Portales Mexican Tapas & Tequila — Restaurant in Lakeland

My daughter & I came here after a funeral to get a few drinks & food & had such an amazing time I forgot to take photos of my food lol! First & foremost our waiter Enrique was phenomenal. Very attentive. Very on point. Very Friendly & surprisingly very new! He is what customer service should look like these days! The salsa was amazing! I love the kick & spice it held! Their birria tacos were some of the best I’ve had in a while. And the consome was very flavorful! Really good & I’ve had some good consome over the years! Be careful with the drinks. We ordered the tropical margaritas thinking ah these lil drinks ain’t gonna hurt. However Enrique brought two tall glasses to our table that tasted like straight up juice! Very dangerous but oh so good lol! So don’t over do it! The drink may taste weak but those are the drinks that sneak up on you! Overall an amazing visit & we will...

Our first visit was ok. The people were friendly. The decor is cute. They are definitely overpriced. I ordered the expensive margarita with the tiny bottle of patron. The young man made it, tried handing it to me in a hurry, and informed me he didn't have the tiny bottle holder. The drink started to overflow. My tiny bottle of patron went all over the bar. 😳 He then asked if it tasted ok. I commented "it tasted rather weak, but that could be because the liquor spilled on the bar, not in my drink" 😒 He then asked if I wanted to try a shot of the house tequila.... I thought as a gift for spilling mine all over the bar.... Nope! It was on the bill.... Besides the chips and salsa, the food was not that great. The Hawaiian burrito barely had pineapple in it. The burritos are huge, but bland. I think we'll stick to our other favorite Mexican restaurants....

Service was absolutely excellent. Parking was no problem. Prices are comparable to any other similar restaurant. There was no wait for a table and the place was pretty busy. Every server there seemed happy and so were the guests.

The food was really good. I had the Birria Tacos and my wife had the Street Tacos. We weren't very hungry and figured they'd be light. LOL, we walked away stuffed! You won't go hungry here. Oh, and the salsa was unique and I liked it a lot.

I've read all the reviews and the only complaint I can agree with is that my food didn't have a ton of flavor. It was very, very good and very well made but it needed a little something extra. Perhaps some sauces or a plate of garnishes delivered to each table would help.

Either way, we will definitely be back. We had a...