Maya’s Taqueria

This is your no frills restaurant that you are every so lucky enough it has a roof and it’s not a food truck. While the options are pretty decent and diverse, I find the food pretty ok.
I’ve had better and tastier tripe soup (menudo) elsewhere. The condiments helped a lot and they do have tons of them. If you love taste, you might add more to your menudo just like me. They put good amount of meat to your order. This is the part that I love. They don’t skimp on the meat. In my case, I love the lengua.
Another amazing thing is they are open pretty late and they have an amazing service. This is your Mexican place if you are in downtown and does not like food carts on lunch or early evening.

Not bad! I was downtown and craving for a burrito so I stopped here. They have a variety of choices (and hot sauces!) that you can choose from. I like this place, but nothing really stood out.

It might be better somewhere, but I’m hard pressed to find a better Mexican food lunch spot. No vapory bullshit here, real people and real food.

Hands down best Mexican food I’ve had in Portland or anywhere else. The carnitas nachos are to die for and the atmosphere is always lovely and pleasant, excellent staff as well.

Amazing fish burrito!!! Their margaritas are fantabulous as well! Great service and food, I frequent this place a lot

It was a nice sunny afternoon today to enjoy a couple of tacos at Maya’s Taqueria since they have outdoor tables on the sidewalk. I ordered al pastor and carne asada, my two «go-​to» taco meats. The tacos were somewhat small, but the meats were nicely grilled and browned, which is important to me, and were flavorful. I especially liked the al pastor because of its slight sweetness (probably from pineapple which is contained in most good al pastor marinades). The only downside to the al pastor was the huge chunks of fat in the meat which I picked out. But, what the heck, the nice flavor made up for that. Also, I liked the downtown location and plentiful outdoor seating.. .great for people watching.

I seriously can’t believe that I just paid $ 8 for a bowl of microwaved menudo. It didn’t even have hominy in it! That’s like half the ingredients in menudo. But the ambiance was nice and it was clean. So I guess if you live near PSU and want low quality Mexican food, this place is for you.

I’m bummed! The atmosphere is so cute and happy, the people were very lovely… But the food was pretty forgettable. My boyfriend, who is easily pleased, felt we could make a better veggie burrito at home. And my taco salad, despite adding rice and grilled veggies was also just boring and missing something.
The veggies all seemed really fresh, but the rice didn’t taste homemade, the taco salad she’ll wasn’t very good, and I think the beans were not made fresh (refried beans made IN a restaurant are one of my favs and I often get plain bean burritos when I find good refried beans). They’re menu is super extensive so it wouldn’t be shocking that they don’t make everything from scratch… So unfortunately that could have been the problem with our mainly bean/​rice/​veggie dishes.
I’d say if you’re vegan/​vegetarian… I wouldn’t really recommend it (go to Los Gorditos). However if you’re a meat eater I saw a lot of plates that looked like they’d be good that may be worth trying.

I got a chicken quesadilla here and really enjoyed it, though I did pee out of my butt later that night. Two stars because the intestinal distress was still somewhat worth it.

Great neighborhood spot for margaritas and tacos, especially with its close proximity to PSU’s campus. Good prices, friendly staff, a nice upper level for seating, and yummy blended margaritas.
Consistently good fish tacos, decent chips and salsa, and the perfect place for sitting outside people-​watching on a nice afternoon.

I love my apartment and consider home a sanctuary, but not in this heat; to stay away from home as long as possible is the ultimate goal to allow the apartment to cool down to be able to do some chores and get to bed. I decided to go in search of dinner and thinking Mexican food sounded like a good solution to my hunger pangs. Just as I had that thought, I realized I was standing right across the street from Maya’s Taqueria. Case closed; time to eat!
I’ve eaten here before in pre-​Yelp times and remember it was pretty good. I also remembered the restaurant has been on this corner for a long, long time, maybe twenty years, but can’t remember exactly when they first set up shop.
Upon entering the restaurant, you’re not only greeted cheerily by one of the counter people but also by a huge menu (huge in terms of amount of items and in the actual size of the chalkboard). The huge menu is great for those of us with eyesight acuity equal to remembering when Maya’s Taqueria first came to be on this corner, you know, back in the olden days. I had to stand back and read it for a few minutes just to take in the sheer amount of choices. As I was about to order a menu item off the big board, I noticed the specials menu and noticed sopes with pork and cheese and chips and salsa and that became too much to resist.
I was glad to get a table outside and enjoyed everybody else enjoying the evening. I had the chips and salsa alongside as well. Their salsa is great, a perfect blend of all the usual ingredients with just an extra hit of cilantro, and has a nice heat to it. One of the other counter-​people brought my dinner out. The sopes (thick tortillas, a lot like pita bread, with pork bits and cheese stuffed in the openings and then fried) were like golden puffy pillows of goodness. I cut them into triangular pizza-​like pieces and heaped them with the accompanying relish (kind of a rough-​cute cole slaw marinated in lime and spices). What a perfect combination.
While I hadn’t been to visit Maya’s Taqueria in quite awhile, I do plan to go back soon. Be sure to visit soon yourself!

Come here if you want cheap, passable Mexican food. It’s probably as good as it gets if we’re talking about Mexican restaurants downtown. The best Mexican is in SE Portland, let’s face it.
I got Plato con Carne and was disappointed by the pinto beans, lacking in flavor. Also, the corn tortillas are from a package and not very good. They reheated them for me but by the time I opened them up and starting eating, they had gotten hard/​stiff around the edges. For me, a good fresh corn tortilla makes or breaks it.
Wouldn’t come back.

My order: 2 soft grilled chix tacos lettuce tomatoes refried only. I get this EVERY time. $ 7.50
Your view will be interesting as Portland finest goes strolling by.

All my tacos were cooked nicely. Some were more flavorful than others. I loved the Chile Colorado Chicken and Brazilian Beef. The Mole Chicken was so-​so. Pastor and Carne Asada were good.
All in all I would come back.

I go to the library a lot (*pushes up glasses*), and I’ve been attracted to this spot on the regular. Having moved to Portland a few months ago, I’ve been struck by how drab and uniform this city is. I always liked walking past Maya’s corner. With the colorful walls and Latin music playing, I was reminded of California.
I pretty much assumed it’d have nothing to offer the likes of me (vegan), but tonight I finally stopped in to take a look. I decided to have the Grilled Veggie Burrito. It’s really unremarkable. Ingredients are set up cafeteria-​style, and are fine as they go. The burrito is small. Everything is merely passable, and I wouldn’t recommend this food to anyone.
It will still do my soul good to walk past loud orange walls disrupting the homogeneity of downtown Portland.

Oh Mayas, Mayas, Mayas why did it take me so long to get over to your place. I will admit that I’ve passed by many many times and did not realize how good a Mexican food that I was going to have. Shoot, it was so good that I’m not even starting with the food…
I actually have to start with the horchata and strawberry horchata at that! All I know is that I have never heard of strawberry horchata and the fact that they gave me a sample to taste was very cool of them. Essentially all it is is regular horchata with strawberries and strawberry juice added. It was so good. As for the food and all of the meat selections? Everything smelled wonderful and there were meat selections that I had never seen in a taqueria. Chicken mole and Brazilian beef were those two options. Of course I had to get tacos, and I got those two choices plus lengua and carnitas. They were all served traditionally with onions and cilantro.
The lengua was the most tender I have ever had and just melted in your mouth. The chicken mole was different in comparison to any other mole that I’ve ever had. Most mole that I have ever had usually have chocolate and chili pepper notes to it. This version was a little bit sweeter and actually had cinnamon taste to it. It was really good. As for the Brazilian beef, it was like a barbecue sauce with sauteed onions and garlic and really moist. The only let down was the carnitas. They were a little bit dry and didn’t have a whole lot of flavor to them. The salsa that they served with everything had a nice kick to it and you could really taste the spices and veggies in there.
The guys working were all very cool and friendly. Of course they were quite enthusiastic when I told him how much I liked the lengua. I have to go back there soon. The lunch specials are only 7.50 a pop and it’s accompanied with tortilla chips. All bueno.
Enjoy.

Eh. Pretty bad mexican-​inspired breakfasts, weird spot and fairly unfriendly service. Wasn’t awful, and really a 2.5 star place, but I’d never tell someone to go there when in Portland.
There are just too many other awesome options, sorry!

Pretty standard taqueria fare. Taco plate came with 4 tacos and was a good deal. Carne asada was a bit tough, the carnitas was better. Kind of random but what really impressed me was their chips and salsa. The chips are thicker than ones I usually come across. I needed like 3 cups of salsa to finish all the chips!
The outdoor seating was nice. I’d likely return to try out some of the menu items… and to eat more chips :)

I’m probably inflating the stars here but… this place was like a godsend. There in my time of need.
We had tied one on a bit the night before. We had to be on our way fairly quickly due to travel plans. We needed food something FIERCE.
I really, really didn’t feel like breakfast food, or anything sweet, and I can’t do eggs which leaves me with… just about nothing in traditional breakfast fare. We wandered around hoping for the best but fearing the worst, and then we looked up and saw a TACO SHOP that was open early, and they happened to be serving the full menu (not just breakfast tacos — that happens a lot in Austin).
I ate three cups of salsa with the delicious chips they provided, and enjoyed the HELL out of my four mini «breakfast» chicken tacos. My husband tried a bunch of different meats and really enjoyed them all.
Also, they have a hot sauce wall, and I am now in need of obtaining BUFFALO Tabasco. What? Maya’s Taqueria, you made my Monday morning not suck. For that, five stars!

While I live a mere 20 minutes from the SD/​Mexico International Border, I still often find myself eating Mexican foods on my many adventures. Just can’t get enough. My buddy and I were wasting time walking around Portland before hitting the airport. We grabbed two giant margaritas filled to the brim with a brain-​freezing tequila infused slush and a little Coronita upside down in the middle. We ordered nachos and sat on the patio people watching in the sun while sipping our margs since it was such a nice day out.
The staff was extremely friendly and the food and drinks were far superior than I would expect being so far from the (Mexican) border.
Our nachos were grand! We ordered ones with no meat, but man-​o-​man they were large, in charge, and covered in guacamole, sour cream and salsa goodness! The two of us couldn’t even finish the plate before we filled up. They totally hit the spot before we hit the airport.
While I won’t be coming back to Portland just for Maya’s I certainly wouldn’t be upset if I wandered in here on my next visit.