La Costita Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Happy Valley

I have enjoyed LaCostita for years, started going to mainly the Troutdale in 2004, but I crave their enchiladas and have started making the trek to Clackamas when I am able to. Even got my whole family hooked. COVID has ruined a lot of things and unfortunately the service has definitely been affected here. At first our in restaurant experiences became full of long waits and cold food with a lack of service which was kind of expected across the industry due to staffing and such, but a more recent experience made me and the family decide maybe this is just an occasional take out restaurant. The experience was an early lunch done on a Saturday. Table of four, one of which was a toddler. We are able to get a little able without wait and drink order was taken and brought out almost immediately. My Mom ordered a clear soda, which always takes the risk of being the person who discovers the syrup is out, which it was, and really no big deal. After sitting at the table for 20 minutes with our drinks, one of which was undrinkable, the server finally came by and asked us if we were ready to order. My mom said something like I am so sorry but I think the syrup is out on your soda and the server sighed, rolled her eyes, set her writing pad down, took the drink and set it down on a different table, before saying are you ready to order now? We ordered: cheese enchiladas for three plates and a ground beef burrito for the forth. A few minutes later someone else brought a new clear soda by. Now this time is when things were starting to show signs of the lunch rush. When we were seated there were maybe 3-4 tables seated, about the time we ordered people started being seated and restaurant was nearing 75% full. 45 minutes later . . . No food, no drink refills, no check in from the server or at other staff member and people who were seated after our order was taken were eating. We started looking around and drew attention, server came by and said so sorry the kitchen is really backed up, your food should be out soon. About 15 minutes later we had cheese enchiladas with cheese unmelted on the inside. We were just over the whole experience at this point and trying not to cause scene so we just ate, not that the server came by to check in anyway. And oh the table of 8 that was seated next to us about the time we ordered was on their third round of drinks. By the time our food came out and their food came out immediately after ours. The cherry on top of this whole experience was that we tipped the server $5 for the fifty dollar lunch that ended up taking from arrival to departure about 2.5 hours for cold food, attitude, and just generally being forgotten about. The tip was our statement of do better. A tip is meant to congratulate an awesome job done and/or to show disapproval. The server immediately went to the front check in area and starting discussing with hand gesturing toward our table about our cheap tip not knowing that my nephew and I were right behind her. It is unfortunate that her and her coworkers were representing this family based business in this way, and I was saddened to have to stop supporting this...

This is a very popular place, but I can't quite figure out why. I think it's because they serve massive margaritas, but you'll pay full freight unless you like bottom shelf hangovers.

The food is nothing like good Mexican cooking; rather, it defines what I call the "Careful Hot Plate" genera of bland Americanized tex-mex mediocrity. Two key identifying characteristics of CHP include melted orange cheese coating everything and orange rice. My entree arrived with both, the cheese leaking a substantial pool of grease around the edges. I heard some crazy lady at the next table ask for extra cheese and I wanted to call out a warning. That much cheese could kill someone! I had chicken in my entree somewhere under the cheese, and it was a little dry and seemed to be just grilled/baked without any seasoning. Still edible after adding the missing salt. The rice was orange, excessively salty, and oddly mushy. The rice and beans are served in little tortillas that are baked into shells the shape of a cup/bowl. I thought it was neat, but I tried to eat the shell and it was just like eating a stale dried out corn tortilla - you'll break your teeth on one and it won't taste good, I promise. They should have fried the shells, they would likely be much better that way. That goes for every dish I've ever tried here - they start with a good idea and somehow manage to destroy it's essence. I feel like they had a sheltered midwesterner try to cook what they think Mexican food is...at least that would explain the cheese.

The food here isn't just bad for you, it also tastes bad! Isn't deliciousness is the reason we eat things that are bad for us?

The decor is neat and the service is pretty good. Alas, the order turn-around from the kitchen is incredibly slow, and the prices are ridiculously high for atrocious pretend Mexican food. The free chips and salsa are really the only thing I can find as a positive for this visit, but that's a really low bar.

Again, this place is an institution for the area, and seems to be wildly popular. Maybe the way they do Mexican food is the hot ticket for the folks in this suburb? Eat some actual Mexican food at Autentica in Portland one time, you won't be able to stomach coming back to strip mall food hell ever again, except maybe to get tanked on half gallon...

I am impressed for how busy they are they handle the situation well , they take more or less 20 minutes to prepare a take out dinner and they messed up our order only once but they gave us a credit for the missing food we paid for and the following time they had it on file so we had no issue in using the credit . I love in particular the burrito with the shredded beef (but it happened quite a few times to find inside a whole big piece of fat meat that was not pleasant ) we also like the chimichanga pork and the taquitos. The carne asada is totally hit and miss, once it's full of flavor and the time after it barely has any taste and it's even hard to cut. Not a fan of the chicken quesadilla. I would say this , their food is very good although not the best in the world. They make huge cocktails that are definitely worth a try ( they also have an area of the restaurant for over 21). They always give free salsa and tortilla chips , even for take out and the salsa is very good (it can also be purchased separately) . We appreciate a lot that they have a kids menu with a side for coloring, they gave kids crayons and cups of water with a lid and a straw, offer to give us a high chair, a booster , all of these things definitely contribute in a very enjoyable experience for the whole family. For the take out I have a few things to say. It's disappointing that once they prepare the food and put it in the containers , they leave the bags on a table that is right by the entrance door which I even saw left kept open in December on very cold nights, but even when they leave it closed many people obviously open it all the time and the food obviously gets cold for the take out orders. On the top of that there is clearly an expectation to tip for take out that starts from 15 % (yes you can custom it but the 3 main options start at 15%) , a take out that is not delivered home , not taken by your car , not including napkins nor cutlery, just placed in a bag by the front door and it will be...