Cha! Cha! Cha!

I used to work at a Cha Cha Cha and miss eating the food every day! Margaritas are amazing. Happy hour is a killer deal. Try the Happy Mama enchilada or shrimp/​carne asada tacos at HH, or if you get there late go for a mole poblano burrito with carnitas.

Slow. Had to call from the line because the cashier is also the bartender and the busser. They need to get their act together.

We’ve been here a ton for happy hour (5 stars for the HH options) but never for regular priced times. On New Years Day, hungry and cold, we wandered in about an hour before close.
It was super quiet with only one other table, which was great. We both ordered burritos and they are HUGE and really good. I’d recommend a fork and knife because mine gushed molten lava sauce down my sleeve, but you do you.
I assume it was because they were close to closing, but they gave us free chips and salsa while we waited (you usually have to buy them). The chips were hot and the salsa was good.
We’ll probably stick with happy hour because the happy burrito is so good, but it’s nice to know they do multiple things well.

The food was excellent! Really loving the new menu. Also, the manager, Namibia was fantastic.

I am thrilled this place opened at this location! There really aren’t a ton of options in this area, and I’ve found this place to be consistently good. Great margaritas, yummy chips & guac, and my favorite — wet burrito with half red/​half green sauce. Generous portions and very good quality ingredients + friendly and attentive staff.

Sad to see this place get so many bad reviews. I think the staff is fantastic and food is great. I’m from Colorado, and it doesn’t compare the the Mexican food there, but for Portland I’d say it’s fantastic. The chimichanga is amazing and their drinks are very well priced. I always go for the fried cheese and beans ;), but my husband gets something new every time and is always more than satisfied. It’s fantastic that they have so many meat choices, too and you’re not stuck with «chicken or beef?» Like you often are at Mexican joints. A+ place in my book :). Oh, and in the summer, the patio is fantastic! Well shaded and in a good spot with good quality picnic tables.

My family loves this place. It is right up the street from where we live so we go there often. My personal favorite is the mole chicken burrito. The prices are reasonable and service is always great. The outdoor seating is icing on the cake!

Cheap, quick, decent texmex. would have been better if we didn’t have to keep asking for things over and over. The waiter was very forgetful.

Worst service I’ve ever had in this city. We waited 40 minutes for someone to take our order, which booted us out of happy hour. We tried to order at the counter and were told to seat ourselves. Then we explained we had already been waiting and really wanted happy hour. They tried to accommodate us but literally switched out check and credit card with another patrons table. I could keep going, it was just the worst. AVOID. It’s super sad because I used to love this local chain.

They have a pretty decent HH. Happy Margaritas for $ 6, nachos, taquitos, tacos, quesadillas all within the $ 4-​$ 5 range. The service was pretty good while we were there so I can’t complain.

Sloppily made food, rushed, bland. Not even the same league as other Cha’s. This location is the black sheep of the Cha Cha Cha franchise.
Drinks? Disgusting. You know that puke aftertaste when you hit it too hard as a youngster? That’s what their drinks taste like and that’s a good, accurate description.
Their bait-​and-​switch «happy hour» food is smaller portions of their normal food using the same product names as their full sized items — you’re better off ordering off the menu and getting a full portion for a few dollars more. You’ll do what we did: go there, say it sucked, go again, it’ll suck again. You’ll try one last time. Then you’ll stop and do a review warning others not to get thrice fooled.

My experience wasn’t necessarily bad, but not great either.
For the pros, the staff was friendly and our waitress was wonderful. We ordered our food and drinks off the happy hour menu, which were certainly priced well.
There aren’t really any specific cons just that the food was fairly mediocre. We didn’t have anything that truly wowed me or made me want to come back and explore their full dinner menu. If you happen to be in the South Waterfront and don’t want to go far for Mexican food, it’s a decent choice. But typically, it wouldn’t be my first pick.

I was excited to try this place because I’ve eaten at other Cha Cha Chas in Portland and have typically enjoyed my food. I was ready for a good Mexican breakfast but I was incredibly disappointed.
The service was slow and about 15 minutes after placing our order, we had to go up to the bar and ask where our drinks were. On top of that, the food was the WORST Mexican food I’ve had in Portland and I feel like that’s saying a lot. Being Mexican and from Southern California, Portland Mexican food has left something to be desired. The chilaquiles here were pasty and lacking in flavor. The pozole, their featured weekend item, was basically just bland chicken broth with some shredded chicken and hominy.
I left my plate almost completely full. I left hungry because I refused to eat what they served. I’ll be hitting a food cart now after paying 30 dollars for a breakfast for two.
Thanks but no thanks Cha Cha Cha. I will not be back. You couldn’t pay me to eat the food here.

The food is good and a fair price but the service is spotty. Sometimes we can order and have our food in 15 minutes, other times after 45 minutes we still don’t have our drinks. How busy they are does not seem to correspond with the service.
Should you go? Not if you are in a hurry.

This is such a great location, just down from where I work. I love Mexican food, and as long as it has guacamole, I’m really not all that picky. Of course this isn’t the best you’ll find, but it’s decent food for lunch at least. All that being said, I would come here a lot more if it were not for the lacking service.
My last visit in particular was fairly frustrating. I specifically called in an order ahead because I was in a hurry. I go up to the front to pick up my order, clearly ready, sitting on the table with my name on it. I’m waiting to pay, plastic card in my hand, and I couldn’t for the life of me get anyone to even acknowledge me. I get it, they were busy, but how hard is it to say they’ll be with me in X amount of time? At least 3 employees walked past me without saying a word. I was pretty put off by that and finally spoke up to the next employee, who pawned me off to someone else and told me to wait until the other employee was finished with something… I’m not high maintenance by any means but poor service is something I rarely put up with. I won’t be back anytime soon.

I have eaten here five times total thanks to working at OHSU. Every single time I am convinced that I ordered incorrectly, but no more!
Their burritos are hit or miss, usually miss thanks to a heavy dose of raw onions 2 out of 3 times. The poblano tamales are possibly worse than just grabbing slop at a Taco Bell. They are pre made tamales, which is logical, so when I attempted to eat I assumed that the solid mass of inedible cheese inside the tamale was due to the cook not heating it enough. Nope. Maybe pork is better, but either way it is a lukewarm deep fried pile of garbage with black beans on the side.
Even the beverages (unless in a glass bottle, unopened) are gross. I will stick with Lovejoy Bakers and their $ 12 sandwiches next time I forget (ok, next time I am too lazy) to bring a lunch to work.

Sorry Cha Cha Cha, but your food just kinda stunk. No, for real, what did you put in your meat? It’s a weird mixture if spices that makes your subpar Mexican food taste off.
While we didn’t wait too long for happy hour options to come out, I don’t think much care and prep goes into the food. Drinks were okay, there were a few local beer options and a decent selection of tequila. The spendy special margaritas aren’t really worth the price though.
I’m underwhelmed.

Their HH margarita prices have jumped from $ 5 to $ 6, and $ 6 is too much for an overly sweet and lemony margarita. Where is the lime? Why does it taste like lemon? This isn’t a margarita.
The chips and guacamole are $ 4.50, and the guacamole is tasty (even a little spicy), but the portion size is tiny. It’s not a sharable portion– this is guacamole for one.
The chicken taquitos were bland, and the chicken was desperately dry inside. They were only saved by the side of guacamole.
The service is hit or miss– you get a number even if you’ve only ordered drinks, and you may have to chase down your drinks. We once waited 15 minutes for 3 margaritas while all of our friends had been served their drinks within 5 minutes of ordering.
BUT– it’s a great happy hour place. Chips, drinks, beer, and you can stay as long as you want. I hope they install some umbrellas outside on the patio before the rainy season hits, though.

This is another small step into making the South Waterfront into a bona fide neighborhood. Located in the ground level retail area of the Emery apartments (that architectural monstrosity next to the bridge), this place serves casual, Portlandy Mexican food. The food itself is a-​ok. The nachos are not a very big portion (like you find stacked mountain high around here), but they are pretty tasty. The guacamole is on the thin side, without thickness or any chunks of avocado (which I like better). The hot sauces are very good, probably the best thing about the dish. Others gave passing scores to the quesadillas and burritos. The prices are super reasonable. They also have a few good local microbrews, and have a full bar, which is a HUGE upgrade to this neighborhood.
I’m not a huge fan of having to order at the counter, but they do bring your food to your table, and they take care of the busing. There are long wooden tables inside, where people sit in kind of a communal fashion. There is also a fair amount of patio seating.
I hope they do well, as it’s a very nice development for this part of town!

So far so good! Loving the drinks! The salsas and seemingly house made hot sauces are soo ridonk it offsets the «just okay-​ness» of the chips. Veggie burrito… whole lotta deliciousness. Even without HH prices it’s huge, filling, and under 8 bucks… Chipotle, you got a competitor down here ruling the SW Waterfront.
Slow service right now, or at least you’ll get 4 of 5 things you ordered… one will slip through the cracks… then when you remind them it’ll take a little while to come out, but they’ve barely been open two weeks, so letting it slide for now. Overall, a win!