And now it is shuttered. Better luck on your next endeavor Kurt and Chris!
Olivia O.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Portland, OR
Corazon is gone the way of Three Pigs, 50 Plates, and Violetta, gone gone gone. I will miss you and your tacos. I will miss you and your bloody mary. I will miss you and your rustic to runway fashion décor. I will miss the brown chairs spray-painted to an aqua with smooth gradient. I will regret my first review, mourn the delicious happy hour that sprung up too late, and wish its last month of business wasn’t the one month I was scrunching up my savings. I know the owner has other projects, so it’s good to know we’ll see his vision in other meals in Portland.
Cat S.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Portland, OR
ARGH. Again: ARGH. I was quite pleased with this place — interesting drinks, yummy tacos, excellent guacamole. After the blahness of Pinot and then the endless period where the space was vacant, it was awesome to finally have a decent restaurant in my building. As of today, however, there is a sign on the door stating that Corazon is «closed definitively.» Thanks for all the whiny«this is pretty good but not THEBESTTHINGEVER, two stars!!» reviews, everybody! Maybe in another year or two a new restaurant will pop up in the space. Sigh.
Maxene A.
Évaluation du lieu : 2 Portland, OR
Corazon: I was really excited about you. A charming upper-scale Mexican restaurant in Downtown Portland, you have it all –location, size, established chef’s, and exciting fusion menu. And to make it an even more standout Portland establishment –a full bar with sassy named drinks, seating, happy hour, bold décor, hip music, large people watching windows and a visual recipie for décor lovers. But that happened to be where my opinion stayed, fixed on those items and not on the main reason we came, the food. We hit Corazon Saturday night about 8p, the place wasn’t packed, in-fact we chose our own seating and went straight for the wide open corner booths with the best people watching views, the man and I were pretty elated over that! The drinks –I never expect to spend less then 8 $ on a hand crafted adult beverage when I go out but 11 $ for the Lupita and $ 10 for the Chupacabra which were only about 4 ounces each… where am I… are we in London or Cardova, AK somewhere we can justify this type of price markup for drinks? However I really did like the spicy sweetness of the Lupita, just not the size… The Food– They serve the food tapas-style, which basically means small plates to be shared and the food comes out as its’ ready from the kitchen –not as one big meal. The complimentary chips and salsas were great to nibble on while we decided our order but they had no heat. The red salsa tasted a bit smoky –probably from the use of dried chilies but did not stand out as a salsa, but rather a red pepper dip, and the(green) salsa verde had the tart flavor of the tomatillos but no heat to render it salsa, instead both were simply tomato based dipping sauces. The Guacamole; was boring, it tasted like a avocado and lime mash up, nothing more, nothing less, there was no heat and I had even tried to doctor it up by adding some red and green salsa but that did it no justice either, it was a flop for 8 $ All I could figure is the menu listing did say Guacamole –Avocado, onion, garlic, cilantro, and lime. No Jalapeño… odd right? The Tacos; Barbacoa, and Carnitas were both pretty tasty, with hearty flavor and tender meat, they were great but nothing truly exciting to come back for. The tacos were also small on size and 3 $ a piece –hard to complain about that price when that’s what you already learned to pay from taquerias like at Por Que No? The Ceviche; Now that is one delicious plate I will be back for, the mango purée, pumpkin seeds, all so delicious amongst the albacore marinated in lime juice. This is one thing I love dearly –a great ceviche and they did a good job at making something with standout flavor! The Salads; The octopus salad was delicious I liked how tender the dish was presented, my boyfriend likes his octopus tougher –so he wasn’t to thrilled about it. Also, I don’t know how octopus is supposed to be prepared, so I enjoyed it for what it was that night. The flavors of the octopus were good, but the dish as a whole was still lacking something, just something more, maybe added spice, not sure… The watermelon salad was refreshing and great, I will order that again. The Décor — I am such a visual sucker, I love being able to eye-pace the room, admiring all of the neat touches of restaurants and Corazon had my eyes darting all over– they did a fantastic job replacing that industrialized feel of the space. To partition off seating areas, long ropes hanging from the ceiling and connected to the booths are used, which adds a nice earthy feel. When you look up because what else could be charming about this place… o wait, yes, the lights. they are gathered in clusters and enclosed in woven baskets, which again breaks up the industrial feel and makes it feel modern. Overall– 68 $ and immediately after we left we got to thinking you know we could of gotten a better meal at Por Que No. Our server was very nice, in fact she was very enthusiastic about the menu, the drinks, and offered to make drinks to our liking when we were undecided about what to order. The salsa, the guacamole, the tacos, the basic top 3 items you can find at any Mexican themed potluck fell flat, sad to say. What could of easily been a Mexican staycation in my mouth became just as exciting as watching the Olympic race walking finals, not exciting… I know I will be back, I hate to say it, because I was so unimpressed with the food, but I hate to give any place just one chance, but I am a sucker for fantastic décor and happy hours. Plus I heard they had pork belly… if that is the case, I will be back and at that time I hope they get things better situated.
Cedric J.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Portland, OR
Delicioso. Atmosphere: 4(swanky, but not too posh) Service: 4(quite above average) Food: 5(2 words, padron peppers) Drinks: 3(meh beer, good cocktails, a touch expensive) Value: 3(you get what you pay for) Sustainability: 2(in house items, may source locally) Corazon is one one of those new, swanky restaurants that probably would be a flash in the pan, except the quality of the food and drink is so good that it will likely have staying power. I’ve been here twice, and both times, the place was excellent. They’ve got great bartenders and servers. The service here is really, really good: Attentive, but not annoying; in a word: Experienced. And while this is sort of a tapas bar, what shines is their tacos. Everything else is also amazing, such as padron peppers(!)!)!(#$#*@!!!), their corn on the cob, and ceviche. Their octopus was cooked so well that it was tender and almost melted in my mouth… that is a feat. But their tacos are always going to be on the menu, although they may change things seasonally, and will always be stars. The chips are home-made(and thick); I think the salsa is as well. Not a lot of heat on the salsa, though; I actually preferred the green salsa which surprised me. The atmosphere is pretty high-end, but it isn’t uncomfortable. The last time I walked in, the music was fantastic. There is a lot of light, outdoor seating, and everything is padded and nice. The happy hour has OK specials, and tapas are great for an after-work snack. This is a super-clean place that you could take your neurotic germophobe friend to and not get a lot of complaints. Now that they’re open for lunch, I’ll probably be there on a regular rotation.
Ophelia Y.
Évaluation du lieu : 3 Portland, OR
We sat outside which was great – lots of outdoor seating options here… I came to Corazon for lunch after being given a coupon for a free taco. Free is a motivating price for lunch, so I went with a fellow co-worker. We decided that we would each order two tacos, and split each in half to sample four of the 6 options that are on the simplistic, yet option filled menu. We were provided with chips and salsa/dips. I preferred the green one over red when it came to flavor, and was pleasantly surprised that neither option was spicy. The chips were a bit on the salty side, but tasted like quality chips(thick, yet crispy). Next up, the tacos – they came on a little metal zig zagged taco holder, which was pretty great. Now for the tacos: Pork Belly: I tried a bite of this one first – I LOVE pork belly, so you can bet I was stoked to get a taste of this taco. Awesome. Such a pleasant surprise. The orange and corn salad was a great topper – added a fresh, light flavor to what typically is a much heavier, greasy food. The pickled mustard was almost non existent, which is more than fine by me. I’d order this again. Taco del dia(Taco of the Day… I wish I could remember what it was!): Also delicious. Had some spice spice(not spicy spice) to it, and was mildly sweet, but not overbearing in flavor. This was a saucier taco, and tasted pretty awesome. My co-worker’s favorite. Fish: I actually really liked this one – you would think it was nothing special, being a fish taco and all, but you’d be wrong. The shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, and lime were a nice twist to the fish to make it taste less heavy. And even though this was the third taco I tried, the fish was still crispy and flavorful. I was impressed. Carnitas: They said they change the taco topping options, which is a good thing, but they said that the carnitas are usually on the menu. Therefore I was expecting it to rock my world – it didn’t. It was an average taco. There was really nothing special about it, so it was mildly disappointing. Don’t get me wrong – it didn’t taste bad, it just didn’t wow me like I was hoping/expecting it to. Probably wouldn’t order it again. Overall, I was happy with the food – we skipped out on libations, being that it’s a workday and all, but the food was good. Two tacos a piece was enough for us calorie conscious(and petite) folk, but what if you’re a typical hungry American? I would compare this place to Little Big Burger – great portions if you are comfortable with portion control, you’ll probably leave hungry or be angry when you get your bill if you have a larger appetite. I would have happily given Corazon four stars for food and service, but for the price, it’s not the best bang for your buck. I would say most people expect large portions when it comes to tacos, and if that’s the case, this place isn’t it. It’s good food, but for the prices, the portions just don’t cut it.
Sherry S.
Évaluation du lieu : 3 Newport, OR
Went to early happy hour so we had our choice of where we wanted to sit. I then dug into the menu. They have some unusual dishes and we are of the pescatarian persuasion so we were able to find a number of items to choose from. We ended up having the spanish octopus salad, albacore ceviche, and 2 soft shell fish tacos. I also wanted a side of quacamole. The spanish octopus salad has potatoes and roasted peppers included with the octopus. Those ingredients are great together but we really had a hard time finding any spices at all. We thought maybe this is more of a delicate flavor all in all. We enjoyed the ceviche but once again it’s truly light on the flavors. The albacore was fresh. And, finally we had our small fish tacos. They tasted like your normal tacos only a lot smaller. They serve a huge amount of guacamole and, it tastes like, avocadoes. The dishes looked good, the quantity was also fine for the most part. All in all though, there were no overwhelming or even subtle flavors in any of the dishes, in a word, bland.
Flavia A.
Évaluation du lieu : 2 Santa Monica, CA
I went to Corazon after their menu was revamped. It’s still a work in progress. $ 3 tacos were fabulous — flavorful and balanced and the right amount of ingredients. Enchilada Dinner Plate — left a lot to be desired. The rice wasn’t even Spanish Rice — it was plain white rice that wasn’t even fully cooked. The pinto beans on the side were lacking a depth of flavor. Salt, perhaps? Lard or ghee could have added a lot. Tamales also were lackluster. First of all, they were tiny. Second of all, the masa filling was not only dry, but it was also bland. As in NO flavor whatsoever. The pork filling was dry. Sangria was lovely. Not too sweet, which I appreciated. I will be back for the tacos during happy hour… hopefully they figure out the other food stuffs. Mexican food really isn’t that hard to do. I hope they figure things out because it’s a great concept and I love Chris Israel’s other projects.
Laura P.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Portland, OR
We were so excited to try this new restaurant near home. We weren’t disappointed! We had read the reviews, sort of mixed. The reviews however were not true to form. Many complained of the poor service, that was not our experience. Our waiter was very attentive and our food/drinks arrived promptly when ordered. Other reviews went on about the food being tasteless or not up to par with other Mexican restaurants in Portland. Yes it’s Mexican, but not your usual Mom and Pop mexican with lots of greasy food, beans and rice with every entrée.(Although I admit, I like those places too, but this is NOT one of those places. We had all small plates. The Ceviche was wonderful as was the Mango Salad. We are very sad to hear that the menu will be changing. WIth so many good Mexican restaurants in this area why add another? This was a gem and we’re sorry to see it change. Good Luck!
Brent F.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Portland, OR
Great space, great vibe, good to see them busy. So much better than the lame place that was here before(and sat empty forever). The chips and salsa were solid, and the churros and chocolate, YUM. Good tacos too and a solid margarita for six bucks. Needs improving: consolidate all those pages and pages of menus into something simpler to understand. It was all over the place. Our server was a little unsure of what we were ordering because of all the menu changes, so, he seemed a little confused by it all. We had to repeat our items a couple times which just made us feel awkward. But its yummy mexican food and everything we tasted was solid and good value for $$$. I would showcase the tacos more, those are a standout. We had to ask to see the menu of tacos and I’m glad that we did!
Paul R.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Portland, OR
Corazon has come a long way in a short time. It’s great to see a place absorb — and adjust to — customer feedback and deliver on their potential. The service is wonderful and(finally) the cantina bites are landing as expected. Carnita tacos, mushroom tacos, taquitos, tamales, all flavor. Ask for a side of the habanero sauce!
Cheryl A.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Portland, OR
I went to Corazon when they first opened and although the food was delicious, there were kinks that needed to be resolved. We tried again(a party of four) and we all loved the food. The service was exceptional as well. All of the drinks were refreshing and potent especially the one that is made thick with a liquid egg– white swirl. I am not a food writer, so please forgive the description, but it was wonderful. We highly recommend the following dishes: the squash soup, the octopus and potatoes, the fish of the day(this time it was red snapper and cooked to perfection) and the quail. Do not miss the seafood cocktail and trust me, you will love the roasted corn with chili butter and lime. All of the desserts were outstanding such as the churros with chocolate sauce and the little round donut holes that come with that particular dessert. The restaurant has a lively vibe and a fun atmosphere. I will go again very soon.
Scooter S.
Évaluation du lieu : 2 Portland, OR
Tasteless guacamole, 16 $ cviche with 4 bites, 15 $ octopus app with 4 small pieces of octopus? Someone isn’t payng attention to whats going on here. The place is pretty and the service is fine but I really don’t get the why anyone would spend these prices for average food. The whole menu execution seems like an after thought.
Libby H.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Somerville, MA
This place was great for a date night! We came in on a whim and loved it. Our server was super helpful about food allergies, although she did lie about spiciness level(said the taco meats were mild, and one was definitely not). Nice flavors that reminded me adequately of my time in Central America. You can’t expect too much authenticity from an upscale Mexican restaurant filled with gringos, but this place did pretty well. Yummy drinks, too.
Katy h.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Boise, ID
I LOVED this place! The staff was very attentive and friendly, the food — delicious and fun — as an appetizer I had Elote– grilled corn on the cob with a spicy sauce and cheese. I tried the jalapeño marg, which was fantastic, and had another that was served with a flaming lime– also very delicious. My friend had a single traditional margarita because she’s that sort of joyless scab on the face of good times. I loved the posole, which I ordered, but sort of pined for more than a bite of my partner’s fresh halibut. Regret did not keep me from dessert — scarfed down my tres leches and half my friends flan.(«I thought we were sharing a dessert!») Everything was really outstanding. I will be back.
Janice I.
Évaluation du lieu : 2 Portland, OR
We ate for the first time at Corazon and were extremely disappointed. The shrimp did not seem fresh; fish tacos ordered as a main course came with 2 small tacos, hardly enough for dinner, yet the waitress did not inform the customer how little he was ordering. Guacamole was good, but chips were greasy. The waitress seemed uninformed and unclear when trying to describe menu items. This restaurant needs to get its act together soon or it will go in the same direction as its predecessor. I live in the same building as the restaurant, and already word is out that Corazon is not good.
Nathan R.
Évaluation du lieu : 2 Portland, OR
Another failed attempt at trying to make Mexican food a fine-dining experience. Let me just start with the good things: –The new décor is absolutely wonderful. The ropes that go from floor to ceiling and the basket light fixtures really make it a fun space to dine in. –The service was very friendly and attentive. We were seated immediately and when we were ordering were given recommendations and a menu tour. –Our drinks, though rather pricy($ 14 margarita), were delicious. Sadly, it fell apart thereafter We thought that we’d start off with some chips and salsa($ 4) and a heart of palm salad to start off. The chips were VERY salty, and the salsa was sort of «meh,» nothing really special about it. We then received our heart of palm salad, which was on the small side. The dressing was very good, but overall the salad was very simple, and didn’t deserve the $ 10 price tag associated with it. We ordered the enchiladas and the chile relleño. First of all, the rice that came with the dishes was very BORING. It had little peas and carrots in it, and reminded me of what they used to serve in our school cafeteria, not to mention that it didn’t have any flavor. The chile relleño was also very dry, and resembled less of an egg coating and more of a burnt omelet. Overall, the dish was lacking in flavor. The enchiladas had a decent sauce, but there was not much flavor beyond that. Overall, we left rather disappointed. With so many great Mexican places in Portland(Santeria, Por Qué No) this place needs to find a way to set themselves apart. I think that there is potential for this place to be great, but I think that the kinks need to be fixed before that’s possible.
Emily L.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Portland, OR
Well, one thing is for damn sure– –this place is better than the place that was last in the same space(am I Dr. Seuss? What just happened?). Upon first entering, I noticed the place was packed, «which is really strange for a brand new restaurant in Portland’s downtown to be busy,» said Capt. Sarcastic Obvious Man. The second thing I noticed was all of the trendy décor cliches, but that speaks more of my nerdy affinity to subscribe to too many design blogs whilst avoiding people, human interaction and sunlight from the cozy voluntary confines of my mom’s basement. The $ 3 tacos are a nice touch. I was a fan. I’d go back just for that. I was less impressed with ordering a margarita(I mean, isn’t tequila basically distilled Mexican toilet water?) and having it cost $ 14. When I told the bartender«dealer’s choice» I didn’t mean«the most expensive thing you have… hence the abundance of $ 3 tacos.» Oh well, there can only be one Miss Cleo. The” surprise” on the bill yielded by the $ 14 margaritas would have stamped this place a cool 3 stars if not for the fact that someone else picked up the bill. Huzzahhh! 4 stars it is!
Brent T.
Évaluation du lieu : 3 Portland, OR
First couple weeks open, bar menu only(so grain of salt)…but first impression was a little less than stellar: — tacos were good bites as a package but the meat alone(carne asada and carnitas specifically) were a bit flavor light. — $ 12 for chips/guac/pico(come on) — $ 10 for a tasty, but very small, house margarita — guac was really flat — little salt would have gone a long way I left wishing I’d waited in line at Por Que No and saved 30 bucks. That said, space is cool(much less cavernous than Pinot) and the sangria rocked. I’ll be back to try the full menu.
Gastro N.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Portland, OR
I think it’s safe to say that the quality of a Mexican place is largely judged on its chips and salsa. The representatives of Corazon, in my humble opinion, have the ability to be truly great with some minor improvements: 1. RELAXTHESALT. The chips are stellar! but I was literally wiping the salt off on your nice linen napkins 2. TEXTURIZEYOURSALSA. The flavor was smoky/spicy/sexy but had the consistency of a naughty body fluid. Throw some tomato or onion chunks in, please! Other than that the liquor is a good spread/typical downtown premium, kudos for breathing clever design life into the space THANKYOUMEXI