El Sombrero Tapatio — Restaurant in Portland

First time visit at this establishment. Wanted to take my elderly father out for a nice dinner. It's located on Sandy blvd in Park Rose in kind of a bad area of town. Building on the exterior kind of run down.

They have booths inside and tables set up outside under a patio. Tables are setup for covid-19 so only seating at every other booth which is fine but about only 5-6 booths available and a couple tables in the middle. When we arrived we waited to be seated about 5 minutes. There was 2 tables that were occupied by other guests. The host/waiter grabbed menu from a 'large stack' and seated us at our table and laid 1 menu on the table. My father sat across from me. I asked for an additional menu and there wasn't any response. The waitress came promptly with chips and salsa and water. I asked her for an additional menu. We were told because of covid only 1 menu per table. I explained to her it was our first time and didn't know what they had to offer. The waitress left. I assumed she went to get another menu. About 10 minutes later another lady told only 1 menu per table. I again explained it was our first time and didn't know what they had to eat. I asked if they had any paper menus and was told no. Only 1 menu per table. They had at least 4 times more menus that tables but were only allowing 1 menu. I told the waitress "fine you must not need the business" and helped my father up out of the booth and we left. Apparently they can't sanitize the menus but once a day.

By the way, we drove 1/2 mile down the street to 'THE WOODEN CHICKEN' sports pub where we have eaten many times before. The waitress brought over 2 menus without asking. Had some good food. Good service. MORAL OF THE STORY-drive past El Sombrero and go to Wooden Chicken....

We fell in love with this place from day one. Hard to believe that it was right around the corner, and we had no idea until just recently. My wife had had an incident that required medical attention, and I was left to take care of the kids while she recuperated. I grabbed a couple of the Mexican pizza appetizers as a quick dinner solution, and we were so blown away that we came back the very next day!

The matronly owner (I'm assuming, but I have a good feeling about it) is so warm and welcoming, on every visit, that she feels like a member of your family. Having forgotten that dine-in service was restricted (again!) the day after our previous visit due to COVID restrictions, we were forced to take today's order to go, but that did not detract from the wonderful service we received, once again.

The food itself? Phenomenal. Mexican cuisine seems to be resilient to incompetence, but El Sombrero is something else. I think they have taken the top spot and are now my absolute favorite. The carne asade burrito I had today was mind-blowingly fabulous! My wife had the tortilla soup, which did wonders for her recuperation, and the kids, having eaten their school lunches, snacked on luxurious queso and chips, thick and rich and wonderful. We snuck a couple bites ourselves! And to top it all off, two watermelon habanero margaritas (to go) that hit every single note of spicy, sweet and salty, with a helluva punch. That cocktail alone is worth the price of admission!

I'd read previous reviews from out of town travelers that confessed they never leave Portland without a visit to El Sombrero, and now I understand why. This is the best Mexican restaurant in...

It has been a very long time since I wandered into this Cantina but struggling to subdue my craving for Mexican Cuisine last week once again became a foot race to Taco Bell until my son said how about we get some real Mexican food tonight? Where to go where to go where to go? We decided to partake in a taco food cart near my pad but after we saw the pricing for tacos prepared and eaten in a parking lot we chose to improve upon the atmosphere. Driving down Sandy Boulevard in the Parkrose area we happen to spy the El Sombrero El Tapatio restaurant and we chuckled how we used to go there all of the time. But after we lost my mom and bride, we never went there again until this particular evening where we wondered whether or not they still had the great Cuisine we once enjoyed. Holy hole in a donut! We both ordered combination platters and they were absolutely outstanding. The place was packed but they still swarmed us with great customer service and kept refilling the chips and making sure we were happy while dinner was being prepared. I ate so much we had to go walk around Best Buy so are pants would fit again. A wonderful restaurants highlighted by original and classic menu items, a tremendously customer service oriented crew and the head senorita was still there as I recognized her infectious smile and she made sure we were well taken care of. She asked about my daughter and my other son from memory and it was quite impressive. They have great cocktails a wonderful beer assortment and they are ready each and every day to take care of whomever walk through that door. You cannot go wrong with this Cantina. Tell them Elvis...