La Sirenita — Restaurant in Portland

La Sirenita La Bonita

Well, what happened was my friend and I wanted some Mexican food. We missed breakfast and worked through lunch. We were starving. We found two Mexican restaurants nearly right next to each other and began to read the reviews. It appeared that there were maybe fake negative reviews going on so we decided we would go to BOTH on the same day and compare for ourselves.

Both places you order & pay at the register. You retrieve your food once it is ready and bus your own table. This is something I have found in many places in both Portland and Seattle. Frankly, I think it it is a disservice to your customers.

The food — La Sirenita was clearly the better of the two Mexican restaurants. Honestly I didn’t even finish my meal at the other one and would not go back again.

The staff at La Sirenita were better in all of the ways. The man working at La Sirenita knew we were not local and began to automatically sell his menu. Telling us the top sellers and what he likes.

He cared about our order. He made a suggestion three times about our chimichanga and we took him up on adding the fajita veggies which was the best move ever — it elevated the entire meal. He was kind and nice.

They really have a closer relationship to their customers here. We sat and ate our meal as soooo many customers arrived for pick up orders. He knew almost everyone that walked in and had a little chat with them all

Thanks for the amazing food!! Will be back next time I am...

La Sirenita is a terrific ol' standby. I've been going here for close to a decade. There are many taco shops in N Portland but sadly some of what I considered the more legitimate Mexican spots with a focus on great food and low prices rather than ambiance and aesthetics have been disappearing.

I have no idea what's really going on in the kitchen but it seems that they always have slow cooked beans, not just from a can, their refrieds have whole/partial pintos- a great texture and wonderful flavor. I love them! I like the beans so much that I will often just get a bean and cheese burrito skipping the meat options.

As for meat, aside from a few visits their carnitas is better than most other places in the city, so tender, flavorful and most importantly there is the slight crispness! Phew. Done right! Anyone who knows a small type of taco shop in Portland who can make a crispy carnitas, please let me know, sometimes it's a by bummer driving across town to satisfy my weird pork lust. Ew. Sorry. That was Weird . But until proven otherwise, I'm loyal to these folks.

Everyone at La Sirenita is great. It is quick and still inexpensive. And, for everyone that knows of both as an opinion, I am FIRMLY with the westernmost shop of the two that have been epicly battling away the years next door...

Lost my favorite Mexican restaurant. I've been going to la sirenita for the last 20years. I used to eat here for lunch when I attended Grant. Went there last night and it was absolutely horrible. Everything tasted watered down, flavorless, hardly any ingredients in the burrito. It was just a tortilla filled with watery beans, cheddar cheese, microwaved or frozen bell pepper, and the essence of chicken. And this is after raising the prices to keep up with inflation. You can't raise the price AND lower the quality! I'm so sad. I have no idea where to go now. It fell to la sirenita 2 quality which is way closer to my house but I would drive across town to Alberta because they made a superior quality burrito! And it's not even like the food was just worse than it was before... It didn't drop from #1 to #2... It was the worst freaking burrito I've had in a very long time. It tanked from #1 to second to last place. I drove across town and paid $15 for a burrito and a horchata and I couldn't finish either. That's how bad. YOU BROKE MY HEART LA SIRENITA I trusted you! I vouched for you! I told people to not even bother with la Bonita because they couldn't hold a...