El Rayo Taqueria — Restaurant in Portland

I’m getting more and more disappointed with this place each time. The avocado purées are given to me more brown and less filled each time. I call and ask for the LARGE purée and am given 2 small, which is not the same because I end up with so much extra with the large and never enough with 2 smalls. 1 small that I’m given isn’t even enough for half the plantains. The girl at the front counter was rude today around 12:50, and didn’t give me the large that I specifically asked for over the phone, charged me for a third and it wasn’t even filled all the way. When I voiced my complaints in the quantity she did not care. How inconsiderate. Yesterday my plantains were rock hard I couldn’t even finish them. I also never know how much plantains I’m going to get because sometimes I get so much less. It sucks because not everyone is rude but of course when the person at the front has an attitude and doesn’t care it makes everyone look bad. I come here almost everyday and am starting to regret giving this business my money. This place is inconsistent, rude, and quality of food goes down each time. Such a...

really can’t say anything positive about this place. A good taco does the simple things well: it should have a good tortilla, the main ingredient should be flavorful and fresh, and the toppings should add to the flavor. the tacos from this place fail in every respect. The shells were dry and flavorless. The meat was bland, as if it were boiled to 180 degrees and not even in the same room as salt or other seasonings. The mushrooms tasted like they were out of a can. The toppings ranged from bland and slimy, over-prepared peppers to bland and limp lettuce. Oh yeah, if you don’t like lettuce on your taco, make sure to tell them because they put it on even if the menu doesn’t disclose it.

From there, nothing gets better. The guac is, you guessed it, bland and made fresh maybe a day or two ago. The salsa is fine but nothing special. The chips are unsalted and, again, flavorless.

There is no table service and you have to bus everything yourself, but the prices are still sky high and they ask for a tip (defaults are standard 18, 20, and 22%… But for what, to stand there and take my order?).

Go...

Great staff, but terrible food. Everytime I come here the food seems to get worse. Chips were fine but not worth getting charged extra for. The salsa was essentially just wet cilantro. I got two different tacos and neither of them were even okay. All ingredients were dry and tasteless. The taco was also covered in lettuce to the point where you couldn't see the taco at all. They give you an extra tortilla per taco but I couldn't use it at all because it was stuck dry to each other. There was also a few ingredients in the taco that were so small in amount that I thought they made it in by accident. They also gave me a small amount for the main ingredient such as the meat and also the mushroom taco. I was getting two random pieces of corn and one jalapeno sliced not whole. You would have to be a COVID patient to eat here and actually enjoy it. Actually it didn't even look like a taco so...