Matador East Portland — Restaurant in Portland

It’s hard to afford to go out these days, so I save it for a special occasion like hanging out with a friend when I work too much to have time for socializing. My standards aren’t that high, all I want is affordable food and to get what I order. I’ve bartended and waited tables for 11 years in different restaurants in Portland and I currently work a customer service job. That being said, I also understand you can’t expect much from Portland service. I’ve worked happy hour shifts and it can get hectic. It’s also common to get customers who aren’t able to tip %s as high as non happy customers so I try to be the kind of customer I would like to get if I were waiting tables. I show respect, I’m friendly w/ waitstaff, I don’t take long to decide, I avoid modifications on food and drinks, and I don’t require much attention or maintenance. I just need the 5 basic steps: 1. Drink order 2. Drink delivery 3. Food order 4. Food delivery 5. Check and payment. Then I tip 30%+ depending on service.

Anything beyond the basic 5 usually means I need either extra something or my order was wrong. I usually get aloof service or for some reason uncalled for attitudes or micro aggressions when I go out to eat in Portland. Idk why butI hope I never treated low maintenance and nice customers that way.

I went here for happy hour with a friend and wanted to treat myself to a mocktail. I normally wouldn’t spend $7 on a N.A. drink but I had a long week andI wanted a treat. We were given 4 menus: happy hour, regular food menu, drink menu, and a single page menu of specials. I looked through the drink menu for mocktails and was met with a long list of tequilas. I looked through the regular menu toward the end where drinks are at most restaurants and didn’t find mocktails, then our server returned to get our drink orders. I told her I wasn’t able to find mocktails on menu and that I’d love to know what my options are. She said they have 2 options and that it’s on the fresh menu. I started riffling through the stack of menus because it’s been a few years since I’ve served and I forgot about what a fresh menu was. I just thought to myself ohh freshsheet, that’s what I called the menu specials sheet back when I worked in restaurants.

It’s pretty dark in there and my prescription classes are a few years out of date so it’s hard for me to see. I ask oh if there were only two options could you just tell me what they are? She said Mojito or margarita and I decided on a Mojito. She brought my drink to me and I immediately can tell that it was not a Mojito. I told her that I have received a margarita and I ordered a virgin Mojito. She looked surprised and said oh I think I said margarita but I meant Mojito because this is a Mojito. She acted like it was a momentary brain fart and she said the wrong thing but got the right order. I thought for a second maybe they strain the muddled mint in their version. I didn’t want to argue with her so I just accepted it.

I took a sip and it definitely tasted like a margarita, but with a little fizz probably soda or sprite to fill in for the lack of booze. It also had a salted rim. Either the bartender didn’t know how to make a virgin Mojito, the bartender accidentally made a virgin Margarita and the server just delivered it without knowing what a mojito was or checking, they grabbed the wrong drink that might’ve had alcohol in it, or the server knew that it wasn’t Mojito and tried to gaslight me because either she didn’t want to ask the bartender to make my drink or she thought that since the drink was non-alcoholic that I wouldn’t know the difference between a margarita and a Mojito. Either way, I didn’t get what I ordered, I didn’t get what I asked for when I told her about mistake, the server wasn’t willing to just tell me what 2 non-alcoholic cocktail options were and instead wanted to stand there while I try to find it when all I needed was the 2 drink names, aaaand I won’t be...

I wanted to have great tacos and a great date night here last Friday- but that didn’t happen! My partner and I came in around 8:45/9pm. We had heard there was a great late night happy hour that included tacos. We walked in and waited a few minutes near the door but there was no host, and no sign to wait to be seated so we walked up to the bar. We were served a drink with no problem, but not asked if we wanted to keep a tab open- the bartender just gave us our bill with our drinks, even though we had asked for a menu. We looked at the menu for a couple minutes, looked around at others at the bar who had chips and salsa and others items. We tried to make it clear that we were ready to order. The bartender eventually came back and said we could go to a table even though we hadn’t asked to. Ok- so we find a table, and finish our drinks- still waiting to order. Still waiting ten minutes later, as multiple people have walked by our table without stopping to say hello or take our order, or bring water. We started to wonder if there was something wrong with us. Everyone around us had drinks, food, chips and salsa- and servers coming to check on them. My partner and I were dressed nicely- weren’t acting bizarrely, didn’t even act annoyed that nobody was helping us. Eventually we just started kind of laughing at how ridiculous it was that no one had come to our table. Like were we invisible? We’re stayed about 25 minutes before we finally got up to just leave, and no one said anything about it. Overall a disappointing and confusing experience, and we left very hungry and still in want of tacos!! Won’t be recommending...

I had never heard of Matador and my friends suggested it for our next lunch gathering. I like Mexican food but am never blown away by it.

The decor was super nice and because of the good weather they had a lot of windows open.

First thing they brought out was some chips and salsa. The salsa was one of the best I’ve had and I just could not stop eating it. So flavorful and not watery.

For my lunch I had the Habanero Steak burrito. The waitress, Sara, told me that all the burritos are served “wet” style when I asked if they could prepare it that way. In case you don’t know that is when they put the red enchilada sauce, cheese, and sour cream on top of the burrito. This is more a fork and knife style burrito that something from a fast food or chipotle style place and so much better.

My burrito was hands down the best burrito I may have ever had. It was so fresh and flavorful. It also had some nice spice that actually got my nose running!

Sara was also a spectacular waitress. She was absolutely on it. Sara blew away the service I’ve gotten at “high end” places like Ruth’s Chris’, Morton’s, Peter Lugar’s, etc. never needed to ask for a refill, she recommend drinks for my friends that they all loved, and was genuinely nice.

At the end of the meal Sara asked if we wanted 7 separate checks! We were pleasantly surprised by this as most places lose their minds. She brought out 7 separate checks that were absolutely flawless! Not one mixed up or switched item. No way I could have done that!

This place earned the 5/5 and I for sure will...