Lenora — Restaurant in Portland

My fiance and I had our first experience this Saturday after excitedly waiting for Lenora to open as we have been following them on social media. We arrived around 4 o'clock or so in the afternoon, so it wasn't fully packed, but I would say a good size crowd. We were immediately greeted and asked if the bar was acceptable, which we gladly accepted, as we usually prefer the bar. The bartender promptly comes over and hands us menu's and then asks what we would like to drink...maybe 45 seconds after the menus were put in front of us. After deciding on our drinks and their arrival; I got the Diablo Margarita and her, a Mexican Coke, we ordered our food. The Diablo Margarita was excellent by the way! Nice balance of sweet and heat. I was not aware, or made aware that the food items come to you individually as the kitchen decides to sell them. With that being said, we thought we were going to start with some Guacamole and Street Corn. Come to find out, a single taco of the two I had ordered came out right away. I was not expecting this and confused by it, I informed the food runner that was not our order. After about 5 minutes of the food runner trying to figure out who that taco belong to, the bar tender came over to explain it was ours and that the food arrives as it comes out piece by piece. I will also add the taco was cold because I was given the same one that had been moved around for 5 minutes. I keept quiet about this as I completely understand the hiccups and struggles of opening a restaurant. I myself have been a Kitchen Manager and Sous Chef for 6 years at two Mexican Restaurants in SW Florida. One of which I opened, so I am completely aware and sympathetic. After finishing my taco, my fiance received one of her two tacos that she had ordered. When she ordered, she requested that there be no cheese as she can't have it for dietary health reasons. The taco arrives covered in cheese, but missing the sauce. I think the bartender mixed up what she asked for none of, as I heard him talking with the food runner about the issue as he claimed she (my fiance), said no sauce. Once the remade taco came out, the bartender asked us if we had ordered Street Corn, which was immediately a red flag that he had forgotten to send the order. We next received the guacamole and my finance's second taco. A little while later, the Street Corn arrived. Irritated by the item by item arrival and the hiccups already, the only saving grace at this point, was the excellent food itself. Taste, texture, color, everything was very well executed. At this point, I believe it was shift change as the bartender who started with us had left. The replacement bartender noticed my empty glass and asked if I wanted another, to which I accepted. Unfortunately it was given to me with a long hair coming out of the glass. I informed the bartender, who apologized and remade my drink. When she had dropped it off to me she informed me that it was on the house because of the hair. I graciously thanked her. At this point, all of our food has arrived with the exception of my second taco. The bartender quickly put it into the computer and maybe about 8-10 minutes later it came out. After finishing our food and drinks, we paid and left. If you have ever worked in food service, you know that managers should or are expected to do "table touches", which is just a quick visit to see how everything is going with the diners. I did not speak to a manager at any point in time. I believe this is bad practice on managements part, but as I mentioned before, I completely understand this is a new establishment which has growing pains, so I am empathetic to the chaos. All in all, the excellent food is the ONLY reason I would consider returning for another visit, which will be no sooner than 6 months as they clearly have a lot of wrinkles to iron out. Also, in my opinion, this "item by item" service style they operate with will only end up with problems and failure. I can only hope they abandon this practice and adopt the traditional course...

Lenora surprised us in the best way. I was a little skeptical going in, given some of the mixed reviews, but both the food and service ended up being a hit for us.

That said, I do think Lenora is still figuring out its identity. It’s a trendy, mid-upscale spot — not Michelin-level fine dining, but also not cheap — which is why some of the little details felt off. Things like comfortable seating, cloth napkins (or at least an easy way to grab extras; tacos can get messy!), and a bit more space between tables would have elevated the experience for us.

Speaking of space, the seating was really the one thing we didn’t love. They’ve packed in as many tables as possible, which makes for a cramped and not-so-relaxing dining experience. If I had stretched my arm even slightly, I probably would’ve bumped into the person at the next table. We could hear every conversation around us, and at times, it felt a little awkward. The stools didn’t help either — zero back support, not much comfort.

But the food was phenomenal. We started with the pineapple salsa and chips, queso, and street corn, all of which were great, though the street corn stole the show. We could’ve easily ordered more. For tacos, we went all in and tried every single one on the menu. The Baja Fish and carnitas were standouts; so good we reordered them. The only miss was the brisket, which was dry, overly salty, and had a strange texture. But everything else, including the vegetarian options, was excellent. Even as die-hard flour tortilla fans, we were impressed by their fresh-made corn tortillas. We finished the meal with a perfectly moist tres leches cake.

The drinks program was also solid, though I expected a little more variety in the margaritas. They all seemed to have a similar flavor profile. That said, the ones we tried, including the Diablo, were refreshing and well-balanced. Service was great; our waitress was friendly, attentive, and on top of everything.

Despite the seating situation, we really enjoyed our meal and would absolutely come back for the...

Went here on a Wednesday evening (so the place was not busy) for date night. This was my first experience at Lenora, and let’s just say I probably won’t be visiting there again. To start the whole experience off I ordered a Diet Coke and was told they don’t have that or any other diet/low calorie soda for that matter…. “How about a Mexican Coke?”…um no thanks. Frustrated, I ordered a seltzer water with cranberry juice (I don’t drink alcohol) Oh oh guess what they don’t have cranberry juice either? They have a huge bar in the middle of the restaurant btw. We ordered the queso and chips, both tasted like they were left over from the day before. It was the blandest queso dip I’ve had….ever. For dinner I ordered 1 barbacoa taco ($6.00) and 1 shrimp taco $7.00 (off the specials board). The barbacoa was dry and tough/ chewy and the shrimp taco only had 2 small/medium sized shrimp on it. Both tacos were just plain bad. In my experience, hands down the worst tacos I’ve had in the greater Portland area. In fact it was the worst meal I’ve had since moving here almost 5 years ago. To top it all off the tacos were sent out staggered. I got one taco, my boyfriend got nothing. So my one taco is sitting there getting chilly as we waited for the other food to come out. Just bad work-flow/planning/taco making and food. Save your money and your appetite for some better tacos...