La Patroncita — Restaurant in Portland

First off, the food is delicious and I love that they added their own flare with a personalized stamp and pink tortillas. The restaurant is pretty unique-decor is a little strange but overall you’ll get a great Instagram photo op. However, there were a lot of downsides. The food is extremely expensive for what it is. I get inflation and that it’s new, but there is better quality food for a reasonable price elsewhere in the city. I feel it is highly overpriced and although the portions were well sized, we spend over $100 getting a a few tacos, chips/guac/salsa, and two margaritas. The service is also pretty terrible and they need a better system. You walk into the front door and immediately bump into a sign that wants you to order at the counter-great, no problem. But the area to get to the counter is extremely small and they also have tables for seating in that space. There is only one small bench to wait. You also can’t order your food then sit down, you have to wait to be able to order until they find a seat for you, which is extremely odd if they aren’t doing table service. You basically so all the work and have to watch for tables to be open then flag someone down to be able to order food at the counter. They take reservations, but only for 6+. You’re not allowed to go to the bar either, but you can order a drink and they’ll let you sip it in the doorway, but again, there is no room. They also told our group 20 minutes, after 25 I asked for an update and they said it’ll be 25 more minutes. I asked to order another margarita and they said I could but if they could let the people behind me order since they have a table for them, which is a little rude. I am still a customer and waiting for a table. I watched as they made people who had already sat down move, which is a little frustrating when you already have your drinks and settled in for your meal. Lastly, you have to go to the counter to order every time or have them charge your card with a server that’s walking around. I had 4 charges from that night, which shouldn’t be the case. Needless to say, I won’t be back. I love new restaurants, especially within walking distance of my house, but for the cost and inconvenience… not worth the Instagram picture. I do wish them well though and hope they are able to streamline...

It’s unfortunate that I have to write this review. As I had high expectations for this place. I will say that during the first hours of our stay from 4:30-6 our service was good. We expected nothing less from a place that is $20-30 per person according to G. I am a longtime resident of Oregon living here since 1991. And I say this so you know that I have grown and evolved with all aspects the food industry in this city. I take all my reviews seriously. My family owns service businesses and I’d like to add I am indigenous from Mexico raised in the USA since I was 3 years old, going back and forth to my hometown. This place asked me to move due to a limited reservation time , which I may add was not hard pressed to the time since had been seated since 4:30 ordering food items and too dollar drinks of $16 per person from the time we sat down and not once had we just sat in this restaurant taking up space chatting without purchasing or consuming any of their products. Our tab was over $150 for a party of 2 .. we not only got food but by my count I would say we got 4-5 drinks each.

And for the staff to come you our table to ask us to hurry up and move to the couch cuz there was another reservation coming as if e has not just order a drink each 2 minutes prior.. is beyond me. I felt so disrespected as if we needed to hurry up and drink our drinks (we just ordered) to make space for another reservation….. ??? Seriously.. who does that?? I can understand if we aren’t consuming anything but we had just ordered two $16 drink….. left me a horrible taste in my mouth.. to the server.. after I mentioned we had a reservation and you only gave a F about your limited not considering we went past that and once you had someone else to fill your table .. we had to go… seems completely unethical to me.. which I mentioned to you… you know who you are ..and why you...

I was really looking forward to visiting this place especially after all the great reviews. It was my friend's birthday and she chose La Patroncita to have dinner. The place was really cute and set up nicely. The guy at the front was warm and welcoming. Unfortunately, that's where it ended. The wait was long, but it's a small place and there were 5 of us. We finally got a table and it was really hot, no ac, no fans, even the wait staff were stepping outside. They finally took our order.....we had to ask for water, we had to ask for napkins, we were brought the wrong food, we had to ask if we could order more drinks, it was just really bad service. Then, at the end, we waited so long we had to ask for our checks. I asked for mine to be separate and was told it was their policy to put it all on one check and for us to split it. I realize some restaurants do this for large parties, but 4 orders (2 people shared nachos) and you can't put them on separate checks? What kind of policy is that? The server was obviously upset when we asked her to separate them and went off in a huff only to return to say again, "It's our policy". Then she asked if everything was ok in a very condescending tone, so unnecessary. I had a carnitas taco and it was nothing to write home about that's for sure. All in all, even though we were there for 2 hours (which should have been 1) we enjoyed my friend's birthday, but was seriously disappointed and not impressed with...