Portales Taqueria — Restaurant in Castro Valley

Friendly courteous Service. Good food at Portales!!!

----Yesterday, my partner and I decided to check Castro Valley's Portales Mexican restaurant out and were impressed w/ both service and the food!

----The menu has a good selection. I chose machaca plate--it was delicious! The beans and rice were well made. The machaca beef and eggs/cheese tasty! Served nice and warm and the tortillas were fresh :)

I liked the service too-- i recall the cashier/server was Ellie (or perhaps Ella). She was friendly and answered questions and even gave us a brief history of the restaurant--2 former Oakland locationd and now this Castro Valley place-- and her father actually prepared seasoned and plated my machaca plate!

My partner is pescatarian so more fish/seafood options would be nice.

Otherwise, we enjoyed the whole dining Portales experience-- very good food and service at Portales!

I'll definitely return and try more of the good food next time I'm in downtown Castro Valley!!! -----Keep up the good work and courteous...

So let me preference this by saying I should have told them I was a pupusa connoisseur. This small place boast a nice comfortable atmosphere and Risa is a real sweetheart. I ordered 1 pork pupusa way over priced and the Chilli Verde meal. The pupusa was incorrectly made and some kind of pork sauce was on the bottom. A pupusa should be stuffed. The curtido was less than a fork full and pasty. Still the flavors were good overall. Chilli Verde can be very subject and how the meat is cut can make a difference. In this case the meat was cut a little too fine for my taste but understandable with the price of beef. The plate was portioned out well and had plenty of flavors to enjoy and even talk about. I cannot with true honest recommend this place over others I have visited. I can say that it is 2 cuts above a fast food restaurant. But, don't take my word for it stop and try some of the other dishes and share...

Wet burrito- fantastic, had with al pastor and the smoky savoriness of the meat paired well with the mild red sauce and various toppings all across. Was craving a wet burrito for so long and it really satisfied that need. Maybe a bit too much rice though for me.

Quesabirria- on weekends. Really fantastic, oily, brothy, stuffed with meat and served with some pickles. These were crazy good!!!

Pozoloe- wow just like a home cooked meal. So refreshing, with a nice mild flavor and a great amount of hominy and pork in the broth. Pair well with the cabbage/ tomato mix and tortillas served with it.

I really liked how colorful this restaurant is, and the staff here is really sweet and made us feel right at home. Loved the food and will definitely come back because there is a ton of stuff on the menu I...