West Cafe Taqueria

One of the best pozole I’ve tried in Portland. And I’ve been to most of them. Great prices. It’s an employee run restaurant and they do a great job.

Here’s another one that’s just not easy or fun to write or post. I’ve heard such good things about it from other people around the neighborhood. I would love to have a great Mexican restaurant right across the street (well, sort of catty-​cornered across the street), but it is not meant to be unless they improve significantly.
The Good Stuff: Prices are very reasonable ($ 1.75 for tacos and up the price ladder for other dishes). I had a beef burrito that cost $ 8 and it was a two-​handed affair with plenty of goodies wrapped up inside. The atmosphere is cozy and friendly. West Café Taqueria is almost literally a hole in the wall (three tables on tiny lower level) and then a bar to eat at just above where you order food and pay the very sweet lady who is the cashier. A lot of the construction workers building the apartment building across the street eat here and so there’s a lot of laughter and banter between them and that’s all to the good. There is so little space to move that I ended up handing their food to them as it came out of the kitchen while I was ordering and paying. You definitely cannot say I’m not a multitasker!
The Not-​so-​Good Stuff: While the size of the café is small, it really doesn’t help either even though it’s cozy. It is clean in terms of the ordering area and cooking area and tables, but the walls could use a fresh coat of paint. The current paint job is pretty marked up with smudges, etc. and just brings down the whole tenor of the restaurant. The tortilla wrapping for the burrito was perfectly OK, but the whole package was dry, and the shredded beef for my burrito had evidently been scraped off the bottom of the pan partially burnt; it tasted like a lot of tiny beef-​flavored pebbles, and I worried about crunching down on some of the particles.
Normal Everyday Stuff: Cash Only. They have bottled drinks you can purchase from a refrigerated case.
You’ll be treated very well here, and your pocketbook will not suffer, but the whole experience needs to be improved upon or avoided.

Well, their prices went up yet AGAIN. I went there today to find that the chicken burrito that I always order is now a whopping $ 8. Ridiculous. It’s good, but it’s still just a burrito. It used to be $ 5.50, then $ 6, then $ 7, and now $ 8.
Nice going ownership, you greedy morons. I was willing to overlook the fact that (1) you don’t take credit cards, and (2) your workers would oftentimes not ring in the order so you can keep down the gross income showing on your receipts (i.e., tax fraud). But with this latest greedy price increase, you just lost a loyal downtown regular customer. I’ll be eating my Mexican lunches elsewhere; namely, Laughing Planet down at 17^th and Jefferson. Great food with much more reasonable prices. And I’ll be encouraging my colleagues here at work to do likewise.

Everything is delicious! They have Aguas Frescas for $ 1.25, and your average taco is $ 1.50 I love to stop by for a quick lunch anytime that I’m in the area. This is a cash only place so don’t forget to stop at the ATM!

what can i say, i work next door and for $ 5 i can get a tasty meal and drink!
service is always very quick and sweet. all of the ingredients are fresh. double corn tortillas are a must. surprisingly, the chicken is my favorite (i’m more of a carnitas girl) the seasoning is great and it’s never dry. and the salsas are great!
don’t forget cash only!