos, mole chicken, negro Modelo, dessert
EAT: Rocio's, 2850 SE Gladstone St., 971-266-8860, rociospdx.com. 11:30 am-10 pm Monday-Saturday.
Willamette Week